Progress 04/01/96 to 03/31/05
Outputs
This grant has terminated. The goal of the project was to examine marital status and body weight in U.S. adults. We analyzed several large nationally representative data sets in this project, including NHANES, NSPHPC, NHEFS, and AHEAD data, as well as conducted qualitative data collection and analysis of people at the time of marriage. In the large data sets we found that 1) marriage was associated in higher body weight in men but not necessarily women, 2) women who married tended to gain weight but men who divorced, separated, and widowed lost weight, and 3) younger widowed women were more likely to be obese than married women of their age, and older divorced/separated men tended to be underweight. In the qualitative interviews we found that couples expected that eating together was a crucial part of marriage, and that food choices and household foodwork were involved in compex negotiations between partners.
Impacts
Marital relationships are important influences upon food choices and body weights, and understanding marriage, eating, and weight may be useful to families and nutrition professionals.
Publications
- Sobal J., Bove C. and Rauschenbach B. 2002. Commensal careers at entry into marriage: Establishing commensal units and managing commensal circles. Sociological Review 50(3):378-397.
- Bove C., Sobal, J. and Rauschenbach, B. 2003. Food choices among newly married couples: Convergence, conflict, individualism, and projects. Appetite 40:25-41.
- Sobal, J. and Rauschenbach, B. 2003. Gender, marital status, and body weight among older adults. Gender Issues 23:75-94.
- Bove, C. and Sobal, J. 2006. Foodwork in newly married couples: Making family meals. Food, Culture and Society 9(1). In press.
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
This project examined relationships between marital status and obesity in adults in the U.S. It involved analysis of several large data sets, including the NHANES and NSPHPC and also collecting qualitative data on a small sample of couples before and after they married. Some of the key findings were that once other variables were controlled, marriage was associated with higher body weight in men, but not necessarily women. Longitudinal analysis of NHEFS data found that women who married tended to gain weight, men who divorced, separated, or widowed tended to lose weight. Analysis of AHEAD data in another project suggested that divorced/separated men were underweight, and that younger widowed women were more likely to be obese, but there was no association of widowhood and weight in older women. Analysis of the interview data of the small sample of people around the time of marriage revealed that most converged in their eating patterns, some engaged in dietary
individualism where they ate differently than their partner, some confict occurred about food and eating issues, and some spouses actively tried to change the eating patterns of their partners.
Impacts
Understanding marriage and weight should help strengthen families and also improve the targetting and implementation of nutrition programs.
Publications
- Sobal, J., Bove, C., Rauschenbach, B. 2002. Commensal careers at entry into marriage: Establishing commensal units and managing commensal ircles. Sociological Review 50(3):378-397.
- Sobal, J., Rauschenbach, B., Frongillo, E.A. 2003. Marital status changes and body weight changes: A U.S. longitudinal analysis. Social Science and Medicine 2003:56(7):1543-1555.
- Sobal, J., Rauschenbach, B.S. 2003. Gender, marital status, and body weight in older U.S. adults. Gender Issues 23:75-94.
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
This project has been examining the relationships between marital status and body weight using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It examines the entire marital course extending from dating to entry into marriage to being married to divorce and widowhood. We have documented a clear stigmatization of both obese individuals and individuals with eating disorders in the dating process. We found that men who are married, but not necessarily women who are married, are heavier. We are currently beginning projects to examine widowhood and divorce.
Impacts
Understanding marriage and weight should help strengthen families and also improve the targetting and implementation of nutrition programs.
Publications
- Sobal J, Rauschenbach B, Frongillo EA. 2003. Marital status changes and body weight changes: A U.S. longitudinal analysis. Social Science and Medicine 2003;56(7):617-630.
- Bove CF, Sobal J, Rauschenbach BS. 2003. Food choices among newly married couples: Convergence, conflict, individualism, and projects. Appetite 2003;40:25-41.
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
This project is examining marital status and body weight. Most of our current work is analyzing qualitative data collected on a sample of 20 couples who participated in long in-depth interviews about the time they were married and then again about a year after they married. An important aspect of food consumption is who people eat with, which is termed commensality. We examined commensality among newly married couples (Sobal, Bove, and Rauschenbach 2002), finding that commensality was important in the courtship process. Entering marriage marked a transformation in the couples commensal career where their marriage became their primary commensal unit. Dinners were their primary commensal meal, with most couples eating apart for weekday lunches, and often skipping breakfasts. Greater commensality occurred on weekends than weekdays. Managing commensal eating with others was an important issue to be negotiated by marital partners, where they combined their former eating
networks into new marital commensal circles that included eating with kin, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Another aspect of the qualitative data that we have been analyzing is how marital couples negotiate body weight. Temporally, we find that people have what we term weight careers that include periods of greater or less concern and action related to body weight (Sobal, Bove and Rauschenbach 2002a). Entering marriage requires people to re-evaluate their body weight and jointly plan new weight futures. In addition to their weight careers, couples establish what we term weight relationships where they have to negotiate how they will discuss, evaluate, and enact weight-related activities as part of their relationship (Bove, Sobal, and Rauschenbach 2002b). We are continuing to examine the data develop these concepts further.
Impacts
Using qualitative data to examine how marriage transforms how people eat together and deal with body weight together offers a rarely examined aspect of nutrition and exercise. We expect that these findings will provide health and family professionals with insights that they can use in dealing with individual clients and in designing interventions in programs.
Publications
- Sobal J, Bove C, Rauschenbach B. 2002. Commensal careers at entry into marriage: Establishing commensal units and negotiating commensal circles. Sociological Review 50(3):378-397.
- Sobal J, Bove C, Rauschenbach B. 2002a. Weight careers at entry into marriage. Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, March.
- Bove C, Sobal J, Rauschenbach B. 2002b. Weight relationships in newly married couples. Association for the Study of Food and Society, Chicago, June.
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Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
This project is examining multiple aspects of the relationship of marital status and body weight. We are continuing to analyze data from two general sources: Quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data is analyzing large data sets to establish national patterns in marriage and body weight, with our current work on the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) data. An important question that we are pursuing is the extent that body weight shapes peoples' chances of getting married, and the extent that getting married changes body weight. Current results from the NLSY find that both directions of that causal relationship are operating, with heavier women and thinner men less likely to enter marriage, and additionally marriage leading to weight gain in both genders. Our qualitative data was collected on a sample of 20 couples who were interviewed before and about one year after marriage. We have examined commensality among those couples, finding that they
seek to eat together but jobs and sometimes other obligations complicate their commensal desires. We also examined negotiations about food patterns, finding that many but not all couples converged in their food preferences after marriage. Our analyses of body weight find that entering marriage is a significant transformation point in the weight careers of many individuals. We plan to extend our analyses of marriage and weight in other data sets and projects in the future.
Impacts
Our research shows that marriage is a significant influence on the eating patterns activity patterns, and body weight of individuals. The findings can be applied in clinical and public health settings in the counseling of individuals by considering marital status and marital changes in their lives, and in programs which can focus on people changing marital status as a target group.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/00 to 12/31/00
Outputs
This project is examining multiple aspects of the relationship of marital status and body weight. We are continuing to analyze data from two general sources: Quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data is analyzing large data sets to establish national patterns in marriage and body weight, with our current work on the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) data. An important question that we are pursuing is the extent that body weight shapes peoples' chances of getting married, and the extent that getting married changes body weight. Current results from the NLSY find that both directions of that causal relationship are operating, with heavier women and thinner men less likely to enter marriage, and additionally marriage leading to weight gain in both genders. Our qualitative data was collected on a sample of 20 couples who were interviewed before and about one year after marriage. We have examined commensality among those couples, finding that they
seek to eat together but jobs and sometimes other obligations complicate their commensal desires. We also examined negotiations about food patterns, finding that many but not all couples converged in their food preferences after marriage. Our analyses of body weight find that entering marriage is a significant transformation point in the weight careers of many individuals. We plan to extend our analyses of marriage and weight in other data sets and projects in the future.
Impacts
Our research shows that marriage is a significant influence on the eating patterns, activity patterns, and body weight of individuals. The findings can be applied in clinical and public health settings in the counseling of individuals by considering marital status and marital changes in their lives, and in programs which can focus on people changing marital status as a target group.
Publications
- Sobal J, Bove C, Rauschenbach B. Commensality and entry into marriage: Establishing commensal units and negotiating commensal circles. Paper presented to the Association for the Study of Food and Society, New York, June 2000.
- Sobal J, Bove C, Rauschenbach B. Food negotiations among newly married couples. Paper presented to the Food Choice Conference, Dublin, Ireland, July 2000.
- Sobal J, Rauschenbach B, Frongillo E. Social selection and social Causation: Dual processes in relationships between marriage and body weight. Paper presented to the American Sociological Association, Washington DC, August 2000.
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Progress 01/01/99 to 12/31/99
Outputs
This project examined the relationship between marital status, marital satisfaction, and body weight among adults in the United States. Because calorie consumption and recreational activities are associated with the presence or absence of a marital partner, we examined how being married was related to body weight. The quantitative portion of the project used data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) for a sample of 6283 women and 6403 men to examine entry into marriage and weight. Heavier men (except the heaviest) and lighter women were more likely to enter into marriage. After entering marriage, both men and women weighed more at two and four years after marrying (compared to people who remained unmarried. The qualitative portion of this project interviewed 20 couples shortly before and about a year after they got married using long, in-depth interviews. Results showed that most people did not engage in extreme measures to change their weights for
their weddings. Also, couples negotiated their food preferences to establish joint eating patterns as a couple, and they anticipated possible future weight changes with marriage.
Impacts
These findings suggest that marriage is an important institution with respect to food, activity, and body weight. Body weight is one factor involved in selection into marriage, and marriage appears to contribute to the body weight of people who get married.
Publications
- Sobal J, Bove C, Rauschenbach B. 1999. Weight and Weddings: The Social Construction of Beautiful Brides. In: J. Sobal and D. Maurer (eds). Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. pp 113-135.
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Progress 01/01/98 to 12/31/98
Outputs
Marital status is associated with health, with most studies finding that married people (especially men) are healthier, have fewer illnesses, and live longer than people who are not married. This project is examining the relationship between marriage and body weight in greater depth than past studies using two strategies: Analysis of existing quantitative data and collection of new qualitative data. The quantitative data includeds analysis of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, which is a longitudinal data set of over 12,000 young men and women. From that analysis we are confirming that married men are fatter than their non-married counterparts. Furthermore, the longitudinal nature of the data is revealing that thinner women are more likely to enter marriage but heavier men are more likely to marry. Analysis of marital quality in that data suggests that heavier people do not have marriages that are more problematic than their thinner counterparts. The
qualitative data analysis is based on depth interviews conducted with 22 couples about to be married, and followup interviews conducted approximately a year after they were married. Analysis of that data is still in progress, but is revealing that marriage is a major transition in their eating patterns, there is negotiation of eating and weight issues by the marital partners, and their patterns of eating with others change when they become married. All of these results are tentative until the final analyses are completed and checked, and final papers published.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/97 to 12/31/97
Outputs
This project examines the relationship between marital status and body weight . It includes two components, secondary analysis of large quantitative data bases, and primary analysis of a small set of qualitative depth interviews. The secondary analysis examined the NHANES III data set, a large national ly representative sample of the U.S. population. The results indicate that , when controlling for other variables, married men have significantly higher bbody weights than their unmarried counterparts, while such is not the case for women. A second quantitative data base that is being examined is the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY), a longitudinal panel survey of a large sample of young adults followed annually over fifteen years. Prelimninary results indicate that those most likely to marry among women are those who have lower body weights, while those most likely to marry among men have higher body weights. Once people are married, men are likely to gain
body weight over the first two to four years. The qualitative portion of this study recruited 22 couples about to get married and involved all women and fifteen of the men in depth interviews lasting about an hour in length. Preliminary findings suggest some, but not extreme, concern about losing weight for the wedding among women. Most couples did not think extensively about health and weight changes once they did get married. Analysis is ongoing for all parts of this project. Thses findings suggest that marriage is an i.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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