{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T22:26:35Z","timestamp":1791239195744,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,12]],"date-time":"2024-03-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1710201600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000049","name":"National Institute on Aging","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RF1 AG058595"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RF1 AG058595"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000049","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000049","name":"National Institute on Aging","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NIA U01AG009740"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NIA U01AG009740"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000049","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,1]]},"abstract":"Abstract<\/jats:title>\n \n Background and Objectives<\/jats:title>\n We used longitudinal data to determine whether the type of marital loss is associated with the rate of cognitive change before and after divorce or widowhood. Previous research found that relationship status was associated with older adults\u2019 cognitive performance: married persons performed better on memory assessments and had lower dementia risk than unmarried-cohabitating, never-married, divorced, and widowed persons. However, the end of a marriage may cause distress or reduce distress because a stressor disappears. Questions thus remain about the mechanisms by which marital change affects cognitive outcomes and, specifically, whether termination of marriage can improve cognitive performance for some.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Research Design and Methods<\/jats:title>\n Using data from the 1998\u20132016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 23,393), we conducted two analyses. First, we used trajectory analysis to create clusters of participants with similar cognitive trajectories and tested the association between participants\u2019 cluster membership and marital loss type. Second, we used multilevel modeling to analyze the relationship between participants\u2019 cognitive scores while married and following divorce or widowhood and linked these to marital features.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n Participants who divorced showed no difference in trajectory distribution; widowed participants were more likely to be in the lower-performing and more quickly declining groups. Participants had lower rates of decline following divorce (\u03b2\u2005=\u2005.136, p\u2005&lt;\u2005.001), while widowed participants had accelerated decline following spousal death (\u03b2\u2005=\u2005\u22120.183, p\u2005&lt;\u2005.001) and an immediate decline following spousal death (\u03b2\u2005=\u2005\u22120.113, p\u2005=\u2005.028).<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Discussion and Implications<\/jats:title>\n We found that the type of marital loss was important, and predicted improvements in cognition for some and decrements for others, with individuals who were divorced performing best while those who were widowed or separated but not divorced performing worse.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1093\/geroni\/igae033","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,11]],"date-time":"2024-03-11T22:48:30Z","timestamp":1710197310000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Cognitive Decline After Divorce and Widowhood: Is Marital Loss Always a Loss?"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2186-5540","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Douglas William","family":"Hanes","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Program in Public Health, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, New York , USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6124-0329","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sean A P","family":"Clouston","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Program in Public Health, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, New York , USA"},{"name":"Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, New York , USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0001","first-page":"231","article-title":"Marriage and risk of dementia: Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies","volume-title":"Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry","author":"Andrew","year":"2018"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0002","first-page":"11","article-title":"Latent class growth modelling: A tutorial","volume-title":"Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology","author":"Andruff","year":"2009"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0003","first-page":"33","article-title":"Psychological response to later life widowhood: Coping and the effects of gender","volume-title":"OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying","author":"Bennett","year":"2005"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0004","first-page":"1085","article-title":"Midlife marital dissolution and the onset of cognitive impairment","volume-title":"Gerontologist","author":"Brown","year":"2020"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0005","first-page":"igx015","article-title":"Marriage, cohabitation, and divorce in later life","volume-title":"Innovation in Aging","author":"Brown","year":"2017"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0006","first-page":"1018","article-title":"Divorce attitudes among older adults: Two decades of change","volume-title":"Journal of Family Issues","author":"Brown","year":"2019"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0007","first-page":"42","article-title":"Gender differences in intimate partner violence outcomes","volume-title":"Psychology of Violence","author":"Caldwell","year":"2012"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0008","first-page":"78","article-title":"Mental retirement and health selection: Analyses from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study","volume-title":"Social Science & Medicine","author":"Clouston","year":"2017"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0009","first-page":"e87","article-title":"When caregiving ends: The experiences of former family caregivers of people with dementia","volume-title":"Gerontologist","author":"Corey","year":"2018"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0010","first-page":"385","article-title":"The lived experience of ambiguous marital separation: A phenomenological study","volume-title":"Journal of Marital and Family Therapy","author":"Crabtree","year":"2020"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0011","first-page":"i162","article-title":"Assessment of cognition using surveys and neuropsychological assessment: The Health and Retirement Study and the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study","volume-title":"Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","author":"Crimmins","year":"2011"},{"key":"2024042314143426100_CIT0012","first-page":"1438","article-title":"Does everything fall apart? 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