Life Expectancy Differentials by Marital Status, Individuals’ Own Education, and Spousal Education in the United States

Dustin C. Brown, University of Michigan

Education and marriage each share an inverse association with mortality, but it is not clear whether education and marital status combine to influence mortality. Moreover, even fewer studies have examined whether a spouse’s education contributes to marital status differences in mortality. This paper examines whether education and marriage intersect to influence life expectancy. The paper also examines whether spousal education contributes to mortality disparities between married and unmarried persons. Life tables estimated from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files (1986-2006) suggest that education and marriage intersect to influence life expectancy and that spousal education substantially contributes to marital status disparities in life expectancy. The results also imply that focusing only on the relationship between individuals’ own education and life expectancy among the married masks substantial heterogeneity within educational groups attributable to spousal education. The findings illustrate how family processes and socioeconomic factors combine to influence mortality.