Nonmarital Cohabitation and Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的项目将研究如何在青春期和青年期的非婚同居因果关系影响个人的身心健康，以及健康的行为，决定未来的成人健康跨性别和种族/民族群体。非婚同居的迅速兴起显着改变了美国浪漫关系的格局;到25岁时，同居已成为男性和女性的规范经历。同居现象的迅速增加引起了人们对这种家庭形式中的个人生活的后果的关注，因为研究表明，同居者的承诺程度较低，而且同居比婚姻更容易解除。虽然同居的流行和模式通常都有很好的记录，但我们对非婚同居的结果知之甚少。对于年轻的参与者来说尤其如此;尽管同居在年轻时的重要性越来越大，但同居文献继续关注成年人，并将所有年龄段的同居经历视为相同的。年龄和“意义”（根据伴侣的不同，同居的目的和目的-将同居分为4种不同的类型）的异质性都被先前的研究所忽视。大量的研究表明，已婚人士比其他人活得更长，更健康。关于同居对健康的平行益处的类似研究很少，从青春期到青年期几乎不存在，尽管在这些年龄段有相当多的同居。我们的项目有三个具体目标：1）分别为男性和女性以及种族/民族生成从青春期到青年期的一系列健康结果和行为的描述性轨迹，并检查关系状态之间的相关性。（婚姻，同居，单身）与特定的轨迹，使用半参数组为基础的建模策略; 2）使用关系史数据，使用纵向固定效应模型，控制个体所有未观察到的稳定特征，模拟同居经历如何因果地影响从青春期到青年期的健康和相对于婚姻或单身的健康行为; 3）探索年龄（关系经历的时间）和同居意义（4种类型）的异质性如何改变对从青春期到青年期同居在健康中的作用的评估。将使用来自全国青少年纵向研究的纵向数据;这是有史以来对青少年进行的最大规模的研究，也是唯一一项有手段研究四种不同类型的同居与各种健康结果之间的关联的研究。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究将通过提供有关青少年浪漫关系（同居和婚姻）对身心健康和危险行为的长期影响的经验发现，为针对青少年和年轻人健康的计划提供信息。该项目强调了同居时间和类型或意义的差异对结果的影响（年龄和意义的异质性）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project will examine how nonmarital cohabitation during adolescence and young adulthood causally impacts individual physical and mental health, as well as healthy behaviors that determine future adult health across gender and racial/ethnic groups. The rapid rise in nonmarital cohabitation has markedly changed the landscape of romantic relationships in the United States; cohabitation has become a normative experience for both men and women by age 25. The rapid increase in cohabitation raises concerns about its consequences for the lives of individuals involved in this family form, as research indicates that cohabiters hold lower levels of commitment, and cohabitations are more easily dissolved than marriages. Although the prevalence and patterns of cohabitation have generally been well documented, we know very little about the outcomes of nonmarital cohabitation. This is especially true for young participants; despite the increasing significance of cohabitation at younger ages, the cohabitation literature continues to focus on adults, and treats the experiences of cohabitation the same at all ages. Heterogeneity with age and "meaning" (the goals and purpose of the cohabitation, according to the partners - classifying cohabitation into 4 distinct types) has both been neglected by prior research. A considerable amount of research has established that married individuals live longer, healthier lives than others. Similar research on the parallel health benefits of cohabitation is sparse, and virtually nonexistent from adolescence into young adulthood despite substantial levels of cohabitation at these ages. Our project has three specific aims: 1) Generate descriptive trajectories of an array of health outcomes and behaviors from adolescence into young adulthood separately for men and women and for race/ethnicity, and examine correlations between relationship status (marriage, cohabitation, singlehood) with particular trajectories, using a semi-parametric group-based modeling strategy; 2) Use data on relationship histories to model how cohabitation experience causally affects health and healthy behaviors relative to marriage or singlehood from adolescence into young adulthood using longitudinal fixed effects models that control for all unobserved stable characteristics of the individuals; 3) Explore how heterogeneity in age (the timing of relationship experience) and in meaning of cohabitation (4 types) alter assessments of the role of cohabitation in health from adolescence into young adulthood. Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents will be used; it is the largest study of adolescents ever conducted, as well as the only one with the means to examine the association between four different types of cohabitation and a variety of health outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study will inform programs that target adolescent and young adult health by providing empirical findings about the long-term effects of adolescent romantic relationships (cohabitation and marriage) on mental and physical health and risky behaviors. The project highlights effects of differences in timing and in the type, or meaning, of cohabitation on outcomes (heterogeneity in age and meaning).