Paper Example. The Health Conditions of the Married and Unmarried People

The health condition of married and unmarried people differ. Married couples experience better health conditions than unmarried. Past research shows that married people experience psychological contentment that is not experienced by unmarried people. This paper will establish how the health conditions of married and unmarried people differ. Researchers utilize human behavioral theories to explain how the health conditions of both the married and unmarried people change. The hypothesis for this study will be that married people have improved health conditions than unmarried. The dependent variable is marital status, which is defined as the state of people being married or unmarried. The dependent variable will be health conditions, which refer to the individual's state of psychological well-being. Barrett (1999) explains that the social life of married individuals remains the same after the death of a partner as they tend to substitute pain with friends and family.

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Methodology

The study will be carried out through simple random sampling technique. The method reduces selection bias and allows the calculation of errors. It is also the most straightforward technique in the sampling category. There will be a selection of 500 people in New York, both married and unmarried. Individuals will be selected based on marital status and those aged between 30 years and 60 years. The reason for the selection is to reduce bias and provide the actual depiction of the whole population. The single category includes the widows, the divorced, the separated, and the widowers. The primary effect of marital status will be observed for all the measures of psychological health. Gove, Hughes, and Style (1983) aver that marriage has a positive impact on the psychological aspects of individuals.

Measures

The measurement that will be used in this type of study is the interview will use a one-question test measuring the amount of misinformation retained. The reason why closed-structured interviews are imperative for a large group of the population is that there is a collection of correct data. For a community of 500 individuals, including married and unmarried. Having closed questions in interviews will be faster, thus reducing the waste of time collecting data. The strength of this measurement tool is that it is useful in getting vital detailed information through their emotions and personal feelings. Understanding the concept of healthy living in marriages and single people's perceptions.

Interviews would allow the recording of honest opinions and give the interviewee a chance to ask detailed questions. For a large population of 500, measuring variables with interviews receives a high response rate. However, there is a weakness in this measure of the health conditions of married and unmarried individuals. When measuring a dependent variable, the issues of transcribing and the cost is enormous. These two aspects tend to become barriers to this study. The reliability in terms of quality and consistency is accurate, making this measure very valid. The workability and the real measure of using interviews are highly recommended and accepted. Simion (2002) argues that marriage is valuable more to men compared to women due to societal roles. The fact that sex roles and other marital duties, there are women who believe enjoy married life more compared to men.

Procedures

The descriptive design method will be used for this study. This design method research is known as the scientific method whereby it includes the aspects of observation and describing various behavior of an individual without any influence, as Robles (2014) vividly describes the marital quality and health in marriages.

I will use a pre-test, post-test, control group design. All participants will be volunteers. The participants will complete a demographic questionnaire to get information on some of the demographic characteristics, which include age, economic status, and marital status. I will randomly assign each participant to a control group and an experimental group. Upon assignment, I will give the participants the nominal scales dor the measurement for the health conditions as a pre-test. For example;

Q. What is your age?

30-35 years

36-40 years

41- 50 years

51-60-years

I will administer the aspects of married and unmarried. The control group will get 500 as the experimental group will get an independent variable of married and unmarried individuals. Lastly, I will administer the nominal scale of measurement of health conditions as a post-test.

Other variables that might affect the outcome of the study include a corrupted and inadequate response. This issue would interfere with the validity of the measure and change the result of the data. When a volunteer lies about their health conditions or status in this study, then it would disrupt the education (Wilson, 2002). Another confounding variable that might affect the independent and dependent variables is age factor whereby health conditions also might be affected if couples of individuals are younger or older (Kalmijn, 2017). It does not mean that married/unmarried people have issues with health. Sociocultural factors can be viewed as various customs and lifestyles which individuals interact with daily. The group that would be affected are unmarried people since they have values, and cultures that might not be characterized by society.

Conclusively, the health conditions of unmarried and married individuals are different since they have varied social and cultural aspects. The way single people live their lives with thrill and excitement is different from cautious married couples. The interrelationship between health conditions measured, for instance, diabetes or obesity in either married or unmarried individuals in New York, explains that there are external factors and variables that might interfere or change the measurement of this study. The fact that married people have better health conditions compared to unmarried individuals is due to various factors like age, diet, and economic status.

References

Barrett, A. E. (1999). Social support and life satisfaction among the never-married: Examining the effects of age. Research on Aging, 21(1), 46-72. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027599211003

Gove, W. R., Hughes, M., & Style, C. B. (1983). Does marriage have positive effects on the psychological well-being of the individual? Journal of health and social behavior, 122-131. DOI: 10.2307/2136639

Hughes, M. E., & Waite, L. J. (2009). Marital biography and health at mid-life. Journal of health and social behavior, 50(3), 344-3. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650905000307

Kalmijn, M. (2017). The ambiguous link between marriage and health: A dynamic reanalysis of loss and gain effects. Social Forces, 95(4), 1607-163. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sox015

Robles, T. F. (2014). Marital quality and health: Implications for marriage in the 21st century. Current directions in psychological science, 23(6), 427- 432. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414549043

Simon, R. W. (2002). Revisiting the relationships among gender, marital status, and mental health. American journal of Sociology, 107(4), 1065-1096. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/339225

Wilson, S. E. (2002). The health capital of families: an investigation of the inter-spousal correlation in health status. Social science & medicine, 55(7), 1157-1172. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00253-2