研究：婚姻有益於心理健康

Marriage really is good for you, with a major international study finding it reduces the risks of depression and anxiety, but these disorders are more likely to plague people once the relationship is over.

The study of 34,493 people across 15 countries was led by clinical psychologist Kate Scott from New Zealand's University of Otago, and is based on the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys conducted over the past decade.

It found that ending marriage through separation, divorce or death is linked to an increased risk of mental health disorders, with women more likely to resort to substance abuse and men more likely to become depressed.

"What makes this investigation unique and more robust is the sample is so large and across so many countries and the fact that we have data not only on depression... but also on anxiety and substance use disorders," Scott said in a statement.

"In addition, we were able to look at what happens to mental health in marriage, both in comparison with never getting married, and with ending marriage."

Scott said that the study found that getting married, compared to not getting married, was good for the mental health of both genders, not just women, as previous studies had found.

The study, however, did find that men are less likely to become depressed in their first marriage than women, a factor Scott said was probably linked to the traditional gender roles at home, as other WMH surveys have shown that as women get better educated, depression rates tend to fall.

The other gender difference the study found is that getting married reduces risk of substance use disorders more for women than for men. Scott said this may be explained by the fact that women are usually the primary caregiver for young children.

However, the downside of marriage, the University of Otago study shows, is that ending it has a negative impact on both genders.

"What our study points to is that the marital relationship offers a lot of mental health benefits for both men and women, and that the distress and disruption associated with ending marriage can make people vulnerable to developing mental disorders," Scott said.

The study was recently published in the British journal Psychological Medicine. It was conducted in association with the World Health Organization, Harvard University and a number of other international organisations.

婚姻確實有好處。一項大規模國際研究發現，婚姻可降低抑鬱和焦慮的風險，但一旦婚姻破裂，人們很可能會受到這些情緒失調的困擾。

這項研究共對15個國家的34493人進行了調查，研究負責人爲新西蘭奧塔戈大學的臨牀心理學家凱特•斯科特。該研究主要以世界衛生組織在過去十年中開展的“世界心理健康調查”爲依據。

研究發現，因分居、離婚或死亡導致的婚姻結束會增大心理健康失調的風險，女性更傾向於濫用藥物，男性則更容易抑鬱。

斯科特在一份聲明中說：“這項調查的獨特之處和更有說服力的地方在於取樣範圍十分廣泛，涵蓋很多國家，而且我們收集的數據不僅有抑鬱方面的，還有焦慮和藥物使用失調方面的。”

“另外，我們將已婚人士與從未結過婚和婚姻結束的人進行比較，發現了婚姻對於心理健康的影響。”

斯科特說，研究發現，和不結婚相比，結婚對男性和女性的心理健康都有益處，並不像先前研究所稱的只對女性有益。

然而，該研究發現，與女性相比，男性在第一次婚姻中精神抑鬱的可能性較小，斯科特說這可能與家庭中的傳統性別角色有關。其它的“世界心理健康調查”顯示，女性受教育程度越高，抑鬱的可能性越小。

該研究發現的另外一個性別差異在於，相對於男性而言，婚姻對降低女性濫用藥物失調風險的作用較大。斯科特說這也許是因爲女性通常承擔了照顧孩子的大部分任務。

然而，奧塔戈大學的研究顯示，婚姻的不利方面在於，婚姻的結束會給男女雙方帶來負面影響。

斯科特說：“我們的研究表明，婚姻關係會給男性和女性的心理健康帶來很多好處，但婚姻結束所帶來的痛苦和崩潰會讓人容易患上精神失調。”

該研究於近日在英國《心理醫學》期刊上發表。該研究的合作伙伴包括世界衛生組織、哈佛大學和其他一些國際組織

Vocabulary:

substance abuse: the overindulgence in and dependence on an addictive substance, especially alcohol or a narcotic drug 濫用藥物