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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Mental health profiles among married, never-married, and separated/divorced mothers in a nationally representative sample.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have found that married mothers compared to single mothers had better mental health (Cairney et al. in Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 38:442-449, 2003; Cairney et al. in Can J Public Health 90:320-324, 1999; Davies et al. in J Marriage Fam 59:294-308, 1997; Lipman et al. in Am J Psychiatry 158:73-77, 2001; Wang in Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 39:26-32, 2004). Although a relationship between family structure (single vs married mothers) and psychiatric disorders is well established, several questions remain. The present study addressed the question "Are there differences in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders between married, never-married, and separated/divorced mothers?" METHODS: The present report examined the lifetime prevalence of anxious misery, fear, and externalizing disorders among mothers in relation to family structure (married, never-married, and separated/divorced) in the US National Comorbidity Survey (N=1,534). RESULTS: Results indicated that never-married mothers appeared to be generally similar to married mothers in their mental health profiles. Separated/divorced mothers compared to married mothers had increased odds of having any anxious-misery disorder, depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), posttraumatic stress disorder, any externalizing disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Differences were found between never-married and separated/divorced mothers, with separated/divorced mothers having increased odds ratios of having any anxious-misery disorder, depression, and GAD. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed in light of the unique life contexts of married, never-married, and separated/divorced mothers and as further evidence for the case against combining the separated/divorced and never-married marital status into one "single motherhood" classification in mental health research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Differences between previously married and never married 'gay' men: family background, childhood experiences and current attitudes.

Despite a large body of literature on the development of sexual orientation, little is known about why some gay men have been (or remain) married to a woman. In the current study, a self-selected sample of 43 never married gay men ('never married') and 26 gay men who were married to a woman ('previously married') completed a self-report questionnaire. Hypotheses were based on five possible explanations for gay men's marriages: (a) differences in sexual orientation (i.e., bisexuality); (b) internalized homophobia; (c) religious intolerance; (d) confusion created because of childhood/adolescent sexual experiences; and/or (e) poor psychological adjustment. Previously married described their families' religious beliefs as more fundamentalist than never married. No differences were found between married' and never married' ratings of their sexual orientation and identity, and levels of homophobia and self-depreciation. Family adaptability and family cohesion and the degree to which respondents reported having experienced child maltreatment did not distinguish between previously married and never married. The results highlight how little is understood of the reasons why gay men marry, and the need to develop an adequate theoretical model.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Body mass index, overweight and obesity in married and never married men and women in Poland.

The study examined the relationship between marital status and the body mass index (BMI) and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the Polish population. The sample included 2,266 men and 4,122 women, 25-60 years of age, who were occupationally active inhabitants of Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland. Marital status was defined by two categories: never married and presently married, and two groups in each category were established on the basis of educational level: well-educated (12 or more years in school) and poorly educated (less than 12 years in school). The subjects were also divided into four age groups: 25-30, 31-40, 41-50, and 51-60 years. Height and weight were measured and the BMI was calculated. Three categories of the BMI were established: normal, BMI < 25.0 kg/m(2), overweight, BMI > or = 25 < 30 kg/m(2), and obese, BMI > or = 30 kg/m(2). In each age and educational group, married individuals had a higher BMI than those who were never married. With the exception of well-educated males 51-60 years, differences in the BMI between married and never married individuals increased with age. In general, married men and women were more likely to be overweight and obese than never married individuals. The results indicated a significant association (P < 0.001) between marital status and the BMI in both sexes. After age, marital status was the most important predictor of overweight/obesity among men (P < 0.001), whereas educational level did not have a significant role. Among women, age, marital status, and education were significantly (P < 0.001) related to the BMI.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

A comparison of ever-married and never-married women with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: The results of the scant research on anorexia nervosa and marriage suggest that married anorexics may exhibit more severely disordered eating. However, past research has not controlled for the greater age of married versus unmarried anorexics, and very little research has been conducted on marriage and women with bulimia nervosa. We investigated differences in disordered eating and clinical traits between ever-married and never-married women with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa and statistically controlled for age. METHOD: Adult women ages 20-45, who were assessed in an outpatient eating disorders clinic and diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (n = 91) or bulimia nervosa (n = 223), completed several measures of disordered eating and related traits at the point of initial evaluation. RESULTS: In simple comparisons, ever-married women differed from their never-married peers with regard to several indices of symptom history and severity. However, after controlling for age, ever-married women differed only with regard to an earlier onset of menarche and, for women with bulimia nervosa, an earlier onset of sexual intercourse. DISCUSSION: Results are discussed with regard to possible explanation and directions for future research.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The married, the formerly married and the never married: support system differentials of older women in planned retirement communities.

This paper explores the nature of informal support given to older women, depending upon their marital status and the presence of living children. To control for differential availability of formal resources and for background characteristics, random samples of 371 noninstitutionalized female residents of two midwestern life care communities were interviewed. We found, unsurprisingly, that women who were presently, or who had been married, received more emotional, social, and instrumental support from their family members. But in further analysis it became clear, much to our surprise, that the presence of a husband only assured the married women of significantly more instrumental (task-oriented) support. It was the existence of living children--even just one child--that generated greater emotional, social, and instrumental support from her family. The greatest informal support deficits are among the never married, as expected, but are a result of the lack of children rather than the absence of a husband.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Lived experience of never-married women.

A phenomenological research design was used to explore the meaning of singleness to women who have never married. Nine never-married, heterosexual, childless women were interviewed about how they experienced singleness in their lives. Constant comparative analysis of the data resulted in 13 categories that reflected the meaning of singleness for this group of never-married women. Singleness emerged as a multifaceted experience with different meanings, not only for different women, but also for an individual never-married women, depending on her perspective at any given point in time. The findings of this study, by sensitizing nurses to the subjective world of never-married women, can enhance the act of nursing female clients who have never married.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The exclusion of never-married women from Chinese fertility surveys.

Never-married women have been regularly excluded in official national surveys of fertility in China, even in light of evidence of increasing premarital sexual activity. Likewise, never-married women in the United States were consistently excluded from national fertility surveys prior to 1982 because of the perceived sensitivity of questions about contraceptive use and sexual activities. Data on sexual and fertility behavior from all women of reproductive age, regardless of marital status, can provide direct measures of sexual activity and unintended pregnancies, as well as facilitate modeling of social networks underlying the sexual transmission of diseases. China's need for such information, however sensitive, will become more difficult to ignore given increasing pressures to attend to the health needs of their never-married but sexually active population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Never-married elderly. A reassessment with implications for long-term care policy.

Researchers are beginning to look more closely at the lives of never-married elderly. As yet, there is no clear consensus regarding the lives and social support networks of the never-married elderly. In particular, are never-married elderly at greater risk for institutionalization than other marital groups? Findings from past research are mixed. Part of the difficulty lies in grouping never-married elderly with other unmarried elderly, or focusing on the presence or absence of a spouse. This article reexamines the life situation of never-married elderly in terms of health, social interaction, and household and family structure. The never married are compared with married, widowed, and divorced/separated elderly persons on these three dimensions. The findings suggest that never-married elderly are socially active, are not socially isolated, and may not be at high risk for institutionalization compared to other marital groups.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1992

Men who never married. A socio-medical study in northern Sweden.

In a population-based study 50 never-married men aged 40-64 years were compared with 503 similarly aged other men (married, co-habitant, divorced or widowed). The never-married had shorter education than other men, and had been unemployed more often. The never-married mens' emotional relationships were of lower quality. There was modest tendency towards higher blood pressures and higher serum cholesterol levels among the never-married men, but the differences did not reach statistical significance. In conclusion, never-married men were found to be worse off in terms of social support, education, employment status and health knowledge. Differences in health status, however, were small. It is possible that positive factors, not fully elucidated in this study, counterbalance the adverse socio-medical characteristics. Another possibility is that differences will become manifest at an older age which could be surveyed in a follow-up study.

Health Status↗
PubMed1997

Marital status effects on health: are there differences between never married women and divorced and separated women?

To test whether the effects of marital status on health differ between never married women and divorced and separated women, this study utilizes prospective panel data for a large national sample of non-institutionalized young women in the U.S. (the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women). The women were aged 24-34 at the beginning of two successive five-year follow-up intervals (1978-1983 and 1983-1988). The health effects of marital status were evaluated in regressions which assessed the relationships between initial marital status and subsequent health trends in each follow-up interval. In the first follow-up interval, never married women tended to have worse health trends than divorced and separated women for physical impairments and for overall health problems. However, there were no differences between never married women and divorced and separated women in health trends for psychosomatic symptoms in either follow-up interval or for any health measure in the second follow-up interval. Our analyses of cross-sectional data showed few significant differences in health between never married women and divorced and separated women. Taken together, the evidence from our study and previous studies suggests that differences between never married women and divorced and separated women may vary by age and/or cohort. Evidence for the 1970s and 1980s suggests that, among older women, divorced and separated women may have experienced more harmful health effects than never married women; however, among younger women, this difference may have been absent or possibly reversed.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

The never-married in later life.

Sources or consequences of singlehood are analyzed for the 162 never-married persons aged 50 and over from the six years of the NORC General Social Surveys. Highly-educated older women are most likely to remain single, but family background was not a predictor. Although the never-married find life more exciting than other marital statuses among younger (25 to 49) respondents, this reverses in later life. The never-married are also less happy than the married, and only slightly happier than the widowed and divorced. The characteristic that best explains their relative unhappiness is greater dissatisfaction with family life. The lower well-being of the never-married is attributable either to changes accompanying aging which lessen the viability of single life styles, or to less support of single living among current older cohorts.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Born out of wedlock and never married--it breaks a man's heart.

This study examines whether men who were born outside marriage in early twentieth century Sweden run a higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in middle and old age compared to men who were born inside marriage. Analyses are based on the male half of the Uppsala Birth Cohort Study, Sweden, consisting of all 7411 boys who were born alive at the Uppsala Academic Hospital during the period 1915-1929. The statistical method used is Cox regression. The results demonstrated a statistically significant excess mortality among men born outside marriage, which could not be explained by either social class of origin or birth weight for gestational age. Instead, this elevated mortality was largely explained by the more than doubled mortality risk among those men born outside wedlock who never married in relation to the corresponding group of men born to married parents. Even when three indicators of adult socio-economic status were adjusted for, men who never married and were born outside marriage still ran a 93 per cent higher risk of dying from IHD than men who never married but were born inside marriage. This intervening effect of adult marital status was restricted to the category of never married men. Thus, although divorcees demonstrated an even higher mortality risk in relation to the married than did those who never married, this was equally true for men born inside and men born outside marriage. In the concluding section of the paper I argue that these findings should be understood in terms of the childhood social stigma that the illegitimate children experienced. This stigma may have resulted in an increased susceptibility, which in combination with the "failure" in adulthood to comply with the established norms of society regarding matrimony led to higher levels of IHD mortality in middle and old age.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

[A significant increase in the number of never-married couples with children].

The author reports on the number of never-married couples with children in the Netherlands. "There are 2.4 million families with children, of which about 2 million [are] married couples. According to the 1994 National Household Forecasts these numbers will be nearly constant between 1995 and 2010.... It is expected that in the future the percentage of cohabiting couples that will marry when they want to have children will decrease. This is why the number of never married couples with children living at home will grow by 75% between 1995 and 2010." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Developed Countries↗
PubMed1994

[[Trends in demand and supply factors of marriage in the Japanese never-married population: findings from the Tenth Japanese National Fertility Survey]].

"The purpose of the present paper is to describe findings from a survey on attitudes toward marriage and family among Japanese never-married youth from the point of view of the general framework of the demand and supply system. The survey was conducted as a part of the Tenth Japanese National Fertility Survey on the first of July in 1992.... The results...indicate that never-married people in Japan are in a kind of paradoxical situation in which they complain about such difficulties...as insufficient availability of prospective spouses, while they have weaker motivation to get married.... This situation can possibly be explained by [the] increasing level of expectation for marriage and spouse due to dynamic changes in [the perceived] function of marriage." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

The issue of never-married motherhood in Britain, 1920-70.

This article examines shifts in attitudes and changes in provision with regard to never-married mothers within three broad chronological periods. The first section considers attitudes towards these mothers in the period 1918-45, when the issue was conceptualized as one of public health and moral welfare. Second, the article examines the period between 1945 and 1970, when the dominant professional view of never-married mothers focused on identifying individual pathology, but when significant continuities in treatment can nevertheless be found. Third, the article looks briefly at the substantial change in policy and provision for what were then called 'one-parent families' during the 1970s. In conclusion it argues that while there were substantial changes in terms of the way in which unmarried motherhood was defined, from the point of view of the unmarried mothers themselves the continuities have been more striking. Unmarried mothers have been persistently singled out and labelled a social problem and, in all but a brief period during the late 1960s and 1970s, also as a moral problem.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Patterns of condom use and sexual behavior among never-married women.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Use of condoms is one of the main methods sexually active persons may choose to prevent infection with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Little is known about patterns of condom use among women in the United States. We provide a conceptualization of patterns of condom use and factors associated with these patterns. GOAL OF THIS STUDY: To examine patterns of condom use and associated characteristics among sexually active, never-married women in the United States. STUDY DESIGN: Analysis of data from the 1988 National Survey of Family Growth, which is a nationally representative sample of women in their childbearing years. RESULTS: Only a minority of sexually active, never-married women report using condoms, and even fewer report using them consistently. Women with characteristics traditionally associated with increased risk of infection with STD and HIV appear to be less likely to report using condoms and to report using them consistently. Women who report use of condoms to prevent STDs are more likely to report consistent condom use; less likely to cease using condoms; and more likely to initiate consistent condom use. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest the need for innovative programming targeted for specific sexually active populations to promote both initiation and maintenance of use of condoms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Cancer risk and prognosis in Norway: comparing women in their first marriage with women who have never married.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The difference in risk of cancer between never married women and married women in their first marriage and whether survival from cancer was any different between the two groups were studied. DESIGN: This was a population based, nested case-control study of cancer in Norwegian women diagnosed between 1966 and 1990, and followed up with regard to overall survival until the end of 1991. SETTING: Norway. PARTICIPANTS: These were Norwegian women born between 1935 and 1954. The case-control study included 12,237 married and 1466 unmarried cases, and 26,075 married and 2768 unmarried controls. In the survival analysis, 11,943 married and 1473 unmarried cases were included. MAIN RESULTS: Unmarried women had an overall increased cancer risk (OR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.05, 1.21), which could be attributed to cancer of the ovaries, uterus, brain and haematological malignancies. For cervical and thyroid cancer, the risk was lower than for married women. In the survival analysis, unmarried cases had an overall 26% increased risk of dying (HR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.15, 1.39), after adjustment for age and stage at diagnosis. The increased death rate was seen for cancer of the cervix, lung, and thyroid. CONCLUSIONS: Since most unmarried women were nulliparous, this might explain their increased risk of ovarian and uterine cancer. The increased risk of brain tumours and haematological malignancies may result from selection bias, since disease among unmarried women may cause a large proportion to remain unmarried. The lower survival in unmarried cases may support the hypothesis that psychosocial factors play a role in the prognosis of cancer patients.

Adult↗