Education, Interpersonal Relationships, and Health

The well-educated have more stable and supportive interpersonal relationships than do those with less schooling, which may also protect health. People with high levels of education are more likely to be married than those with less education. The well-educated are less likely to divorce, probably due to the fact that they marry later and do so under more favorable economic conditions, and they have happier and more satisfying marriages. Marriage also provides social support, which is associated with physical health largely indirectly because of its strong impact on psychological well-being. Marriage provides a more orderly and controlled, less chaotic, less unpredictable, and less risky lifestyle than ones associated with being single or divorced. Some researchers claim that selection of healthy people into marriage accounts for some of the association, but the evidence is equivocal. Marriage raises people out of poverty, which improves health largely by way of reducing the stress associated with economic hardship.