The Impact of Health and Health Behavior on the Formation of Intimate Relationships

The Impact of Health and Health Behavior on the Formation of Intimate Relationships. Ingmar Rapp, Jonathan Gruhler. English abstract of Der Einfluss der Gesundheit und des Gesundheitsverhaltens auf die Entstehung von Partnerschaften. In KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11577-018-0513-2

Abstract: This paper examines the influence of physical and mental health and health behavior on the formation of intimate relationships. Data were obtained from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the years 2002–2014 and contain information about 6071 individuals and 4194 newly formed partnerships. For men, better mental health increasingly accelerates partnership formation in middle and later adulthood. For women, better physical and mental health reduce the transition rate into partnership at a young age and increase the transition rate into partnership at an older age. Physical inactivity and overweight reduce the likelihood of partnership formation for both women and men, whereas smoking is positively associated with partnership formation for women. The findings help to better understand how health and health behavior affect the formation of intimate relationships. Moreover, the results contribute to explaining health disparities between individuals with or without a partner.