研究：婚姻有益于心理健康

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.

婚姻确实有好处。一项大规模国际研究发现，婚姻可降低抑郁和焦虑的风险，但一旦婚姻破裂，人们很可能会受到这些情绪失调的困扰。

这项研究共对15个国家的34493人进行了调查，研究负责人为新西兰奥塔戈大学的临床心理学家凯特．斯科特。该研究主要以世界卫生组织在过去十年中开展的“世界心理健康调查”为依据。

研究发现，因分居、离婚或死亡导致的婚姻结束会增大心理健康失调的风险，女性更倾向于滥用药物，男性则更容易抑郁。

斯科特在一份声明中说：“这项调查的独特之处和更有说服力的地方在于取样范围十分广泛，涵盖很多国家，而且我们收集的数据不仅有抑郁方面的，还有焦虑和药物使用失调方面的。”

“另外，我们将已婚人士与从未结过婚和婚姻结束的人进行比较，发现了婚姻对于心理健康的影响。”

斯科特说，研究发现，和不结婚相比，结婚对男性和女性的心理健康都有益处，并不像先前研究所称的只对女性有益。

然而，该研究发现，与女性相比，男性在第一次婚姻中精神抑郁的可能性较小，斯科特说这可能与家庭中的传统性别角色有关。其它的“世界心理健康调查”显示，女性受教育程度越高，抑郁的可能性越小。

该研究发现的另外一个性别差异在于，相对于男性而言，婚姻对降低女性滥用药物失调风险的作用较大。斯科特说这也许是因为女性通常承担了照顾孩子的大部分任务。

然而，奥塔戈大学的研究显示，婚姻的不利方面在于，婚姻的结束会给男女双方带来负面影响。

斯科特说：“我们的研究表明，婚姻关系会给男性和女性的心理健康带来很多好处，但婚姻结束所带来的痛苦和崩溃会让人容易患上精神失调。”

该研究于近日在英国《心理医学》期刊上发表。该研究的合作伙伴包括世界卫生组织、哈佛大学和其他一些国际组织

Vocabulary:

substance abuse: the overindulgence in and dependence on an addictive substance, especially alcohol or a narcotic drug 滥用药物