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Interracial Marriage and Self-Reported Health of Whites and Blacks in the United States

DOI:10.1007/s11113-017-9438-0
Authors:
Y.-L. Yu at Howard University
Y.-L. Yu
Zhenmei Zhang at Michigan State University
Zhenmei Zhang
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Abstract

This study examines the self-reported health of 180,291 married non-Hispanic blacks and whites in interracial versus endogamous marriages. Data are from the National Health Interview Survey pooled over the period 1997–2013. The results from ordinal logistic regressions show that non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic other races, and non-Hispanic white women with Hispanic husbands report significantly poorer health than their endogamous counterparts. Furthermore, non-Hispanic whites with non-Hispanic black spouses also fare worse than their interracially married peers with Hispanic spouses. In contrast, the self-reported health of married non-Hispanic blacks shows no significant difference between the interracially and the endogamously married. Our findings highlight the theoretical significance of spousal characteristics and couple-level contexts in the household production of health.
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Interracial Marriage and Self-Reported Health
of Whites and Blacks in the United States
Yan-Liang Yu
1
•Zhenmei Zhang
2
Received: 21 September 2016 / Accepted: 9 May 2017 / Published online: 17 May 2017
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017
Abstract This study examines the self-reported health of 180,291 married non-
Hispanic blacks and whites in interracial versus endogamous marriages. Data are
from the National Health Interview Survey pooled over the period 1997–2013. The
results from ordinal logistic regressions show that non-Hispanic whites intermarried
with non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic
other races, and non-Hispanic white women with Hispanic husbands report sig-
nificantly poorer health than their endogamous counterparts. Furthermore, non-
Hispanic whites with non-Hispanic black spouses also fare worse than their inter-
racially married peers with Hispanic spouses. In contrast, the self-reported health of
married non-Hispanic blacks shows no significant difference between the interra-
cially and the endogamously married. Our findings highlight the theoretical sig-
nificance of spousal characteristics and couple-level contexts in the household
production of health.
Keywords Interracial marriage Self-reported health Spousal race Racial pairing
Introduction
Research on marriage and health consistently documents better mental and physical
health, and lower mortality rates, among married people compared to the unmarried
(Rendall et al. 2011; Waite and Gallagher 2000). Much less attention has been given
&Yan-Liang Yu
socrocks.jerry@gmail.com
1
Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University, 722 W. 168th Street, 4th Floor
Room 410, New York, NY 10032, USA
2
Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, Berkey Hall, 509 E. Circle Drive Room
316, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
123
Popul Res Policy Rev (2017) 36:851–870
DOI 10.1007/s11113-017-9438-0
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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