I would probably need more than this, but what I understand there must be a `dependent` option specified for the User model. If not then it might be due to foreign key specified at the DB level. I can give you one suggestion though if this user and user_status relation is not m:n (many to many) and every user can have just one status, why not move the status in users table. This would solve your problem and normalize you DB and save you some joins.