MarriageTweets

Researchers who followed 6,949 U.S. adolescents into young adulthood found that those who married were more than twice as likely to become obese than those who just kept dating. Obesity was up to three times higher in married versus dating partners. Couples who lived together reported less physical activity, more TV and computer time and other obesity-promoting behaviours that they risk passing along to their offspring. // related: Does marriage make you fat?

US researchers from Indiana University analyzed data on 3.8m people diagnosed with cancer between 1973 and 2004. They found people who were married had a 63% chance of surviving five years, compared to 45% of people who were separated, the journal Cancer reported. The team said the stress of break-up probably affected survival rates. Previous studies have looked at the impact of marriage on health outcomes. Lead researcher Dr Gwen Sprehn said: “Patients who are going through separation at the time of diagnosis may be a particularly vulnerable population for whom intervention could be prioritized.” The study will be published in the November issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

A new study has linked feeling forlorn to a nearly 80 percent increase in the risk of heart disease—but only in women. People feel lonely when they don’t have a sense of connectedness with their friends and families, experts say. “Loneliness is related to how fulfilled we feel in our relationships,” said Brooke Aggarwal, a researcher in preventive cardiology at Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital. “We experience feelings of loneliness when we feel that what we’re getting from our relationships falls short of what we expect.”

Many of society’s ills we rally around have root in family breakdown. Rather than just accept family breakdown as inevitable, research now is quite clear on what makes marriage succeed or fail and how educational approaches change the odds. Come share and explore how strengthening marriages and healthy relationships makes a difference in the well-being of children in cities across America. // The Idea Camp is a collaborative movement of idea-makers who facilitate free hybrid conferences and develop resources for people who desire to move ideas toward implementation.

via Washington Times: 1) Keep lines of communication open with your children. 2) Stay connected (without micromanaging), and, especially, keep Dad engaged. 3) Set good personal examples; model the behaviors you want to see. 4) Set reasonable rules and enforce them without being punitive. 5) Know where your children are and who their friends are. 6) Eat dinner together regularly. Sharing good food is certainly wonderful, but the “magic” in eating together stems from the undivided attention and “face time” it creates for everyone. 7) Cultivate a religious life as a family. 8) Stay connected to a larger community.

There is no consensus, but Anthony Centore, director of Thrive Boston Counseling and Psychotherapy, and other specialists do say that it’s possible to fall back in love with someone - with work. “A lot of people come in and they think they can never feel the way they did,’’ Centore said, “but after they start going through the [therapeutic] process, their skepticism starts going away.’’ The National Center for Health Statistics stopped collecting detailed data on divorce in 1996. But Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, and author of “The Marriage-Go-Round,’’ predicts that 40-to-50 percent of marriages will end in divorce, with second marriages slightly more likely to end than first marriages. // related: Remarriage

A new Iowa State study of nearly 1,000 low-income families in three major cities found that one in four children between the ages of 11 and 16 reported having sex, with their first sexual intercourse experience occurring at the average age of 12.77. The study was co-authored by Brenda Lohman, an associate professor of human development and family studies; and Tina Jordahl, a former ISU graduate student. Tina Jordahl, a former Iowa State HDFS and public policy graduate student who is now a market research specialist with Hospice of Central Iowa, collaborated with Lohman on the study. It analyzes data from the “Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study” — a six-year longitudinal investigation of low-income families living in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio.