Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Keywords

Marriage, Body weight, Growth curve model, Longitudinal, Gender

Abstract

In this article, I use 20 years of data taken from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth to examine the relationship between body weight and both marital status and changes in marital status. I use a latent growth curve model that allows both fixed and random effects. The results show that living without a partner, either being divorced or never married, is associated with lower body weight. Cohabitors and married respondents tend to weigh more. Marital transitions also matter but only for divorce. Gender does not appear to moderate these results.

Publication Title

Journal of Family Issues

Volume

37

Issue

1

First Page

74

Last Page

96

Required Publisher's Statement

This article was published open access.

Sage Journals

https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X13508404

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Body weight; Marital status

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Market Experience (U.S.)

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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Included in

Sociology Commons

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