The Smith-Greenaway article studied the association between family structure and infant mortality. At family level, children in polygynous families have 42% higher likelihood of mortality than their counterparts in monogamous ones. And their results also showed that contextual prevalence of polygyny is associated with infant mortality. socioeconomic disadvantage and gender inequality are concentrated in areas with higher prevalence of polygynous setting. Women in this area may have less education. The household wealth is lower in this area. These regional characteristics could explain part of the reason for the association between the contextual prevalence of polygyny and infant mortality. It could also explain why the mortality disparities between polygynous and monogamous families are significantly amplified in the areas with higher prevalence of polygynous.
The O’Flaherty article studied the marital and fertility trajectories and whether the family life courses are associated with later health. The results showed that long-term family life course trajectories are strongly linked to later-life health for men but only minimally for women. For man, conditional on “on-time” family formation, health improves with longer marriage duration. I am curious about why the association is so different between men and women.