Thus, the prospective evidence suggests that, for women who were not employed, both marriage
protection and marriage selection effects contributed to the marital status differential in health observed
in cross-sectional data. In contrast, neither marriage protection nor marriage selection effects were
observed for women who were employed full-time. As would be expected, the cross-sectional data show
that marital status differentials in health were large and highly significant for women who were not
employed, whereas marital status differentials in health were much smaller and often not significant for
employed women. Women who were neither married nor employed had particularly poor health.
Additional evidence indicates that the women who were neither married nor employed suffered from
multiple interacting disadvantages, including poor health, low incomes, and sociodemographic
characteristics which contributed to difficulty in obtaining employment. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier
Science Ltd