Does Marriage Really Protect Health? Intra-Individual Health Dynamics Around Transition to Marriage

• In Event: 1448 - Race, Gender, and Class Variations in Union Formation

Abstract

Past research provided mixed evidence on protective effect of marriage on health. This may reflect its theoretical and methodological shortcomings. Current analysis aims to overcome past limitations to estimate the protective effect of marriage on physical health, mental health, and self-rated health. We use German GSOEP data (1992-2016) and fixed effects models with individual slopes (FEIS), which control for individual pre-marital health trends, and fixed effects models with group slopes (FEGS), which allow investigating self-selection into marriage on health trajectories. Our results provide weak evidence of a protective effect of first marriage on health. Compared to the health trajectory of the never married, self-rated health and physical health of people who get married decline upon the transition into marriage, but improve in the long run. However, the cumulative protective effect is statistically significant only among men for self-rated health. Mental health improves in the short run in the period surrounding the transition into marriage, but the results are statistically significant only among women. Analysis of selection effects suggests that men with less sustainable pre-marital health have a lower chance of marrying. Our study suggests that marriage exerts on health a mix of protective and harmful effects, and that strong theoretical claims of protection do not find support in empirical data.

Authors

• Małgorzata Mikucka, MZES - The Mannheim Centre for European Social Research

• Oliver Arránz Becker, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

• Christof Wolf, GESIS - Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences

• Katharina Loter, University of Siegen