Marital Disruption and Allostatic Load in Late Life

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the link between marital disruption and biological risk, and asks whether the association of this precarious life event with health is contingent on marital loss duration and history. METHOD: Data are drawn from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project ( N = 1,414), and Poisson regressions are presented for allostatic load and logistic regressions for individual biomarkers. RESULTS: The currently unmarried with more distant marital disruptions exhibit higher levels of allostatic load than the currently married, which is primarily driven by dysregulation of cardiovascular and metabolic indicators. Results also reveal the differing ways marital disruption "gets under the skin" with widowhood associated with compromised inflammatory, metabolic, and cardiovascular functioning, and divorce with cardiovascular and neuroendocrine markers. DISCUSSION: Findings lend support for both the crisis and chronic strain models, and likely reflect normative expectations of the timing of life events, decrements in marital resources, and selection processes.

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