Psychological Well‐being Among Older Adults: The Role of Partnership Status
| Author | Matthew R. Wright,Susan L. Brown |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12375 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
M R. W Bowling Green State University
S L. B Bowling Green State University∗
Psychological Well-being Among Older Adults:
The Role of Partnership Status
Today’s older adults are increasingly unmar-
ried. Some are in cohabiting unions, others
are dating, and many remain unpartnered.
Unmarried older adults are at risk of poorer
well-being than married older adults, but it is
unclear whether older cohabitors fare worse
than or similar to their married counterparts;
nor have well-being differences among cohab-
itors, daters, and unpartnered persons been
considered. Conceptualizing marital status as
a continuum of social attachment, data from
Waves I and II of the National Social Life,
Health, and Aging Project are used to examine
how older married, cohabiting, dating, and
unpartnered individuals differ across multiple
indicators of psychological well-being. Among
men, cohabitors appear to fare similarly to the
married, and better than daters and the unpart-
nered. In contrast, there are few differences in
psychological well-being by partnership status
for women.
Today’s older adults (i.e., those aged 50 years
and older) are increasingly unmarried (Cooney
Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University,
222 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403-0222
(mrwrigh@bgsu.edu).
∗Department of Sociology, BowlingGreen State University,
239 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403-0222.
This article was edited by Linda Waite.
Key Words: aging, cohabitation, dating, marriage, mental
health.
& Dunne, 2001; Sassler, 2010), but they are not
necessarily unpartnered (Calasanti & Kiecolt,
2007). Some are in cohabiting unions or dating
relationships. Between 2000 and 2013, older
adult cohabitation increased from 1.2 million to
more than 3.3 million individuals (Brown, Lee,
& Bulanda, 2006; U.S. Census Bureau, 2014).
Older adult dating relationships are even more
common than cohabitation (Brown & Shinohara,
2013). The shrinking share of older adults who
are married coupled with the increasing divorce
rate among those older than age 50 (Brown &
Lin, 2012; Kennedy & Ruggles, 2014) and the
rising number of older adults in the population
means that we can anticipate a growing number
of unmarried older adults in the coming years
(Cooney & Dunne, 2001). Thus, it is likely that
dating and cohabitation among older adults may
become more prevalent in the future, particularly
as the baby boomers age into later life.
Unmarried older adults are at risk of poorer
health and well-being than are married older
adults. Even during midlife, the level of dis-
ability is about twice as high among unmar-
rieds as marrieds (Lin & Brown, 2012). It is
unclear, however, whether cohabiting or dating
mitigate the risk of lower well-being among
unmarrieds. Prior studies have not considered
whether well-being differs among cohabiting,
dating, and unpartnered older adults. Nor is it
clear whether cohabitation affords older adults
protective benets similar to marriage.
We use longitudinal data from the National
Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP;
see http://www.norc.org/Research/Projects/
Journal of Marriage and Family 79 (June 2017): 833–849 833
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12375
834 Journal of Marriage and Family
Pages/national-social-life-health-and-aging-pro-
ject.aspx) to examine how partnership status
is related to psychological well-being among
older adults. Theories of partnership status
as a continuum of social attachment (Ross,
1995) and commitment (Kamp Dush & Amato,
2005) would lead us to expect that older mar-
ried individuals enjoy the highest levels of
well-being, followed by cohabitors, daters, and
unpartnereds. Alternatively, the well-being of
older marrieds and cohabitors may be compa-
rable given mounting evidence that later life
cohabitation operates as a substitute for mar-
riage (Brown, Bulanda, & Lee, 2012; King &
Scott, 2005; Vespa, 2012). Our study breaks
new ground by taking a longitudinal approach,
distinguishing among cohabitors, daters, and
unpartnered persons and examining multiple
measures of psychological well-being (depres-
sive symptoms, perceivedstress, and loneliness).
Understanding the linkages between partnership
status and well-being among older adults is
especially important considering the changing
patterns of marriage, cohabitation, and dating in
later life.
B
The retreat from marriage is evident for those
in the second half of life. For middle-aged
adults, the share who are unmarried has risen
by 50% since 1980 (Kreider & Ellis, 2011).
Among those older than age 65, roughly 30%
of men and 60% of women were unmarried in
2008 (Manning & Brown, 2011). Increasingly,
unmarried older adults are forming partnerships
outside of marriage (De Jong Gierveld, 2004).
Cohabitation has been on the rise among adults
aged 50 and older, increasing threefold since
2000. Now nearly one in four cohabiting unions
involves a partner older than age 50 (Brown
et al., 2006; U.S. Census Bureau, 2014; Vespa,
2012). Indeed, older adults are as likely to
transition into a cohabiting union as a mar-
riage (Brown et al., 2012). A greater share of
unmarried older adults is in a dating rather than
cohabiting relationship. Approximately 5% of
older adults in the United States are in a dat-
ing relationship, which is 14% of the unmar-
ried older adult population. By comparison, only
8% of older unmarrieds are cohabiting. Dat-
ing in older adulthood is much more common
among men than women. More than one quar-
ter of older unmarried men are in a dating
relationship versus only 7% of older unmar-
ried women (Brown & Shinohara, 2013). These
trends underscore the importance of examin-
ing how partnership status, namely, marriage,
cohabitation, dating, or singlehood, is linked to
well-being.
It is well established that married adults
typically fare better in terms of health and
well-being than unmarried adults (Carr &
Springer, 2010). Married adults in their 50s
tend to experience lower levels of psychological
distress, including depression and anxiety, than
do the unmarried (Marks, 1996; Waite, 1995;
Waite & Gallagher, 2000), but prior research
typically lumps together all unmarrieds, failing
to distinguish among cohabitors, daters, and
unpartnereds (Lin & Brown, 2012; Liu, 2009).
This is a key limitation given the growth in
the number of unmarried older adults (Lin &
Brown, 2012). A few studies (Brown, Bulanda,
& Lee, 2005; Hansen, Moum, & Shapiro, 2007)
examined the well-being of older cohabitors
but compared them with married individuals,
not other types of unmarrieds. In short, we
lack a good understanding of whether and how
partnership status among older unmarrieds is
linked to their well-being. Moreover, it is not
clear whether cohabitors fare worse than or
similar to their married counterparts.
Theoretical Framework: Partnership Status
and Well-being
Partnership status has been conceptualized as a
continuum of social attachment (Ross, 1995).
Social attachment emerges through social ties,
which include emotional, social, and economic
support. Ross (1995) argued that married peo-
ple have the highest levels of social attachment,
followed in order by those who are cohabiting
with a partner, those with a nonresident partner
(i.e., daters), and the unpartnered. Kamp Dush
and Amato (2005) extended Ross’s (1995) work
by conceptualizing marital status as a contin-
uum of commitment. In their study, commitment
was framed in terms of relationship length and
salience of the relationship to the identity of
the individual. Marriages last longer on aver-
age than cohabitations, and cohabitations often
last longer than dating. Similarly, marriage may
be more salient than cohabitation for the iden-
tity of an individual, and cohabitation might
be more salient than dating. Thus, marriage
involves the most commitment, followed by
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