ArticleStudies in family planning2020
The Psychological Benefits of Marriage and Children in Rural Malawi.
Article in Studies in family planning, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Does Marriage Benefit Maternal Mental Health? New Evidence from Nairobi, Kenya.Journal of health and social behavior · 2026Article
- Prevalence of depressive symptoms among teachers in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Parenthood and Women's Subjective Well-being in a Low-income, High-fertility Context: A Case Study from Rural Gaza Province, Mozambique.Population research and policy review · 2025Article
- Child Death and Mothers' Subsequent Mental Health in a High-Mortality African Community.Population and development review · 2024Article
- Chronic stress and coping mechanisms among nurses in Lango sub-region, northern Uganda.Nursing open · 2023Article
- Marital experiences and depressive symptoms among older adults in rural South Africa.SSM. Mental health · 2022Article
- Marital dissolutions and changes in mental health: Evidence from rural Malawi.Demographic researchArticle
Corrections and comments
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Despite an extensive literature on the psychological rewards of marriage and children in high-income countries, research on these relationships in low-income countries remains limited. This paper draws on data from 4,133 adult women and men interviewed in the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health to examine how marital status, categorized as never, formerly, monogamously, and polygynously married, and number of children are associated with psychological well-being. With respect to marital status, we find that women in polygynous unions fare worse than monogamously married women and this detrimental effect is stronger for women than for men. Formerly married men and women of reproductive age experience the worst psychological outcomes, although this association wanes with age. In contrast, the benefits of having children is only evident among older Malawian women. These findings offer novel insights into the patterns of nearly universal marriage and high fertility that characterize Malawi and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
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