This study used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) on two generations of African American women who gave birth from 1967 to 2005 to describe changing relationships between marital status and low birth weight (LBW) across the generations. An increasing protection of marriage on infant LBW across the two generations was found after…

Although the meanings and rates of being married, divorced, separated, never-married, and widowed have changed significantly over the past several decades, we know very little about historical trends in the relationship between marital status and health. Our analysis of pooled data from the National Health Interview Survey from 1972 to 2003 shows…

the findings indicated that (1) physical and psychlogical health are associated with marital happiness regardless of marital history, and (2) at the same time, divorce and remarriage tend to "select" the healthier members of the unhappy married population. (Author)

Uses different data sources to explore explanation for why levels of mortality experienced by single Japanese are so high compared with those of married Japanese or of singles elsewhere. Presents evidence that marriage is likely to have been and probably continues to be more selective with regard to underlying health characteristics in Japan than…