Union Status, Educational Attainment, and Body Mass Index Among Emerging Adults.

This study uses fixed-effects regression modeling and three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine whether union status and educational attainment interact to influence change in body mass index (BMI) during emerging adulthood. The results support the hypothesis that the effect of union status on change in BMI is smaller for those with more educational attainment. In particular, emerging adults with no college education experience significant increases in BMI associated with both marriage and cohabitation. The increases in BMI associated with marriage and cohabitation are significantly smaller for those with some college education-but are still somewhat present. Among emerging adults with college degrees, however, involvement in cohabitation/marriage is not associated with increases in BMI at all. Potential explanations for this pattern of results and suggestions for future research are discussed.