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Article
Body Weight, Marital Status, and Changes in Marital Status
Journal of Family Issues
  • Jay Teachman, Western Washington University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Keywords
  • Marriage,
  • Body weight,
  • Growth curve model,
  • Longitudinal,
  • Gender
Disciplines
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.

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
Citation Information
Jay Teachman. "Body Weight, Marital Status, and Changes in Marital Status" Journal of Family Issues Vol. 37 Iss. 1 (2016) p. 74 - 96
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jay_teachman/60/