Waldron I, Hughes M E, Brooks T L
Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6018, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 1996 Jul;43(1):113-23. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(95)00347-9.
Married adults are generally healthier than unmarried adults. It has been hypothesized that marriage is associated with good health because marriage has beneficial effects on health (marriage protection effects) and/or because healthier individuals are more likely to marry and to stay married (marriage selection effects). To investigate these hypotheses, this study analyzes prospective panel data for a large national sample of women in the U.S. (the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women). The women were aged 24-34 yr at the beginning of two successive five-year follow-up intervals. Analyses of the prospective data indicate that there were significant marriage protection effects, but only among women who were not employed. Specifically, for women who were not employed, married women had better health trends than unmarried women in each follow-up interval. It appears that marriage had beneficial effects on health for women who did not have a job which could provide an alternative source of financial resources and social support. In addition, analyses of the prospective data provide limited evidence for marriage selection effects. Specifically, women who had better health initially were more likely to marry and less likely to experience marital dissolution, but only for women who were not employed full-time and only during the first follow-up interval. Thus, the prospective evidence suggests that, for women who were not employed, both marriage protection and marriage selection effects contributed to the marital status differential in health observed in cross-sectional data. In contrast, neither marriage protection nor marriage selection effects were observed for women who were employed full-time. As would be expected, the cross-sectional data show that marital status differentials in health were large and highly significant for women who were not employed, whereas marital status differentials in health were much smaller and often not significant for employed women. Women who were neither married nor employed had particularly poor health. Additional evidence indicates that the women who were neither married nor employed suffered from multiple interacting disadvantages, including poor health, low incomes, and sociodemographic characteristics which contributed to difficulty in obtaining employment.
已婚成年人通常比未婚成年人更健康。有假设认为，婚姻与健康状况良好相关，这是因为婚姻对健康有有益影响（婚姻保护效应），和/或因为更健康的个体更有可能结婚并维持婚姻关系（婚姻选择效应）。为了探究这些假设，本研究分析了美国大量全国性女性样本（《青年女性全国纵向调查》）的前瞻性面板数据。这些女性在连续两个五年随访期开始时年龄为24 - 34岁。对前瞻性数据的分析表明，存在显著的婚姻保护效应，但仅在未就业的女性中。具体而言，对于未就业的女性，在每个随访期内，已婚女性的健康趋势都优于未婚女性。似乎婚姻对没有工作的女性的健康有有益影响，因为工作可以提供替代的经济资源和社会支持来源。此外，对前瞻性数据的分析为婚姻选择效应提供了有限的证据。具体而言，最初健康状况较好的女性更有可能结婚，且婚姻解体的可能性较小，但这仅适用于非全职工作的女性，且仅在第一个随访期内。因此，前瞻性证据表明，对于未就业的女性，婚姻保护效应和婚姻选择效应都导致了横断面数据中观察到的婚姻状况在健康方面的差异。相比之下，对于全职工作的女性，未观察到婚姻保护效应和婚姻选择效应。正如预期的那样，横断面数据显示，未就业女性的婚姻状况在健康方面的差异很大且非常显著，而就业女性的婚姻状况在健康方面的差异要小得多，且往往不显著。既未结婚也未就业的女性健康状况特别差。其他证据表明，既未结婚也未就业的女性遭受多种相互作用的不利因素影响，包括健康状况差、收入低以及导致就业困难的社会人口特征。
