Family life is widely viewed as having a profound influence on both children and adults. However, broad changes in family structure have contributed to evolving, and controversial, ideas about what makes a """"""""normal"""""""" or """"""""healthy"""""""" family. Social scientists contribute both to basic knowledge about family life, and to social programs and political debates, by studying potential causes and consequences of different family experiences. These efforts are exceedingly important, especially given the prospect of altering family life in order to promote individual health and well-being. Our proposed work contributes to this important effort by focusing much of our effort on the question: Does marriage benefit social, emotional, psychological, and economic well-being - and even physical health and longevity? A large body of research suggests that marriage is correlated with these outcomes, but correlation does not mean causation. Or as two critics of marriage noted in a recent essay, """"""""To say marriage creates wealth is to confuse correlation with causation. If there is more wealth in Manhattan than in Brooklyn, that does not mean that moving to Manhattan will make you wealthier."""""""" We are not only concerned that background and personality affects who gets and stays married, but we also know that genetic factors influence the likelihood that people will experience happy marriage or other key aspects of family life. Even as we raise this concern, however, we offer a method - studying twins - that solves not one but two huge scientific problems. Identical twins share the same genes, and they also share the same upbringing. Thus, when we compare identical twins, we eliminate the problem of nonrandom selection into experience based on background, prior experience, personality, and genes. In fact, the twin method allows us to determine cause and effect better than any available research technique, other than randomly assigning couples to marry, or not, divorce, or not, and so on, which, of course, is logistically and ethically impossible. We propose to study five unique samples of twins in the U.S., Australia, and Sweden (each sample offers special benefits) to test whether marriage (and single life, cohabitation, divorce, widowhood, and remarriage) really are likely to cause of the outcomes with which they are correlated. We also propose to study how genes and the environment work together to modify the """"""""marriage benefit"""""""" for mental and physical health, including studying specific genes recently documented to influence behavior in close relationships. Finally, in order to enrich our highly technical quantitative analyses, we plan to interview identical twins to learn more about what makes them different, particularly how different experiences in marriage, romantic relationships, and relationship dissolution may alter their life course.

Public Health Relevance

This application has extensive, direct relevance to policy, intervention, and family life, as many mental and physical health benefits are associated with marital status and relationship satisfaction. Sophisticated research methods, such of those used here, are essential to distinguish cause from correlations, a critical issues since marriage and families have changed dramatically, and because marriage is the focus of much public debate and many government policies.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD056354-05
Application #
8268381
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Studies Study Section (SSPS)
Program Officer
King, Rosalind B
Project Start
2011-06-01
Project End
2014-05-31
Budget Start
2012-06-01
Budget End
2013-05-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$501,379
Indirect Cost
$86,683
Name
University of Virginia
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
065391526
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904
Beam, Christopher R; Marcus, Katherine; Turkheimer, Eric et al. (2018) Gender Differences in the Structure of Marital Quality. Behav Genet 48:209-223
Beam, Christopher R; Dinescu, Diana; Emery, Robert et al. (2017) A Twin Study on Perceived Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Marriage. J Health Soc Behav 58:37-53
Beam, Christopher R; Emery, Robert E; Reynolds, Chandra A et al. (2016) Widowhood and the Stability of Late Life Depressive Symptomatology in the Swedish Adoption Twin Study of Aging. Behav Genet 46:100-13
Dinescu, Diana; Turkheimer, Eric; Beam, Christopher R et al. (2016) Is marriage a buzzkill? A twin study of marital status and alcohol consumption. J Fam Psychol 30:698-707
Pettersson, Erik; Sjölander, Arvid; Almqvist, Catarina et al. (2015) Birth weight as an independent predictor of ADHD symptoms: a within-twin pair analysis. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 56:453-9
Emery, Robert E; Rowen, Jenna; Dinescu, Diana (2014) New roles for family therapists in the courts: an overview with a focus on custody dispute resolution. Fam Process 53:500-15
Emery, Robert E; Tornello, Samantha L (2014) Rejoinder to : Who Assumes the Burden of Proof When There's No Neutral Null Hypothesis? J Marriage Fam 76:234-240
Horn, Erin E; Xu, Yishan; Beam, Christopher R et al. (2013) Accounting for the physical and mental health benefits of entry into marriage: a genetically informed study of selection and causation. J Fam Psychol 27:30-41
Tornello, Samantha L; Emery, Robert; Rowen, Jenna et al. (2013) Overnight Custody Arrangements, Attachment, and Adjustment Among Very Young Children. J Marriage Fam 75:871-885
Goodnight, Jackson A; D'Onofrio, Brian M; Cherlin, Andrew J et al. (2013) Effects of multiple maternal relationship transitions on offspring antisocial behavior in childhood and adolescence: a cousin-comparison analysis. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41:185-98

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