Marriage has been considered to be beneficial for the balance of a couple. However, this might not be exactly the case when examining the matter from a gender perspective. A new suggests suggests that widows experience less anxiety and stress than women whose husbands are still alive. The findings are contradict older research that indicated marriage has a protective and stabilising effect on health, reducing the dangers of heart attacks, depression and increasing the chance of surviving from cancer.
The new Padova University study revealed that while men feel negative consequences when their wife dies – because they depend to a grater degree on their spouse –  women’s health seems to improve. Lead researcher Dr Caterina Trevisan said the presence of a wife may bring benefits for men in terms of household management and healthcare, whereas women are “more likely to feel stressed and find their role restrictive and frustrating.”