Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: A long-standing body of research shows that the married enjoy better health and health behavior outcomes than the unmarried across many health dimensions, except for BMI.Despite this perplexing aberration, research has yet to establish how eating behavior, a major contributor to BMI, is associated with relationship status.Furthermore, recent research contesting the notion of relationship status as the most salient predictor of health suggests that relationship quality is an additionally formidable health predictor; yet how relationship quality matters for eating behavior has yet to be examined.Data from the NLSY79 reveals that compared to the single, the married engage in significantly less risky eating behavior and there is no significant difference between the cohabiting and single on eating behavior, but only when SES is not accounted for.Additionally, among the married and cohabiting, relationship happiness is a more salient predictor of risky eating behavior than relationship strain, and these effects are similar for the married and cohabiting.Furthermore, SES confounds relationship status findings, but not quality findings.Findings bolster evidence on the declining premium of relationship status and suggest that relationship quality is a formidable predictor of health.
Author: Lauren Gebhardt-Kram
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2601299142