Relationships and Health: Comparing Union Types

描述（由申请人提供）：已婚异性恋者比未婚者享有更大的健康和长寿，婚姻对健康的重要性随着人们年龄的增长而增加。然而，由于同性伴侣在美国大部分地区不能合法结婚，我们对婚姻对老年男女同性恋者的健康影响知之甚少。拟议的项目将提供第一个深入和系统的分析法律的婚姻和健康比较，男同性恋，女同性恋和异性恋夫妇。拟议项目的主要目标是评估已婚男子和妇女如何促进或阻碍彼此的健康，以及这些过程在男同性恋、女同性恋和异性恋婚姻中的差异。该项目的主要重点是揭示同性恋，女同性恋和异性恋配偶影响彼此健康的途径和过程，因此我们将收集新的数据，并使用一种独特的分析方法来解决过程问题。R21周期将用于构建一个新的三部分混合方法数据集。我们将进行面对面的60分钟基线调查，包括开放式和封闭式回答，并收集60对同性恋婚姻，60对同性恋婚姻和60对异性恋婚姻的配偶双方14天的日常过程数据（N=360个人，180对夫妇，5，040个日记日）。日常过程（也称为日记）数据特别适合调查与配偶日常互动中展开的心理社会过程，同时也考虑到这些互动的背景。从每段婚姻中的配偶双方获得的日记数据将被同时分析，以评估配偶动态和健康结果的每日波动（即，健康行为、心理状态和身体健康症状）以及机制（例如，压力，社会支持），将配偶动态与健康结果联系起来。基线调查中的开放式问题和先前收集的深入访谈数据也将提供定性数据，以分析解释和阐明日常过程分析中揭示的重要模式的意义和过程。这一混合方法项目将为卫生政策提供信息，其中涉及婚姻影响各类夫妇健康的性别动态。我们必须确定男同性恋、女同性恋和异性恋婚姻中男性和女性面临最大风险和弹性的领域，以制定最有效的政策和实践策略。R21机制的目的是支持初步和新的项目，随后导致更大规模的研究。我们将利用拟议项目的调查结果，为未来R01应用程序的开发奠定基础，以创建一个关于同性恋、女同性恋和异性恋人群婚姻和健康的国家数据集。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Married heterosexuals enjoy greater health and longevity than the unmarried, and the importance of marriage for health increases as people age. However, since same-sex couples cannot legally marry in most parts of the United States, we know very little about the health implications of marriage for aging gays and lesbians. The proposed project will provide the first in-depth and systematic analysis of legal marriage and health to compare, gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples. The major goal of the proposed project is to assess how married men and women promote or deter one another's health, and how these processes vary across gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages. The primary focus of this project is on revealing the pathways and processes through which gay, lesbian, and heterosexual spouses influence each other's health, therefore we will collect new data and use an analytic approach that is uniquely suited to addressing issues of process. The R21 period will be used to construct a novel three-part mixed-methods dataset. We will conduct face-to-face 60- minute baseline surveys with open and closed-ended responses, and collect 14 days of daily process data from both spouses in 60 gay marriages, 60 lesbian marriages, and 60 heterosexual marriages (N=360 individuals, 180 couples, 5,040 diary days). Daily process (also known as diary) data are uniquely suited to investigating psychosocial processes that unfold in daily interactions with spouses, while also accounting for the contexts of those interactions. The diary data obtained from both spouses in each marriage will be analyzed in tandem to assess daily fluctuation in spousal dynamics and health outcomes (i.e., health behaviors, psychological state, and physical health symptoms) as well as mechanisms (e.g., stress, social support) that link spousal dynamics to health outcomes. Open-ended questions from the baseline survey and previously collected in-depth interview data will also provide qualitative data to analyze meanings and processes that explain and elucidate significant patterns revealed in the daily process analysis. This mixed methods project will inform health policy involving the gendered dynamics through which marriage influences health across couple type. We must identify areas of greatest risk and resilience for men and women in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriage to ground the most effective strategies for policy and practice. The purpose of the R21 mechanism is to support preliminary and novel projects that subsequently lead to larger-scale studies. We will utilize findings from the proposed project to ground the development of a future R01 application to create a national dataset on marriage and health in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual populations.