Health and Families

Being married and/or having children affects whether one engages in healthy behavior. Lois Verbrugge (1979) found that married people were healthier than single, widowed, divorced, or separated individuals. She suggested three possible explanations for her findings. First, married and unmarried people have different lifestyles that are associated with higher and lower risk behaviors (e.g., unmarried individuals have a higher number of sexual partners). Second, it is possible that those with poor health are less likely to marry. Third, married people may be less likely to label themselves as ill. Thus, it is unclear whether being married leads to better health or better health leads to marriage.

Debra Umberson's (1987, 1992) research has indicated that the family ties of marriage and parenthood are associated with more positive health behaviors and fewer risk behaviors. Joseph Grzywacz and Nadine Marks (1999) found that having children was associated with a healthier use of alcohol. Moreover, the Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Project found that for men with high levels of anxiety, their wives' love and support appeared to protect them against angina.

Umberson (1987) states that family members influence health behaviors through indirect and direct control mechanisms. Specifically, positive family ties lead to a greater sense of responsibility for one's self and one's family, and thus individuals with positive family ties are more motivated to engage in behaviors that lead to better health. Family members may also directly regulate one's health behavior by physically means (e.g., preparing healthy food), supportive behaviors (e.g., support the adoption of an exercise regime), or social sanctions (e.g., threaten to leave the marriage if spouse continues to smoke) (Orford et al. 1977). It is interesting to note that although married men's health behavior was influenced more by their spouse than married women's health behaviors, married women's health behavior was more influenced by their parents and their children (Umberson 1992).

However, being married and having a family does not always lead to more positive health behaviors. Cathleen Connell (1994) found that taking care of family members is associated with fewer positive health behaviors and more risk behaviors (e.g., smoking) due to the stress associated with being a caregiver. Also, stressful marriages are related to poorer immune functioning (Burman and Margolin 1989). Specifically, Robert Levenson and John Gottman (1983) found that the physiological stress (e.g., nerves, increased heart rate) that accompanied marital conflict predicted a decline in health. Spousal criticism was also found to affect one's health; it has been linked to lower success rates for quitting smoking (Coppotelli and Orleans 1985).