Race‐Ethnicity, Union Status, and Change in Body Mass Index in Young Adulthood
| Date | 01 April 2018 |
| Author | Reanne Frank,Rhiannon A. Kroeger |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12454 |
| Published date | 01 April 2018 |
R A. K Louisiana State University
R F The Ohio State University∗
Race-Ethnicity, Union Status, and Change in Body
Mass Index in Young Adulthood
This study used data from three waves of the
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to
Adult Health and xed effects regression to
consider whether associations between change
in union status and change in body mass index
(BMI) were moderated by race-ethnicity. The
results indicated that intimate unions were
differentially associated with gains in BMI
along racial-ethnic lines, especially for women.
When compared with White women, marriage
was associated with larger increases in BMI
for Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial women,
and cohabitation was associated with larger
increases for Black and Hispanic women. In
contrast, marriage and cohabitation were asso-
ciated with less weight gain for Asian when
compared with White women. Among men,
racial-ethnic differences in the relationship
between union status and BMI were similarly
patterned but less pronounced. The results
suggest that marital status further exacer-
bates racial-ethnic disparities in BMI from
adolescence to young adulthood.
Being overweight or obese in the United States is
increasingly recognized as a socially structured
Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, 126
Stubbs Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (rkroeger@lsu.edu).
∗Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 238
TownshendHall, Columbus, OH, 43210.
Key Words: cohabitation, ethnicity, health disparities, mar-
riage, obesity, race.
phenomenon that is both a cause and conse-
quence of stratication (Walsemann, Ailshire,
Bell, & Frongillo, 2012; Zajacova & Burgard,
2010). Support for the former comes from a
spate of recent studies showing that higher body
mass index (BMI) in adolescence or young
adulthood leads to poorer labor force outcomes
(Bae, Wickrama, & O’Neal, 2014; Conley &
Glauber, 2006; Pudrovska, Reither, Logan, &
Sherman-Wilkins, 2014). Support for the latter
is reected in the fact that the U.S. obesity
epidemic has unfolded unevenly across social
groups, intensifying inequalities in body weight
(Krishna, Razak, Lebel, Smith, & Subramanian,
2015). Racial-ethnic differences in body weight
are especially prominent, particularly among
women (Wong, Chou, & Ahmed, 2014). Indeed,
despite national obesity rates rising sharply
during the past 3 decades, age-adjusted obesity
prevalence in the United States is considerably
higher among Black women, followed by His-
panic women, and lowest among White and
Asian women (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal,
2012). Although these racial-ethnic disparities
in body weight are well established, the social
forces that contribute to them are not nearly as
well understood.
Prior studies assessing whether body weight
is a consequence of social stratication have
most commonly focused on the role of the social
environment, such as neighborhood-level fac-
tors, in contributing to disparities (Boardman,
Saint Onge, Rogers, & Denney, 2005; Chang,
Hillier, & Mehta, 2009). The mechanisms
444 Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (April 2018): 444–462
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12454
Race-Ethnicity, Union Status, and Change in BMI 445
driving racial-ethnic disparities in body weight
have rarely been framed at the meso-level
of social relationships. Coresidential unions,
including marriage and cohabitation, are a
dening feature of the social environment, and
considerable attention has been given to the
ways in which intimate unions affect health and
health behaviors. Most empirical evaluations
suggest a reduction in risk, with marriage and,
to a lesser extent, cohabitation generally linked
to better health and health behaviors (Brown,
2000; Koball, Moiduddin, & Besculides, 2010;
Umberson, 1987; Waite & Gallagher, 2000;
Williams, 2003). The case of body weight, how-
ever, suggests the opposite. Among older adults,
marriage and cohabitation have generally been
linked to gains in BMI, although this nding
is not consistent across all investigations (Han-
son, Sobal, & Vermeylen, 2014). Substantial
differences across racial-ethnic groups in both
marital patterns and in the prevalence of obesity
raise the possibility of racially differentiated
consequences of coresidential unions for body
weight. Understanding whether and how coresi-
dential unions affect body weight differently by
race-ethnicity could improve our understanding
of the social mechanisms that contribute to
racial-ethnic disparities in body weight. Yet
the small number of existing studies that have
focused on racial-ethnic variations in the cores-
idential union–body weight relationship yield
conicting results, perhaps in part because they
are often restricted to one or two racial groups,
are representative of earlier birth cohorts, or use
cross-sectional data (Ali & Olugbenga, 2011;
Mullan Harris, Lee, & DeLeone, 2010; Shafer,
2010; Umberson, Liu, & Powers, 2009).
In this article, we build on existing research
considering whether associations between
coresidential unions and body weight are mod-
erated by race-ethnicity.In doing so we elaborate
on prior sociological efforts to move our under-
standing of the obesity epidemic beyond a focus
on individual-level traits to include the social
relationships and social contexts in which indi-
viduals are embedded (Boardman et al., 2005;
Chang et al., 2009; Moloney & South, 2015;
Nicosia, Shier, & Datar, 2016). We draw on lon-
gitudinal survey data to consider these patterns
for White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Multira-
cial men and women, thereby incorporating a
sample that is more consistent with the burgeon-
ing racial-ethnic diversity in the United States
today. We focus on young adulthood because
racial-ethnic health disparities often begin early
in the life course and become more pronounced
with age (Daviglus et al., 2004, Schienkiewitz,
Schulze, Hoffmann, Kroke, & Boeng, 2006). In
addition, our focus on young adults serves as a
counterbalance to much of the existing research
on the coresidential union–body weight nexus
that is concerned with older ages (Umberson
et al., 2009).
B
Race-Ethnicity, and Body Weight
Racial-ethnic differences in body weight are
well documented. Age-adjusted obesity preva-
lence is highest among Black women (57.2%),
followed by Hispanic women (46.6%), and
lowest among White (38.7%) and Asian women
(12.4%; Flegal, Kruszon-Moran, Carroll, Fryar,
& Ogden, 2016). Racial-ethnic disparities are
considerably more muted among men, with
age-adjusted obesity prevalence ranging from
35.4% (non-Hispanic White men) to 38.2%
(non-Hispanic Black men). Beyond increases in
mean BMI, recent work has also documented
widening inequalities within social groups in the
United States, with dispersion most pronounced
among women, non-Hispanic Blacks, and indi-
viduals with a high school education or less
(Krishna et al., 2015). In addition, a separate
assessment of BMI trajectories through 2002
found evidence of widening disparities across
groups, particularly among younger adults.
Although disadvantaged Black women aged 25
to 39 years experienced the greatest increase in
BMI, advantaged White men experienced the
least BMI growth (Ailshire & House, 2012).
Increasing dispersion in BMI coupled with the
existence of substantial group-level disparities
in mean BMI underscores the importance of
assessing the role of meso-level factors, such
as coresidential union status, in contributing
to racial-ethnic differences in body weight
(Krishna et al., 2015).
Race-Ethnicity, and Coresidential Unions
Strong racial-ethnic differentiation exists in
selection into marriage and out of cohabiting
unions. Although levels of ever marrying have
been on the decline for all racial-ethnic groups,
they are currently lowest among Black women,
whose retreat from marriage has been most
marked (Raley, Sweeney, & Wondra, 2015).
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