An examination of the relationship between marital status, social support, and psychological well-being among African American women

The health effects of marriage are well documented and the research consistently shows that marriage positively affects mental and physical health. Marriage provides security and a network of help and support, which can be particularly beneficial in dealing with stress and in recovering from illnesses and accidents (Waite, 1995). Unmarried persons are considered to have worse health than married persons because they lack the social and financial resources to which married persons have access. However, this should not suggest that the non-married have no access to social support systems. Instead, the non-married may develop patterns of social support different from those used by individuals in other marital statuses (Barrett, 1999). Individuals who live alone may compensate for the lack of social interaction within the home through greater social interaction with friends and relatives; greater attendance at church, concerts, and movies; and more volunteerism (Rogers, 1996).;Using data from the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA), this study sought to examine the nature of the relationships between marital status, social support and psychological well-being. The findings of this study suggest that marriage is not as beneficial to psychological well-being as previous studies have suggested, at least for black women. Although married women are significantly less distressed than divorced or separated women, they are actually more distressed than widowed or never married women. Married women do, however, have access to more social support than any other women. Yet, the support married women receive from their spouses is not associated with their mental health. Although I did not find that spousal support protected married women from psychological distress, I did find that certain types of social support are associated with higher levels of distress, probably because the experience of distress leads women to seek out more social support.;Overall, the conceptual model is not supported by my analysis. Although the relationships between marital status, social support, and psychological well-being were found to be significant, the relationships did not always operate in the hypothesized directions.