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Can Marriage Reduce Risky Health Behavior for African-Americans?

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Abstract

This paper estimates whether marriage can improve health outcomes for African-Americans through changes in risky health behaviors like smoking, drinking, and drug use. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health and propensity score matching methodology to account for the potential selection bias, the results show that marriage does lead to a reduction in risky health behaviors, specifically drinking and drug use. This question has important policy implications because if marriage has the same benefits for African-Americans as it does for the general population, social welfare programs can be re-evaluated to incorporate marriage promotion, and further support can be given to programs that decrease adverse health behaviors.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Frank Heiland, CUNY-Baruch College and Shirley Liu, Institute for Defense Analyses, for helpful comments and suggestions. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Food & Drug Administration. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Toledo and Office of Regulations, Policy & Social Science, Food & Drug Administration, College Park, MD, 20740, USA

    Mir M. Ali

  2. Department of Economics, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 43606-3390, USA

    Olugbenga Ajilore

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  1. Mir M. Ali
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  2. Olugbenga Ajilore
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Correspondence to Mir M. Ali.

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Ali, M.M., Ajilore, O. Can Marriage Reduce Risky Health Behavior for African-Americans?. J Fam Econ Iss 32, 191–203 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-010-9242-z

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