The Association Between Marital Status and Psychological Well-being in Norway

Abstract: This study uses a Norwegian nationally representative survey to examine whether cohabitants exhibit lower levels of psychological well-being than their married counterparts in a context where cohabitation is claimed to be largely indistinguishable from marriage. Six indicators of mental health are considered, and all adult ages and marital statuses are included. Overall partnered living (married or cohabiting) is associated with higher psychological well-being than being single. Single living subsequent to a divorce is experienced as particularly negative. Nevertheless, when compared with married people, cohabitants who have never married and divorced cohabitants are more likely to report a problem with alcohol, and this also holds for those who have dependent children. In addition, divorced cohabitants are more likely to report a history of depression than the married. Up to the 1960s, marriage was the primary setting for heterosexual relationships and childbearing in Western countries. Since then the exclusive position of marriage has weakened. This development is characterized by a marked drop in marriages, an increase in non-marital births and divorces. Increasingly, more people live together without being formally married and also have children together. The growth in cohabitation has happened at different paces and reached different levels in Europe. In the Nordic countries, cohabitation is considered largely indistinguishable from marriage (Heuveline and Timberlake, 2004). Here cohabitation is the preferred first union among young adults; every second first-born child have cohabiting parents; cohabitation is a com-mon behaviour among the divorced; and cohabitation is common across the social spectrum and enjoys socia