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Article
Exploring the effects of spousal race on the self-rated health of intermarried adults.
USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
  • Byron A. Miller, University of South Florida St. Petersburg
  • Ben L. Kail
SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Byron A. Miller

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Disciplines
Abstract

Marital health advantages and the increase of interracial marriage (intermarriage) are well documented, but few studies investigate the health of intermarried people. We address this issue using aggregated data from the 2000–2013 Current Population Survey (CPS) and find that people with racial/ethnic minority spouses report lower self-rated health than those married to whites. Spousal race significantly moderated the association between respondent’s race and self-rated health such that minorities in same-race marriages had lower odds of reporting better health than those intermarried to whites. However, we found no differences in self-rated health among minorities intermarried to other minorities. There was also limited evidence that gender and socioeconomic status (SES) moderated the interaction between respondent’s race and spousal race. Our findings highlight the effects of marriage on the self-rated health of respondents and their spouse as well as the importance of examining differences in couple’s racial composition when investigating racial disparities in spousal health.

Comments

Citation only. Full-text article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.

Language
en_US
Publisher
Sage
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Citation Information
Miller, B. & Kail, B.L. (2016), Exploring the effects of spousal race on the self-rated health of intermarried adults. Sociological Perspectives, 59, 604-618. doi: 10.1177/0731121416641702