A new study from Michigan State University released last month warns that if you're young and divorcing in Pasadena, you might end up with more health issues than your older divorcing counterparts, as well as more issues than couples who stayed married.
According to the Huffington Post, self-reported health information from 1,282 participants from the last 15 years was analyzed by Michigan State Researcher Hui "Cathy" Liu. Liu specifically looked at the "difference in well-being between those who stayed married and those who divorced."
Among the couples who divorced, Liu found that it was younger divorced folks who reported more health issues. This research surprised her.
"I would have expected divorce to carry less stress for the younger generation, since divorce is more prevalent for them," Liu said in a statement released by Michigan State University.
She believes that the findings confirm younger couples need more emotional support and education when it comes to relationships and marriage.
"It's clear to me that we need more social and family support for the younger divorced groups. This could include divorce counseling to help people handle the stress, or offering marital therapy or prevention programs to maintain marital satisfaction," said Liu.
Published in January's Social Science & Medicine as part of a continuous national survey, her findings she says indicated that perhaps older people going through divorce are better emotionally equipped to handle the stresses of divorce than younger people. Liu also believes that older people are among the most unhappily married due to pressure to stay together so when they finally do get divorced, they experience more relief than younger divorcees.
"This suggests it is not the status of being married or divorced, per se, that affects health, but instead is the process of transitioning from marriage to divorce that is stressful and hurts health," Liu said.
The Huffington Post points out that Liu also lead a study that examined the connection between health and divorce in 2008 which found "self-reported health of divorced, separated and widowed people had worsened from 1972 to 2003." |