Reconceptualizing Health Lifestyles: The Case of Marriage

Abstract

Purpose

Despite mixed evidence, researchers often suggest that married adults tend to live generally healthier lifestyles than their unmarried counterparts. In this chapter, we propose and test a reconceptualization of the health lifestyle that distinguishes between “homebody” risks and “hedonic” risks that may help to make sense of previous findings concerning marriage and health-related behavior.

Methodology/approach

Using data from the 2004 Survey of Adults (n = 1,385), we employ ordinary least squares regression to model indices of normative and conventional homebody risks (greater body mass, infrequent exercise, poorer diet, and abstinence from alcohol) and unconventional and potentially dangerous hedonic risks (smoking, heavy drinking, going out to bars, eating out, inadequate sleep, and driving without seatbelts) as a function of marital status.

Findings

Our key findings indicate that married adults tend to score higher on homebody risks and lower on hedonic risks than never married adults, net of controls for age, gender, race/ethnicity, citizenship, interview language, education, employment status, household income, and religious involvement.

Research limitations/implications

Research limitations include cross-sectional data, restricted indicators of health-related behavior, and narrow external validity.

Originality/value

Contrary to previous research, we conclude that the lifestyle of married adults is not uniformly healthy.

Citation

Ross, C.E., Hill, T.D. and Mirowsky, J. (2016), "Reconceptualizing Health Lifestyles: The Case of Marriage", Special Social Groups, Social Factors and Disparities in Health and Health Care (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 34), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 243-260. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0275-495920160000034013