Social Antecedents and Union Outcomes of Adolescent Intimate Relationship Trajectory: A Focus on Overweight Youth’s Development

Yen-hsin A. Cheng, Academia Sinica

Framed within the life course perspective, this study uses four waves of Add Health data to investigate the social antecedents and union formation outcomes of intimate relationship trajectories among adolescents of different weight statuses. Preliminary findings reveal the critical role of social relationships in mediating the impact of body weight on intimate relationship trajectory. Overweight adolescents are more at risk of experiencing the trajectory without any intimate partner than the other trajectories because of peer rejection and lower social integration. In addition, the likelihood of marriage and cohabitation is much lower for overweight youth when they enter adulthood. Even when intimate relationship trajectories are taken into account, they only eliminate the negative association between being overweight and the risk of cohabitation, not that between being overweight and the risk of marriage.