Abstract
Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals, particularly in the U.S. The rise of cohabitation, however, raises questions about whether simply being in an intimate co-residential partnership conveys the same health benefits as marriage. Here, we use OLS regression to compare differences between partnered and unpartnered, and cohabiting and married individuals with respect to self-rated health in mid-life, an understudied part of the lifecourse. We pay particular attention to selection mechanisms arising in childhood and characteristics of the partnership. We compare results in five countries with different social, economic, and policy contexts: the U.S. (NLSY), U.K. (UKHLS), Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), and Norway (GGS). Results show that living with a partner is positively associated with self-rated health in mid-life in all countries, but that controlling for children, prior separation, and current socio-economic status eliminates differences in Germany and Norway. Significant differences between cohabitation and marriage are only evident in the U.S. and the U.K., but controlling for childhood background, union duration, and prior union dissolution eliminates partnership differentials. The findings suggest that cohabitation in the U.S. and U.K., both liberal welfare regimes, seems to be very different than in the other countries. The results challenge the assumption that only marriage is beneficial for health.
Highlights
Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals (e.g., Waite and Gallagher 2002; Wood et al 2007; Hughes and Waite 2009; Umberson 1992; Williams et al 2011; Robles et al 2014; Grundy and Tomassini 2010)
Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals, in the U.S The rise of cohabitation, raises questions about whether being in an intimate co-residential partnership conveys the same health benefits as marriage
A large number of studies find that marriage is beneficial for health (Grundy and Tomassini 2010; Liu and Umberson 2008; Umberson et al 2010), but the increase in cohabiting partnerships raises the possibility that it is not marriage per se that matters, but instead living with a partner
Summary
Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals (e.g., Waite and Gallagher 2002; Wood et al 2007; Hughes and Waite 2009; Umberson 1992; Williams et al 2011; Robles et al 2014; Grundy and Tomassini 2010). We examine whether the health differentials between married and cohabiting individuals found in the U.S hold in other countries, and to what extent controlling for selection can explain this association. The countries have different approaches to legally recognizing cohabitation: the UK and the US allow legal rights in some policy areas but not others (Barlow 2004; Bowman 2010); Australia and Norway provide cohabitors with many rights similar to married couples (Bowman 2010; Perelli-Harris and Sanchez Gassen 2012); and Germany tends to privilege marriage (Perelli-Harris and Sanchez Gassen 2012). The countries differ in the degree of selection into cohabitation; for example, the educational gradient associated with partnership formation and dissolution is not consistent across countries (Perelli-Harris and Lyons-Amos 2016). This study contributes to the literature by examining several underexplored questions: (1) Does being in a partnership convey benefits to health in all the studied countries? Is marriage, compared to cohabitation, associated with better health? (2) Do childhood background characteristics attenuate any positive association between partnership or marriage and health? (3) Does controlling for characteristics of the union reduce differences between cohabitation and marriage? Taken as a whole, the paper provides greater understanding of the meaning and consequences of cohabitation in mid-life across countries
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