Frederick O. Lorenz

Linking Economic Hardship to Marital Quality and Instability.

Utilizing a sample of 76 white middle-class couples from a rural midwestern county in the US this study examines 2 central propositions: 1)the negative impact of economic hardship on a spouses marital quality (happiness/satisfaction) or marital instability (thoughts or actions related to divorce) is in part a function of its influence on the effective quality of marital interactions and 2) this process is particularly applicable to the hostile irritable response of men to financial difficulties. A series of analyses supported these propositions. Economic pressures had an indirect association with married couples evaluation of the marriage by promoting hostility in marital interactions and curtailing the warm and supportive behaviors spouses express toward one another. The hypothesized process was most pronounced for husbands whose behavior was more strongly associated with economic problems than wives behavior. Findings from the study are consistent with previous research that identifies negative affect as a principal behavioral correlate of marital distress; however the results also suggest that more research needs to be done on the role of warmth and supportiveness in promoting marital quality. (authors)

Reciprocal Influences Between Stressful Life Events and Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Investigated in this study were hypothesized reciprocal influences between stressful life events and adolescent maladjustment using data from a 6-year, prospective longitudinal study. Stressful life experiences, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing behaviors were assessed for a sample of adolescents (215 males, 236 females) living in the rural Midwest. From 7th to 12th grades, autoregressive analyses showed that stressful life events and these two forms of maladjustment were reciprocally interrelated over time. For example, stressful life events at one point significantly predicted delinquent behaviors 1 year later, which, in turn, significantly predicted stressful life events 1 year later, and vice versa. The findings provide evidence for the accumulating disadvantage for adolescents that results from the mutual reinforcement of problematic situations and adjustment problems over time.

Husband and wife differences in response to undesirable life events.

In the present study of 451 married couples living in the rural midwest, gender differences were examined in reports of exposure and vulnerability to specific types of undesirable life events. Consistent with expectations derived from either a social structural or identity perspective, the results demonstrated that men are more likely than women to report exposure to and to be distressed by work and financial events. Women, on the other hand, are more strongly influenced by exposure to negative events within the family but not within their network of friends. Outcomes vary according to the type of emotional distress. Financial stress, for example, increases hostility among men more than among women, but wives are more likely than husbands to report somatic complaints in response to the same stressor. The findings demonstrate the need for future research that more directly investigates the intraindividual and social mechanisms which account for gender differences in a broad range of emotional and behavioral responses to varying types of significant life changes.

Marital Quality and Physical Illness: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis

K. A. S. WICKRAMA, FREDERICK 0. LORENZ, AND RAND D. CONGER Iowa State University GLEN H. ELDER, JR. University of North Carolina* Using latent growth curves, this study investigates the association between intraindividual changes in marital quality and physical illness for 364 wives and husbands in the rural Midwest. The results reveal that both the initial level of and the change in the marital quality of husbands and wives correlate with the initial level of and the change in physical health, after controlling for the influence of work stress, education, and income. Additional analyses imply that psychological wellbeing and behaviors that are health risks mediate or explain this association. The results provide stronger evidence for the association between marital quality and physical illness for both husbands and wives than has been obtained from cross-sectional studies or from longitudinal studies that have been limited to the investigation of interindividual differences. Key Words: marital quality, physical illness. Previous research demonstrates a significant association between marital roles and physical health (Gove, Hughes, & Style, 1983; Ross, Mirowsky, & Goldsteen, 1990). Few scholars, however, have examined how the degree of marital quality, rather than simply the status of being married, relates to physical well-being (Marcenes & Sheham, 1992). Yet subjective experience in the marital role may be a more powerful predictor of health status than is role occupancy (Barauch & Barnett, 1986). Gove and Umberson (1985), for example, found that intimate relationships are strongly related to overall well-being. Another limitation in previous research is that most of the studies focusing on the association between marital quality and health have examined only mental health (Lorenz, Conger, Montague, & Wickrama, 1993). In this study, we extend earlier research by investigating the correlation of marital quality, as indicated by marital stability, satisfaction, and happiness in the relationship, with physical illness, as reported by 364 wives and husbands who have been married long. In addition to examining the empirical relationship between marital quality and physical health, our study also addresses two important methodological issues largely neglected in previous research. First, earlier studies have focused on the correspondence between the levels of marital quality and physical health. We were able to locate only one study that has examined the relationship between interindividual changes in marital quality and changes in physical health (Booth & Johnson, 1994). No research in this area has investigated individual differences in intraindividual change in marriage and health, even though the investigation of change should explain individual growth or decline over time. Instead, prior studies of health and social relations have inferred intraindividual change from interindividual differences in levels of attributes (Lorenz & Wickrama, 1994). Actually monitoring the correspondence between changes in social relations and changes in health status provides stronger evidence for the dynamic association between those attributes, at least in comparison with the correspondence that can be obtained from interindividual differences in levels of marital quality and physical health at one point in time (McArdle, 1986; Patterson, 1983, Rogosa, Brandt, & Zimowski, 1982). Most important, none of the earlier studies that we have been able to identify has used individual trajectories of change to examine the systematic relationship between marital quality and physical wellbeing. In examining how the dynamics of marriage might affect changes in health status, it is important to note that changes in personal attributes across several points in time can take either linear or nonlinear forms. When true individual change follows interesting and even nonlinear trajectories, traditional analytical methods (correlational and covariant) are unlikely to reveal the intricacies of individual change (Willet & Sayer, 1994). …

Relationships among sexual satisfaction, marital quality, and marital instability at midlife.

Sexual satisfaction, marital quality, and marital instability have been studied over the life course of couples in many previous studies, but less in relation to each other. On the basis of the longitudinal data from 283 married couples, the authors used autoregressive models in this study to examine the causal sequences among these 3 constructs for husbands and wives separately. Results of cross-lagged models, for both husbands and wives, provided support for the causal sequences that proceed from sexual satisfaction to marital quality, from sexual satisfaction to marital instability, and from marital quality to marital instability. Initially higher levels of sexual satisfaction resulted in an increase in marital quality, which in turn led to a decrease in marital instability over time. Effects of sexual satisfaction on marital instability appear to have been mediated through marital quality.

The short-term and decade-long effects of divorce on women's midlife health.

We hypothesize that divorce immediately increases psychological distress and has long-term negative consequences for the physical health of divorced people. In addition, we hypothesize that divorce indirectly causes long-term increases in distress through stressful midlife events. The hypotheses are tested using data from 416 rural Iowa women who were interviewed repeatedly in the early 1990s when they were mothers of adolescent children; the women were interviewed again in 2001. The data support the hypotheses. In the years immediately after their divorce (1991–1994), divorced women reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress than married women but no differences in physical illness. A decade later (in 2001), the divorced women reported significantly higher levels of illness, even after controlling for age, remarriage, education, income, and prior health. Compared to their married counterparts, divorced women reported higher levels of stressful life events between 1994 and 2000, which led to higher levels of depressive symptoms in 2001.

Mutual Influences in Parent and Adolescent Psychological Distress.

Using a cross-lagged effect model with 3 waves of panel data, this study exmined mutual influences in parent and adolescent psychological distress reported independently by respondents in each of 4 parent-child dyads: mothers-sons, mothers-daughters, fathers-sons, and fathers-daughters. Results showed that parent and adolescent distress were reciporcally related across time, even after earlier emotional status was statistically controlled. These mutual influences in distress, however, were gender specific, with the strongest cross-lagged associations occurring between mothers and sons and fathers and daughters. Moreover, boys were more susceptible to parental distress during early adolescence, girls during early to mid-adolescence. Incremental fit comparisons for alternative models suggest that a sons distress may have more negative consequences for mothers than the reverse. Finally, mutual influences in psychological distress for fathers and daughters were more pronounced for girls who were experiencing the onset of menarche and for girls who recently experienced a school transition

Parental Support and Adolescent Physical Health Status: A Latent Growth- Curve Analysis

Applying latent growth curve analysis to a sample of 310 adolescents, this study demonstrates that level of and changes in observed parental behavior are liked to the level of and changes in adolescent physical health status, respectively, through adolescent perception of parental support. In addition, the level of observed parental behavior had a significant direct effect on subsequent changes in adolescent health status. The results provide evidence for the influence of parental support on adolescent physical health, both directly and indirectly through the adolescents perception of that support. Confidence in the findings is strengthened by (1) employing a prospective, longitudinal research design, (2) analyzing intraindividual changes in support and health, and (3) reducing potential method variance confounds by using multi-informant reports of parental behavior.

Family antecedents and consequences of trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood: a life course investigation.

Using prospective data from 485 adolescents over a 10-year period, the present study identifies distinct segments of depressive symptom trajectories—a nonsignificant slope during adolescence and a significant negative slope during the transition to adulthood. The study hypothesized that different age-graded life experiences would differentially influence these depressive symptom growth parameters. The findings show that early stressful experiences associated with family-of-origin SES affect the initial level of depressive symptoms. Experiences with early transitional events during adolescence explain variation in the slope of depressive symptoms during the transition to adulthood. The growth parameters of depressive symptoms and an early transition from adolescence to adulthood constrain young adult social status attainment. Consistent with the life-course perspective, family-of-origin adversity is amplified across the life-course by successively contingent adverse circumstances involving life-transition difficulties and poor mental health. The findings also provide evidence for intergenerational transmission of social adversity through health trajectories and social pathways.

Married and recently divorced mothers' stressful events and distress: Tracing change across time.

FREDERICK O. LORENZ, RONALD L. SIMONS, AND RAND D. CONGER Iowa State University GLEN H. ELDER, JR. University of North Carolins* CHRISTINE JOHNSON AND WEI CHAO Iowa State University** We examined the relationship between divorce and psychological distress in adult women by combining data from two studies, one of divorced mothers with adolescent children (n = 188) and another of married mothers (n = 306). The data were modeled using latent growth curves to chart change over time. Change in depressive symptoms paralleled changes in stressful events. For divorced mothers, stressful events and depressive symptoms increased significantly soon after the divorce and then diminished over the next 3 years, although not to the same levels reported by married women, The data were consistent with a proposed model that incorporated aspects of both the social causation and the selection perspectives. Key Words: depressive symptoms, divorce, latent growth curves, panel studies, stressful events. The dramatic increase in divorce rates in the United States is well documented. Current estimates project that at least half of recent first marriages will end in divorce (Bumpass, 1990). Despite its frequency and growing acceptance, divorce is still a traumatic life change; single parents have higher rates of both emotional and physical health problems than their married counterparts (Amato & Keith, 1991; Bachrach, 1975; Kitson, 1992; Tschann, Johnston, & Wallerstein, 1989). In this article, we examine the relationship between divorce and psychological distress by introducing stressful life events as a mediating link between family structure and depressive symptoms in women. This study is conducted by combining data from two three-wave panel studies, one of recently divorced mothers with adolescent children and another of a parallel sample of married mothers. Although several earlier studies have used panel data (see Kitson, 1992, pp. 24-25), this combined data set permits us to extend previous research in specific methodological and substantive ways. Methodologically, we extend previous panel studies on divorce and distress by using latent growth curves to explicitly model intra-individual change in psychological distress and stressful life events in recently divorced mothers, and we then compare their trajectories of change with those of the parallel sample of married mothers. Substantively, we draw on traditional research of family stress (McCubbin & Patterson, 1983) and the stress-distress process (Coyne & Downey, 1991; Kessler, Price, & Wortman, 1985; Mirowsky & Ross, 1989; Pearlin, 1989) to conceive of divorce as a primary stressor that makes women susceptible to an array of stressful life events. These events accumulate quickly following divorce and then subside over time. Changes in depressive symptoms parallel changes in stressful events. To accommodate the competing argument that some people experience more stressful events and higher levels of depressive symptoms because of past behavior problems and that these people are more likely to be among the divorced, we also incorporate measures of antisocial behavior into our model. Taken together, the mothers family structure and past antisocial behavior capture aspects of two competing perspectives: Social causation asserts that divorce creates conditions that make women susceptible to more stressful life events (e.g., Turner, Wheaton, & Lloyd, 1995) and, therefore, higher levels of distress; selection claims that women with a history of antisocial behavior are likely to experience more stressful events, become depressed, and are more likely to be among the divorced (e.g., Patterson & Dishion, 1988). THEORETICAL MODEL The connection between family structure and psychological distress is based on the empirical observation that both divorced men and women are more depressed than their married counterparts. …