The Impact of Remarriage on Social and Psychological Well Being: Evidence from a National Survey.

The influence of remarriage after divorce on psychological well-being and readjustment to marriage and parenting is examined using data from a national cross-sectional survey. After an initial stage of conventional contingency table analysis, multivariate analysis controlling for sex, education, and length of current marriage was conducted to determine whether remarriage exerts an influence on adjustment net of these contemporary circumstances. Although it has been suggested that people who end marriages by divorce are less healthy than those who do not, there is little in the data to substantiate such a view. In fact, the remarried are remarkably similar to first marrieds in most aspects of current well-being and morale and are dissimilar primarily with regard to past distress and feelings of role inadequacy. The fact that experiencing divorce and remarriage has, at most, limited impact on current adjustment is viewed in relationship to theoretical and empirical trends in the life crisis literature. When the remarried's greater physical health deficits, more frequently acknowledged use of alcohol and drugs, and more frequent experience of difficult and /or overwhelming times are considered, it is apparent that certain scars remain. Yet, even where differences between first married and remarried adults are most prevalent, they are never very large. In addition, when we consider their levels of happiness, self-esteem, personal efficacy, and optimism about the future, it is concluded that the remarried have been able to master the acute crisis of divorce and have established a viable pattern of affective and family role functioning.Ph.D.PsychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158543/1/8125219.pd