Mind the gap: The health advantages that accompany parental marriage vary by maternal nativity. (2nd September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sigle, Wendy; Goisis, Alice
• Is Part Of: Population studies. Volume 73:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 369
• Page End: 386
• Publication Date: 2019-09-02
• Subjects: parental marriage -- child well-being -- health production -- assimilation -- family structure -- CART -- recursive partitioning; Demography -- Periodicals; Population -- Periodicals; 304.605
• DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2019.1654613
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0032-4728

Abstract

Abstract : Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), we examine whether and how the health benefits of having two biological parents in a continuous marital relationship vary by maternal nativity and ethnicity, comparing UK-born White mothers with: (1) White mothers born in wealthy countries; (2) ethnic minority mothers from South Asia; and (3) ethnic minority mothers born in Africa. Making novel use of classification and regression tree (CART) methods, we examine whether marital status is a uniform marker of economic advantage or better health-related behaviours across the four maternal nativity and ethnic groups. The findings, which indicate that the health-related advantages associated with parental marriage are not uniform across the four nativity and ethnic groups, have implications for future research on family gaps in well-being and the socio-economic determinants of health.