London’s Daily Mail newspaper covered the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found that young couples who are satisfied with their marriage are more likely to gain weight, putting them at risk for various health problems associated with being overweight.
The article, “Why a happy marriage can be heavy going: Smitten newlyweds more likely to pile on the pounds,” was published April 4.
Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.
The study’s researchers said the findings challenge the long-held notion that quality relationships are always beneficial to one’s health. Instead, they said, the findings suggest that spouses who are satisfied in the marriage are less motivated to attract an alternative mate. As a result, satisfied spouses relax efforts to maintain their weight.
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Related links
- Andrea L. Meltzer
- SMU Department of Psychology
- Health Psychology: “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage”
- Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences
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The article, “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage,” is published online in the scientific journal Health Psychology at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23477578.
The study was based on data from 169 first-married newlywed couples whose marital satisfaction and weight were tracked over the course of four years.
EXCERPT:
Mail Online
A happy marriage can lead to a couple putting on weight, according to a study.
Contented newlyweds are more likely to put on the pounds due to being less motivated to attract an alternative mate, say US researchers who tracked the marital satisfaction and weight of 169 couples over four years.Psychologist Andrea L Meltzer, who led the study, said: ‘On average, spouses who were more satisfied with their marriage were less likely to consider leaving their marriage, and they gained more weight over time.
‘In contrast, couples who were less satisfied in their relationship tended to gain less weight over time.’
The researchers, from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, said the findings challenged the standard belief that quality relationships were beneficial to health.
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