Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book DEPRESSION AFTER WIDOWHOOD OR DIVORCE IN LATER LIFE written by Minzhi Ye and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although accumulated research findings point to the effect of marital termination on elders' depression, seldom research has tested the moderator effects of marital quality and personal self-esteem on the relationship between marital dissolution and depression among elders. The current study uses three waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a nationally representative sample of 2570 people ages 50 and above, with 368 persons who were widowed at time 2 and 73 persons who got divorced at time 2. Using fixed-effects model, the study shows that leaving a poor marriage does less harm than leaving a satisfactory marriage on individuals' well-being. However, specific measures of things that are going on in the marriage (e.g. over- or under-benefiting) do not have an effect on the relationship between marital termination and depression. Moreover, this study demonstrated that self-esteem is related to decreased depression in later life. However, the effect of marital termination on depression does not differ by self-esteem. Further, the results showed that in terms of long-term consequences, marital status may not affect older adults' psychological well-being very much as long as they are healthy. This research will enhance knowledge about the phenomenon of widowhood and divorce in later life.