400 Chapter 11et al., 2009). Differences in these health behav-
iors explained part of the effect of marital sta-
tus on heart disease mortality. Another study
examined the effects of marital status on health
behaviors by examining twins who differed in
marital status (Osler et al., 2008). The divorced
or widowed twin smoked more than the mar-
ried twin, with the difference being larger
among men than women.Marital Satisfaction. Another reason mar-
riage may be more health beneficial for men
than women is that women are more dissatis-
fied with their marriages. Women report more
problems in marriage, more negative feelings
about marriage, and more frequent thoughts
of divorce. In one study, marital satisfaction
decreased over the first four years of marriage
for both women and men, but the decrease
was larger for women than men (Kurdek,
2005). Men also are more optimistic about
marriage than women. A study of college stu-
dents in Taiwan showed that both women and
men perceived that they were more likely than
other people to have a happy marriage but the
difference between self and others was larger
for men than women as shown in Figure 11.4a
(Lin & Raghubir, 2005). Men and women
also rated their chances of getting divorced as
lower than that of other people but again the
difference between self and others was larger
for men than women (see Figure 11.4b).
One reason marriage may present
more problems for women is that women’s
roles change more after marriage compared
to those of men. Historically, women con-
formed more than men to what their spouses
expected of them upon marriage. Because
women were more dependent than men
on marriage for financial security, women
had more at stake in maintaining the mar-
riage. Thus women were more motivated to
accommodate to their spouses’ wishes.of the study where each spouse took turns de-
scribing a personal problem, wives provided
more support when husbands were describing
more severe problems. However, there was no
relation between the support husbands pro-
vided and the severity of the wives’ problems.
The kind of support that we have been
discussing is emotional support. The one
kind of support that women are more likely
than men to receive from marriage is finan-
cial support.Stressful Life Events. Another reason for
the differences in distress among people of
different marital statuses has to do with the
occurrence of negative life events. Some states
of being unmarried—separation, divorce,
widowhood—can be stressful life events in
and of themselves. They can also lead to other
negative life events, such as changes in one’s
social network or financial situation. Thus, it
may be that unmarried states are associated
with more stress rather than the married state
being associated with less stress. However,
it also is possible that marriage provides re-
sources that buffer individuals against nega-
tive life events as shown in Figure 11.3b.Health Behavior. Marriage has a positive
effect on both men’s and women’s health be-
havior, but the effects are more pronounced
among men. Wives take more responsibility
for their husbands’ health than husbands take
for their wives’ health. Married men are more
likely to endorse proactive health beliefs, in-
cluding preventive health care and the tendency
to take care of oneself when sick, compared to
single men, whereas there are no differences in
proactive health beliefs between married and
single women (Markey et al., 2005). Unmarried
men drink more alcohol than married men,
and both unmarried men and women smoke
more than married men and women (MolloyM11_HELG0185_04_SE_C11.indd 400 6/21/11 12:43 PM