Religious service attendance, divorce, and remarriage among U.S. nurses in mid and late life.

Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science

Marital Status*/statistics & numerical data ; Nurses*/statistics & numerical data ; Religion*; Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Divorce/statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Marriage/statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prospective Studies ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; United States ; Widowhood

Prior research has suggested religious participation can promote marital satisfaction and stability. However, current literature has mainly focused on early life divorce, and used cross-sectional data, leaving open the question of the directionality of effects. We evaluated the prospective associations between service attendance and marital stability in mid and late life considering either 1) divorce or separation; or 2) remarriage, as separate outcomes. Data were drawn from the Nurses' Health Study, a large prospective cohort study that consisted of US female nurses in their 50s at study enrollment, with repeated measures of service attendance and marital status over 14 years of follow-up from 1996-2010. During follow up, among 66,444 initially married nurses who were mainly Christians, frequent service attendance was associated with 50% lower risk of divorce (95% CI: 32%, 63%), and 52% lower risk of either divorce or separation (95%CI: 37%, 63%). Among initially divorced or separated women, frequent service attendance was not associated with subsequent likelihood of remarriage; however, among widowed women, women who attended services frequently had 49% increased likelihood of remarriage (95% CI: 13%, 97%) compared to those women who did not. The study provides evidence that in this cohort of US nurses, frequent service attendance is associated with lower risk of becoming divorced in mid- and late- life, and increased likelihood of remarriage among widowed nurses, but not among divorced or separated nurses.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

J Health Soc Behav. 2004 Mar;45(1):81-98. (PMID: 15179909)
Epidemiology. 2016 May;27(3):368-77. (PMID: 26841057)
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1966 Oct;36(5):803-7. (PMID: 5971487)
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2008 Jan;43(1):18-24. (PMID: 17960316)
Am J Public Health. 2016 Sep;106(9):1573-81. (PMID: 27459450)
J Health Soc Behav. 2012 Mar;53(1):67-83. (PMID: 22328171)
Gerontologist. 1991 Apr;31(2):224-37. (PMID: 2044995)
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2016 Apr;84(4):285-96. (PMID: 26999504)
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2006 Sep;60(9):760-5. (PMID: 16905719)
Epidemiology. 1992 Sep;3(5):452-6. (PMID: 1391139)
AJS. 2002 Jan;107(4):1065-96. (PMID: 12227382)
J Rheumatol. 1991 May;18(5):654-60. (PMID: 1865410)
J Marriage Fam. 2009 Feb 1;71(1):108-121. (PMID: 25473126)
Ann Behav Med. 2001 Winter;23(1):68-74. (PMID: 11302358)
J Marriage Fam. 2008 Nov 1;70(4):835-846. (PMID: 20305796)
Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Feb 1;177(3):275-6. (PMID: 23292958)
Vital Health Stat 23. 2002 Jul;(22):1-93. (PMID: 12183886)
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2012 Nov;67(6):731-41. (PMID: 23052366)
Popul Dev Rev. 2003 Jun;29(2):255-276. (PMID: 19129930)
Soc Sci Med. 1998 Feb;46(3):425-35. (PMID: 9460823)
Future Child. 2005 Fall;15(2):33-55. (PMID: 16158729)
J Marital Fam Ther. 2014 Apr;40(2):212-32. (PMID: 24320175)
Res Aging. 2018 Apr;40(4):340-364. (PMID: 29298616)
Demography. 1996 Aug;33(3):313-27. (PMID: 8875065)
Soc Sci Med. 2007 Jan;64(1):77-94. (PMID: 17011690)
J Psychosom Res. 1987;31(1):63-71. (PMID: 3820147)
J Marriage Fam. 2010 Aug;72(4):805-827. (PMID: 22102761)

Date Created: 20181204 Date Completed: 20190506 Latest Revision: 20200309

20221213

PMC6277070

10.1371/journal.pone.0207778

30507933