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Presenters: Sandra L. Hofferth, Director, Maryland Population Research Center and Professor, Department of Family Science; Natasha Cabrera, Director, Family Involvement Laboratory and Associate Professor, Department of Human Development, University of Maryland

David Maimon, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Maryland; Kevin Roy, Associate Professor, Department of Family Science, University of Maryland

Edmond D. Shenassa, Director, Maternal and Child Health Program, Associate Professor, Department of Family Science, University of Maryland

Although the decline in marriage has been cited as a possible contributor to the “despair” afflicting marginalized White communities, these studies have not directly considered mortality by marital status. This paper uses complete death certificate data from the Mortality Multiple Cause Files with American Community Survey data to examine age-specific mortality rates for married and non-married people from 2007 to 2017. The overall rise in White mortality is limited almost exclusively to those who are not married, for men and women. By comparison, mortality for Blacks and Hispanics has fallen or remained flat regardless of marital status (except for young, single Hispanic men). Analysis by education level shows death rates have risen most for Whites with the lowest education, but have also increased for those with high school or some college. Because mortality has risen faster for unmarried Whites at all but the lowest education levels, there has been an increase in the marriage mortality ratio. Mortality differentials are an increasingly important component of the social hierarchy associated with marital status.

Sandra Hofferth continues Time Use project to extend data "backwards through time and geographically across countries"

Mingle Modernity with Tradition: Women Providing for the Elderly in Transitional China