Emery R

A Twin Study on Perceived Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Marriage

Beam CR, Dinescu D, Emery R, Turkheimer E. Marriage is associated with reductions in both perceived stress and depressive symptoms, two constructs found to be influenced by common genetic effects. A study of sibling twins was used to test whether marriage decreases the proportion of variance in depressive symptoms accounted for by genetic and environmental […]

Is Marriage a Buzzkill? A Twin Study of Marital Status and Alcohol Consumption

Dinescu D, Turkheimer E, Beam CR, Horn EE, Duncan G, Emery RE. Married adults have consistently been found to drink less than their single or divorced counterparts. This correlation may not be causal, however, as people nonrandomly “select” into marriage and into alcohol use. The current study uses a sample of 2,425 same-sex twin pairs […]

Twin Studies of the Marriage Benefit: Parsing Selection from Causation

PI: Robert EmeryProject Number: 2R01HD056354Project Dates: 6/1/2011–5/31/2014 Family life is widely viewed as having a profound influence on both children and adults. However, broad changes in family structure have contributed to evolving, and controversial, ideas about what makes a “normal” or “healthy” family. Social scientists contribute both to basic knowledge about family life, and to social […]