He says ethnic patterns among women reveal some differences. Separated black women were more than twice as likely to be overweight as married black women. And, never-married Hispanic women were significantly less likely to be overweight than their married counterparts
What does it all mean?
“These results show the relevance of considering the complexity of interacting relationships between gender, ethnicity, marriage and body weight,” Sobal says, adding that ethnic cultural differences may be involved at many levels. For example, white women and never-married men may be more concerned with conforming to cultural norms of thinness than others.