Health and Relationships Project, United States, 2014-2015 (ICPSR 37404)

Version Date: Sep 17, 2019

Principal Investigator(s):
Debra Umberson, University of Texas at Austin

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37404.v1

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  • V2 [2022-01-04]
  • V1 [2019-09-17] unpublished

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Alternate Title

HARP

Summary

The Health and Relationship Project is a study of both spouses in same-sex and different-sex marriages who were legally married and aged 35 to 65 at the time of data collection (2015). There are two parts of this study: a baseline questionnaire and a daily diary questionnaire completed for 10 consecutive days; both components were completed online and spouses were asked to complete the surveys separately. The baseline questionnaire asks participants about a number of topics related to marriage and health, including stress, health status and health behaviors, relationship quality, and how they have approached health problems in the past. The diary questionnaire asks participants a number of questions about the past 24 hours, including daily stress experiences, social interactions, and health behaviors.

Citation

Umberson, Debra. Health and Relationships Project, United States, 2014-2015. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-09-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37404.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Aging (R21AG044585)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

country

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2014-10 -- 2015-09

Date of Collection

2014-10 -- 2015-09

Data Collection Notes

  1. Each couple was assigned a unique couple ID (CID) ranging from 101 to 777. Within each couple, each spouse was assigned a unique ID. RID represents an individual's unique ID. SID represents that individual's spouse's unique ID. In other words, within each couple, the RID and SID of the first spouse will correspond to the SID and RID of the second spouse.

  2. Additional information can be found on the Health and Relationships Project website.

  3. The initial deposit contained numeric variable(s), such as the variable VIGEXMIN, that were listed as string, and subsequently masked by ICPSR. The data provider has resupplied the data files to correct the variable format and ICPSR is working through the update to released the corrected (and unmasked) data. Please contact icpsr-nacda@umich.edu with any questions.

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Study Purpose

The Health and Relationships Project aims to bring research on long-term marriage and health to a new level by looking at how individuals in different kinds of long-term relationships navigate the many different situations and contexts that contribute to their health. The goals of the study include influencing health policy and public health care through the development of policies and programs that result in more effective partner participation in health care and more efficient use of health care systems, and better training for doctors and other health care professionals on how to help spouses and partners support each other through illness or injury.

Study Design

Couples would each fill out the initial online survey separately. Second, couples would separately fill out a series of short daily surveys each evening for 10 days.

All participants were legally married and had been living together for a minimum of three years at the time of the study. Couples were required to complete at least 6 of the 10 diary questionnaires to be included in the diary data, and 90% of participants completed all 10 days. The researchers asked spouses to complete all questionnaires separately.

Sample

Same-sex couples who married between 2004 and 2012 and were between the ages of 35 and 65 were identified through the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and invited to participate through letters mailed to their address. About 70% of same-sex couples were recruited in this way. Because of restrictions at the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records, different-sex couples were recruited using publicly available demographic city lists in Massachusetts. Cities were selected to match city locations of participating same-sex spouses. We used these lists to identify households with two adults between age 35 and 65, and invitations were sent to the addresses. About 40% of different-sex couples were recruited in this way.

Participating same-sex and different-sex couples were then asked to refer couples who met the study requirements. The remaining couples (30% of same-sex and 60% of different-sex couples) were recruited through referrals.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Couples in same-sex and different-sex marriages who were legally married and aged 35 to 65 at the time of data collection.

Unit(s) of Observation

individuals, married couples

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

2019-09-17

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