A major relationship-based stressor, at all ages, is the loss of key social ties through death and divorce. Parental death or divorce has a broad range of effects on children, including change in health risk behaviors (Biblarz & Gottainer 2000, Cherlin 2009). Adults who divorce increase their alcohol consumption, smoke more, and experience significant weight loss (Eng et al. 2005, Waite & Gallagher 2000). Widowhood is associated with substantial weight loss (Eng et al. 2005, Umberson et al. 2009), more smoking, and a more sedentary lifestyle (Wilcox et al. 2003). Recent research also suggests that marital status differences in health may result more from the stress associated with marital dissolution than from the absence of a partner, per se (Williams & Umberson 2004). Moreover, the propensity to enact health behaviors in response to stress may vary over the life course. For example, stress is more strongly associated with alcohol consumption in early adulthood and with accelerated weight gain in middle-aged adults, as stress exacerbates health habits that are most salient at different ages (Umberson et al. 2008). For example, stress
