People who benefit the most from getting married are people who suffered depression when they were single, say researchers from Ohio State Unversity, USA. Most previous studies on marriage looked at the benefits for the whole population in general, rather than trying to find out whether certain types of people are helped more than others.
Addrianne Frech, co-author of the study, said "Our findings question the common assumption that marriage is always a good choice for all individuals."
Addrianne Frech, a doctoral student in sociology and Kristi Williams, Assistant Prof. Of Sociology, Ohio State University, say this is the first study to examine the benefits of marriage for depressed and non-depressed people.
Williams said "Those 'average' benefits of marriage may be largely limited to people who are depressed before they entered marriage. There may not be strong benefits for everyone."
They collected information from the National Survey of Families and Households. The survey interviewed people in 1987-88 and then again in 1992-94. Frech and Williams used data from 3,066 people who were single in 1987-88. From 12 questions the survey had, it was possible to measure the people's level of depression. For those who got married during the period, they examined measures of marital happiness and marital conflict.
Frech said "We actually found the opposite of what we expected. We thought depressed people would be less likely to benefit from marriage because the depression of one spouse can put a strain on the marriage and undermine marital quality."
Williams had done a previous research which indicated that levels of marital quality and conflict were key in determining depression levels in people after they got married.
Even this study found that those who reported low prevalence of conflict were less likely to be depressed. Hence, the surprise when they found that single depressed people seemed to benefit from marriage more than people who were not depressed when they were single.
They did find that depressed people reported overall lower levels of marital quality after they got married when compared to non-depressed people. Nevertheless, people who had been depressed when single benefited more psychologically from marriage than people who had not been depressed.
They did not investigate why depressed people gain more from marriage.
Williams said "If you start out happy, you don't have as far to go. But also, depressed people may just be especially in need of the intimacy, the emotional closeness, and the social support that marriage can provide. Marriage may give depressed people a greater sense that they matter to someone, while people who weren't depressed prior to marriage may have always thought that way."
The researchers stressed that this study only looked at people who had been married up to five years. Whether or not the benefits are evident for depressed people over a longer period, when children appear in the scene, or the number of divorces are higher, remains to be seen.
Frech said "We can't focus just on average effects of marriage on well-being. As this study shows, there is a great deal of variability in the benefits of marriage."
sociology.ohio-state
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