The new issue of the APS journal *Perspectives on Psychological Science* includes an article: "Divorce and Death: A Meta-Analysis and Research Agenda for Clinical, Social, and Health Psychology."

The authors are David A. Sbarra, Rita W. Law, and Robert M. Portley.

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction:

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As a psychological and interpersonal stressor, divorce has the potential to disrupt biological processes that are important to health and well-being (see Sbarra & Hazan, 2008) and, in doing so, can increase risk for health problems.

The scope of this risk remains poorly understood.

Because a large number of people--nearly 2 million adults in the United States--are newly impacted by the end of marriage each year, a critical public health task is to quantify the overall magnitude of the health risk associated with marital dissolution and to identify who fares well or poorly when relationships end.

To be sure, many papers on this topic exist, but the corpus of knowledge concerning the association between divorce and physical health is fragmented and spread across psychology, sociology, epidemiology, medicine, and, to a lesser extent, communication studies and anthropology.

Psychological studies tend to focus on mechanisms of action, such as the way divorce-related stress is associated with biological responses that have end-point health implications (e.g., Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 1987, 1988; Sbarra, Law, Lee, & Mason, 2009).

Sociological studies often deal with questions concerning the selection into and out of marriage and how selection effects may account for health differences between the married and the divorced (e.g., Lillard & Panis, 1996; Wade & Pevalin, 2004).

Epidemiological studies typically track population-based samples over long periods of time to examine morbidity and mortality among the divorced relative to the married (e.g., Dupre, Beck, & Meadows, 2009).

A primary goal of this meta-analysis is to bring these disciplines, and their corresponding effects, together in a meaningful way by conducting a quantitative summary of the prospective association between marital separation/divorce1 and risk for early mortality from all causes.

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Here's another excerpt:

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Random effects meta-analysis with a sample of 32 prospective studies (involving more than 6.5 million people, 160,000 deaths, and over 755,000 divorces in 11 different countries) revealed a significant increase in risk for early death among separated/divorced adults in comparison to their married counterparts.

Men and younger adults evidenced significantly greater risk for early death following marital separation/divorce than did women and older adults.

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Here's how the Discussion section starts:

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The experience of divorce is associated with a statistically significant increased risk for early death from all causes.

Quantitative synthesis of 32 prospective studies involving more than 6.5 million adults and over 755,000 divorces yielded an overall (multivariate adjusted) mean RH of 1.23 for the association between martial separation/divorce and early death.

Relative to their married counterparts and across the entire range of follow-up periods, adults who were divorced at the start of the prospective studies examined here demonstrated a 23% increase in the probability of being dead from all causes at each future assessment.

Moderator analyses revealed that men and participants who were under 65 years of age (at the start of the studies) were at elevated risk for early death relative to female and older participants.

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The author note provides the following contact information: David A. Sbarra, 1503 E. University Blvd., Rm 312, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0068 E-mail: <sbarra@mail.arizona.edu>.