The Detroit Free Press reports today on a new study out of Michigan State University which suggests that men who have never been married are increasingly just as healthy as their married counterparts. Despite this narrowing gap, this new research suggests that marriage is still beneficial given their findings that widowers report themselves to be in poorer health than those who still had a living spouse — a gap that widened each year.
MSU author Hui Liu, assistant professor of sociology, said Monday the study shows that policy promoting marriage for health may be outdated, as other forms of long-term commitment become more common. The study also suggests that widows and widowers need strong reinforcement and community support help to keep themselves mentally and physically healthy.
Liu provides an answer as to why, for widowers, the gap between their health and that of married man widened over 30 years…
“People live longer, and the marriage duration increases over time,” she said. It’s more stressful when that long-term companion dies.
Comments 2
amy — August 13, 2008
I think it's because married men end up relying on their wives for all sorts of things and then they're helpless when their wives die (Gals, ever leave your husbands home for an extended period of time? Ever come home to anything but empty potato chip bags in the fridge, which he's been eating for dinner since the food you left him ran out?), whereas never-marrieds always have to fend for themselves.
Sociology in the News - Wife Not Needed for Healthy Life | The Global Sociology Blog — August 14, 2008
[...] 14th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Gender, Health, Social Stigma, Social Theory, Sociology Via Context Crawler comes this story reported in the Detroit Free Press [...]