Marriage and faith influence health

By Ken West
Published: June 2, 2008

How do the ups and downs of marriage influence the stress women encounter daily while working outside of the home?

Do women and men experience similar mental health benefits from participating in religious services?

Are teens more likely to drink heavily if their mothers used alcohol while pregnant?

Three studies related to women and their children’s health were reviewed in the American Psychological Association’s March edition of The Monitor. The results might be surprising to many readers. As always, read about research with caution. Similar studies that show quite different results may soon be completed.

Work stress and marital woes
Nothing appears to relieve women’s stress in the workplace as much as improving their marriages, according to researchers at UCLA. Experts studied the cortisol levels of men and women in dual-career couples who were raising school-aged children. High levels of cortisol (the so-called “stress hormone” produced by the adrenal gland in our brains to ramp up the physical response to stressors) are responsible for health risks, such as depression and burnout. As the work day progressed, women with happier marriages were able to reduce high levels of cortisol. On the other hand, women who reported less marital satisfaction were not as able to lower their levels of cortisol. As a result, experts believe, women in marriages with lower reported levels of satisfaction are more at risk of experiencing depression and burnout on the job.

What about men? No matter how men’s marriages were going, their cortisol levels dropped during the day. Therefore, women’s happiness at work is apparently influenced more than men’s by the quality of their marital relationships. Researchers suggested that marriage counseling can improve the quality of women’s health at home and on the job.

Health and church attendance
Temple University researchers, as reported in the Monitor, discovered that “women who stop attending (religious) services are three times more likely to experience generalized anxiety and abuse alcohol than women who continue their religious activity.” In addition, women who have attended religious services since childhood were found to have the lowest level of mental illness.

Surprisingly, researchers found the opposite results for men. “Those who attended religious activities as children and continued as adults were at higher risk for major depression than men who had ceased public religious activity,” according to The Monitor’s research review.

Why? Researchers offered the theory that women benefit most from the social interaction and support they receive by being involved in a religious community. Males may find similar emotional support from friends outside of church. The study did not suggest men should stop attending church and play more golf. It could be their mental health would also improve if they became more involved with social activities within the church. Stand by for future research! I doubt this study will be the last word on the subject of church attendance and mental health.

Pregnant women: Do not drink
A third study reviewed by The Monitor shows that teenagers are more likely to drink heavily and become addicted to alcohol if their mothers drank alcohol while pregnant.

By studying rats, researchers discovered that infant rats develop a taste for alcohol if their mothers used alcohol during pregnancy. Steven Youngentob explains, “One of the ways animals learn about what is good to eat is through what mom ate during pregnancy and breastfeeding.” Thus, the researcher believes that if their mothers expose them to alcohol while pregnant, young people actually develop a liking for alcohol, just as they do for milk.

What should mothers who used alcohol in pregnancy do to help prevent alcohol abuse in their teenagers? Prevent them from drinking, researchers suggest. The good news is that by the age of 30 or 40, adults lose their early preference for alcohol.

For more information about these subjects, look at the Monitor’s March issue. In the meantime, working women might be wise to continue to improve their marriages, to keep attending religious services and to abstain from the use of alcohol when pregnant.