Marital dissolution and self-rated health: Age trajectories and birth cohort variations

A life course perspective is used to explore the effects of divorce and widowhood on self-rated health across age and birth cohorts. Growth curve analysis of a fifteen-year longitudinal survey – Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL), conducted by the Institute for Social Research in the United States between 1986 and 2001 (House, 2002) suggests that although the continuously divorced and widowed exhibit similar health trajectories as the continuously married across age and birth cohorts, there are significant age and birth cohort differences in the effects of transitions to divorce and widowhood on self-rated health. Specifically, the health penalty of the transition to divorce is more apparent for the 1950s than the 1940s birth cohort; and it is stronger at younger than older adulthood especially in the more recent birth cohort. The health penalty of the transition to widowhood is more apparent for the 1910s than the 1920s birth cohort; and it is stronger at older than younger adulthood especially for the earlier birth cohort. These results reflect birth cohort differences in the process of aging and/or in the experience of marital dissolution.

► We know little about age and birth cohort variations in the effects of divorce and widowhood on health.
► A growth curve modeling strategy is employed to analyze data from a fifteen-year US longitudinal survey.
► We find similar health trajectories of continuously divorced/widowed as continuously married across age and cohorts.
► We find significant age and birth cohort differences in health effects of transitions to divorce and widowhood.