Partnership Trajectories and Later-Life Health: The Role of Social and Genetic Factors

Partnership Trajectories and Later-Life Health: The Role of Social and Genetic Factors | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Partnership Trajectories and Later-Life Health: The Role of Social and Genetic Factors Meng-Jung Lin This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7292198/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 29 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Long-term partnership trajectories are important for understanding health inequalities in later life, yet few studies have examined how social and genetic factors jointly shape these patterns and their consequences. Using nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study, we applied sequence and cluster analysis to reconstruct partnership trajectories from ages 15 to 50 among 4,899 non-Hispanic White respondents, identifying six distinct clusters. We then estimated how early-life socioeconomic status and polygenic scores (PGSs) for educational attainment, well-being, depressive symptoms, and body mass index were associated with trajectory membership and whether these trajectories predicted self-rated health and depressive symptoms in later life. Respondent education and the educational attainment PGS showed the most consistent associations with trajectory patterns. Stable, continuous unions were linked to better health outcomes, while never-married men reported more depressive symptoms and divorced women reported poorer self-rated health than their continuously married peers. Higher well-being PGSs and lower depressive symptom and BMI PGSs were also linked to better outcomes. These findings suggest that social and genetic selection partly but not fully account for the health advantages of stable unions. Integrating life course and genomic approaches offers new insight into the origins of health disparities in aging. Health sciences/Diseases Biological sciences/Genetics Health sciences/Health care Health sciences/Medical research Health sciences/Risk factors partnership trajectories sequence analysis polygenic scores life course aging and health gender differences Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files 20250803supplementaryv1.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 29 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 14 Oct, 2025 Reviews received at journal 10 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 17 Sep, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 02 Sep, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 28 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 28 Aug, 2025 Editor invited by journal 14 Aug, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 11 Aug, 2025 First submitted to journal 11 Aug, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7292198","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":509143846,"identity":"2a3a5b35-3ef9-4ef2-91cd-d4ac0321ad63","order_by":0,"name":"Meng-Jung Lin","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAvUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFCCww0HGBjY5CAcNqK0HARrMYaoBhI8hLUwNoDIxAaiteg2Hmw8XJjDl75dvseA4UPZYQZ7iQT8WswOHGw4PHMbW+7ONh4DxhnnDjPwEKWFF6hlwzEeA2beNqAWaSK1pBuAtPwlRUsCWAsjKVoMNxxLKzjYcy6dh+f+AwJabhw+/Jl32zF5g8OHNz74UWYtx95zAL8WBgmwgmNgNohJREzyN4DIGsIKR8EoGAWjYOQCAM9+SAvDHzx8AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"National Taiwan University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Meng-Jung","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-04 14:23:28","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7292198/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7292198/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-28752-6","type":"published","date":"2025-12-29T15:58:12+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":99545342,"identity":"8ec6dfef-ff36-41d8-bcce-6b3e803c7eea","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-05 16:06:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1001225,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"20250811npartnershiptrajzottitlev1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7292198/v1_covered_9378b6dd-52d1-4c0b-89b8-d57780ce65f1.pdf"},{"id":90696153,"identity":"df4eb1be-fc8f-43ba-9091-30fe7a58ca41","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-05 20:21:03","extension":"xlsx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":159345,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"20250803supplementaryv1.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7292198/v1/471ec7584640241c0e942ca8.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Partnership Trajectories and Later-Life Health: The Role of Social and Genetic Factors","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"partnership trajectories, sequence analysis, polygenic scores, life course, aging and health, gender differences","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7292198/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7292198/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eLong-term partnership trajectories are important for understanding health inequalities in later life, yet few studies have examined how social and genetic factors jointly shape these patterns and their consequences. 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