What’s a (Childless) Man Without a Woman? The Differential Importance of Couple Dynamics for the Wellbeing of Childless Men and Women in the Netherlands

Using rich couple data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, we investigated to what extent there were gender differences in couple dynamics within childless couples (N = 163). Though the childless partners reported similar relationship satisfaction, we found gender differences in the link between relationship conflict and relationship satisfaction - the childless men were more strongly affected by the negative aspects of the partnership. This gender difference was not evident for the association between partner support and relationship satisfaction - the positive aspects of the partnership were equally important for the male and the female childless partners. Furthermore, the association between relationship satisfaction and health was stronger for the childless men than for the childless women and this difference was particularly evident when the levels of relationship satisfaction were low. These results indicate that when they are in unsatisfying romantic relationships, childless men are at a greater risk than childless women of physical and mental ill health

Disability pathways preceding death in England by socio-economic status

The role of socio-economic status (SES) in the last years of life is an under-researched aspect of health inequalities. This study examines disability patterns preceding death using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We use repeated measures latent class analysis to identify the most common pathways preceding death in terms of walking ability and limitations in activities of daily living. Three pathways emerge: one characterized by consistently low disability; a second by a constant high level of functional limitations; and a third by medium impairment. We examine how different SES indicators predict belonging to each disability pathway. Conditional on income, higher wealth is associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to the high disability pathway. Contrary to our expectations, we find no educational gradient in the pathways preceding death. Health inequalities in the last years of life seem to exist especially between individuals with different levels of wealth

Stressful life events, differential vulnerability, and depressive symptoms: critique and new evidence

Depressive symptoms are disproportionately high among women and less educated individuals. One mechanism proposed to explain this is the differential vulnerability hypothesis—that these groups experience particularly strong increases in symptoms in response to stressful life events. We identify limitations to prior work and present evidence from a new approach to life stress research using the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Preliminarily, we replicate prior findings of differential vulnerability in between-individual models. Harnessing repeated measures, however, we show that apparent findings of differential vulnerability by both sex and education are artifacts of confounding. Men and women experience similar average increases in depressive symptoms after stressful life events. One exception is tentative evidence for a stronger association among women for events occurring to others in the household. We term this the “female vulnerability to network events” hypothesis and discuss with reference to Kessler and McLeod’s related “cost of caring” hypothesis