Health‐Related Influences of Extending Marital Benefits to Same‐Sex Couples: Results From the California Health Interview Survey

• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Author: William N. Elwood,Veronica L. Irvin,Benmei Liu,Richard Lee,Nancy Breen
• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12507

W N. ENational Institutes of Health

V L. IOregon State University

B LNational Cancer Institute

R LInformation Management Services, Inc.

N BNational Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Emerging Ideas.

Health-Related Inuences of Extending Marital

Benets to Same-Sex Couples: Results From the

California Health Interview Survey

Objective: To explore how incremental Califor-

nia legal changes toward the implementation

of same-sex marriage inuenced self-reported

mental and physical health among adult Califor-

nians in legal same-sex marriages and partner-

ships.

Methods: We analyzed California Health Inter-

view Survey data from 2005 to 2015 to assess

the relationship between self-reported mental

and physical health and legal same-sex mari-

tal/partnership status. Physical health was mea-

sured using a single self-report question, mental

health using the six-item Kessler distress scale.

Independent variables were sexual identity and

legal marital/partner status. Bivariate analyses

Ofce of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, Divi-

sion of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Ini-

tiatives, Ofce of the Director,National Institutes of Health,

31 Center Drive, Suite B1C19, Bethesda, MD 20892-2027

(william.elwood@nih.gov).

Key Words: mental health, physical health, same-sex mar-

riage, survey measurement.

compared mental and physical health beforeand

after the 2008 California Supreme Court deci-

sion afrming marriages as a basic civil or

human right. Multivariate analyses tested rela-

tionships between marital/partnered status, sex-

ual identity by year after adjusting for sociode-

mographics.

Results: Reports of poor and fair health

decreased, reports of very good health

increased, and psychological distress scores

decreased for legally coupled gay men and les-

bians but increased slightly for single lesbians

and gay men. Household income increased

among espoused lesbians and gay men and

decreased among unmarried counterparts.

Conclusions: Espoused gay and lesbian

respondents were more likely to be employed

and to have college educations than unmarried

counterparts, perhaps a continuing inuence

of 2005 California legislation requiring pri-

vate employers to provide health insurance

benets to employees’ same-sex partners. Our

ndings suggest that physical and mental

934Family Relations 69 (December 2020): 934–943

DOI:10.1111/fare.12507