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This study explores the relationship between parental educational similarity – educational concordance (homogamy) or discordance (heterogamy) – and children’s health outcomes. Its contribution is threefold. First and foremost, I use longitudinal data on children’s health outcomes tracking children from age 1 to 15, thus being able to assess whether the relationship changes at key life-course and developmental stages of children. This is an important addition to the relevant literature, where the focus is solely on outcomes at birth. Second, I look at different health outcomes, namely height-for-age (HFA) and BMI-for-age (BFA) z-scores, alongside their dichotomized counterparts, stunting and thinness. Third, I conduct the same set of analyses in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, thus providing multi-context evidence from countries at different levels of development and with different socio-economic characteristics and gender dynamics. Results reveal important heterogeneity across contexts. In Ethiopia and India, parental educational homogamy is associated with worse health outcomes in infancy and childhood, while associations are positive in Peru and, foremost, Vietnam. Complementary estimates from matching techniques show that these associations tend to fade after age 1, except in Vietnam, where the positive relationship persists through adolescence, thus supporting the homogamy-benefit hypothesis not only at birth, but also across the early life course. Insights from this study contribute to the inequality debate on the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage and shed additional light on the relationship between early-life conditions and later-life outcomes in critical periods of children’s lives.

Increasing female educational attainment across OECD countries is making hypogamy a widespread phenomenon. This trend provides an opportunity to re-examine the effects of educational assortative ma...

How does demographic and religious context relate to interracial relationships among same-sex and different-sex couples? Using couple data from the 2012 to 2014 American Community Surveys matched to aggregate data from the 2010 Census and 2010 Religious Congregations and Membership Study, we test how heterogamy patterns for same-sex and different-sex couples vary by the demographic and religious makeup of cities, using multinomial logistic regressions to compare interracial and same-race couples. We find that same-sex couples are more likely to be in a White/Black interracial pairing than different-sex couples. White partners are more likely to be in an interracial relationship if they are in a city with a large minority group population. In addition, context is differently associated with interracial unions for same-sex and different-sex couples, varying for each racial combination.

In China, a critical challenge for rural-to-urban migrants planning to settle down is to convert their rural hukou (household registration) to an urban one through a limited set of de jure channels...

Data from the 2010–2012 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to document trends and patterns in where co-resident couples in Britain first met, focusing specifically on the rapid rise of meeting online, which both echoes and differs from a corresponding US increase; in Britain, meeting online largely appears to have substituted for meetings in settings to which access is relatively unrestricted, for example, pubs and public places. While meeting online appears widespread across British society, variations are identified and linked to ideas from the online dating and place of meeting literatures. Offline partner availability and how well the processes within offline and online settings suit particular types of people are interpreted as underpinning many of these variations. Perhaps surprisingly, meeting online does not appear class-related, and involves levels of socio-demographic homogamy that do not differ systematically from those for compositionally heterogeneous offline settings.

The emergence and persistence of polymorphism within populations generally requires specific regimes of natural or sexual selection. Here, we develop a unified theoretical framework to explore how polymorphism at targeted loci can be generated and maintained by either disassortative mating choice or balancing selection due to, for example, heterozygote advantage. To this aim, we model the dynamics of alleles at a single locus A in a population of haploid individuals, where reproductive success depends on the combination of alleles carried by the parents at locus A. Our theoretical study of the model confirms that the conditions for the persistence of a given level of allelic polymorphism depend on the relative reproductive advantages among pairs of individuals. Interestingly, equilibria with unbalanced allelic frequencies were shown to emerge from successive introduction of mutants. We then investigate the role of the function linking allelic divergence to reproductive advantage on the evolutionary fate of alleles within the population. Our results highlight the significance of the shape of this function for both the number of alleles maintained and their level of genetic divergence. Large number of alleles are maintained with substantial replacement of alleles, when disassortative advantage slowly increases with allelic differentiation . In contrast, few highly differentiated alleles are predicted to be maintained when genetic differentiation has a strong effect on disassortative advantage. These opposite effects predicted by our model explain how disassortative mate choice may lead to various levels of allelic differentiation and polymorphism, and shed light on the effect of mate preferences on the persistence of balanced and unbalanced polymorphism in natural population.

This paper studies how immigrant–native intermarriages in Sweden are associated with individual characteristics of native men and women and patterns of assortative mating. Patterns of educational- and age-assortative mating that are similar to those found in native–native marriages may reflect openness to immigrant groups, whereas assortative mating patterns that indicate status considerations suggest that country of birth continues to serve as a boundary in the native marriage market. The study uses Swedish register data that cover the entire Swedish population for the period of 1991–2009. The results from binomial and multinomial logistic regressions show that low status of natives in terms of economic and demographic characteristics is associated with intermarriage and that intermarriages are characterized by educational and age heterogamy more than are native–native marriages. The findings indicate that immigrant women as well as immigrant men become more attractive marriage partners if they are considerably younger than their native spouses. This is particularly true for intermarriages with immigrants from certain regions of origin, such as wives from Asia and Africa and husbands from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Gender differences in the intermarriage patterns of native men and women are surprisingly small.

À la suite de l’augmentation du niveau d’éducation des femmes, les couples dans lesquels la femme est plus diplômée que son conjoint sont désormais majoritaires en France : l’hypergamie féminine s’est inversée. Cet article actualise ce résultat à partir des enquêtes Emploi de l’Insee, et met en évidence une tendance similaire quoique de moindre ampleur sur le plan professionnel : la proportion de femmes appartenant à une classe sociale (classification EGP) plus élevée que leur conjoint est passée de 13 % en 1969 à 23 % en 2016. Ces tendances sont allées au-delà de ce que l’évolution de la structure de la population impliquait (hypergamie relative). En revanche, on ne relève aucune hypergamie en termes d’origine sociale. La théorie classique liant l’hypergamie à une distribution asymétrique du célibat selon le sexe est pleinement confirmée. Ainsi, si le célibat augmentait à mesure que le diplôme, la classe sociale et l’origine sociale s’élevaient chez les femmes en début de période, cette échelle s’est inversée pour les deux premières dimensions et a disparu pour la dernière. La distribution du célibat des femmes s’est globalement rapprochée de celle des hommes.

© 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In this article, we study how potentially conflicting forces of socio-economic modernization and enduring language barriers influenced one of the most intimate acts of social interaction: marriage. In the period during which Belgium underwent social and economic modernization–often thought to have diminished barriers between social groups, increasing the likelihood of social heterogamy–linguistic barriers remained strong. The intriguing question is, what happens if socio-economic modernization coincides with persistent linguistic cleavages. We will study this by looking at marriage formation in communities in the province of (contemporary) Flemish Brabant and the Brussels Capital Region. We ask: How large were the temporal and municipal variations in homogamy by social status in the period 1821–1913? And can modernization and the existence of linguistic divisions explain these variations? We use two types of data: couple data from civil registration records in Flemish Brabant 1821–1913 (N = 333,729), and, for some analyses, context data on the municipality at the time of marriage to a shorter period, 1859–1910, and thus a lower number of marriages (N = 270,151). We find that during modernization a shift took place from homogamy on fathers’ status to homogamy on groom’s status, and we find partial support for the effect of language barriers. ispartof: History of the Family vol:24 issue:1 pages:94-122 status: published

Research has long established that parents who do not share the same religious tradition produce less religious children than parents who do. Therefore, religious heterogamy and its negative effects on religious socialization have been associated with the generational decline of religion in Western societies. How about China, where religion has been resurging in the last few decades? Existing studies suggest two opposing possibilities: the restrictive national context may diminish parental impact on religious socialization, or the family influence withstands contextual pressures. Using the 2007 Spiritual Life Survey of Chinese Residents and logistic regression models, we examine patterns of association between having one or two religious parents during childhood and current religious affiliation, beliefs, behavior, and salience of respondents in China. Analyses reveal that despite China’s atheist education system and strict religion policies, having at least one religiously affiliated parent is associated with increased religiosity compared to having two nonreligious parents. As the number of interreligious marriages rises in Chinese society, religious heterogamy contributes to the growth of religion among younger generations. Whereas religious heterogamy in the West has a secularizing effect on the next generation and contributes to religion’s decline, religious heterogamy in secular nations such as China has a religionizing effect and contributes to religion’s rise.

Background: From a historical perspective, the transition from a pre-industrial to a modern society is associated with increasing social status heterogamy. As individuals' acquired characteristics became more important for partner selection than inherited class status, the importance of status homogamy declined and marrying outside one's own social group became more frequent. Objective: We investigate educational heterogamy in a university town at the end of the 19th century. We ask whether marriage of unequally educated partners is related to dissimilarity in the partners' other characteristics. Ethnic background, origin (place of birth), and age difference between the spouses are considered as characteristics that may associate with sorting into educationally heterogamous unions. Methods: The analysis uses data from the 1897 census in Tartu. Using logistic regression modelling, we estimate how age difference, origin heterogamy, and ethnic heterogamy of the spouses associate with educational heterogamy. Results: The results indicate a positive relationship between educational heterogamy and marrying outside one's own ethnic or origin group, but no effect for spousal age difference. Conclusions: Our study provides new evidence about marriage markets during modernisation, specifically regarding the role of education. We show that educationally heterogamous unions in Tartu were often also more heterogamous in terms of partners' background characteristics. This suggests that the partner's education may have motivated intermarriage by ethnicity and origin. Contribution: Previous literature on this period has focused on social homogamy based on occupational information, while research on educational assortative mating mostly exists for the second half of the 20th century and later. We contribute by studying the importance of education in marital selection in the early phase of educational expansion and economic modernisation.

Drawing on data from the American Community Survey, we compare patterns of assortative mating in first marriages, remarriages, and mixed-order marriages. We identify a number of ascribed and achieved characteristics that are viewed as resources available for exchange, both as complements and substitutes. We apply conditional logit models to show how patterns of assortative mating among never-married and previously married persons are subject to local marriage market opportunities and constraints. The results reveal that previously married individuals “cast a wider net”: spousal pairings are more heterogamous among remarriages than among first marriages. Marital heterogamy, however, is reflected in systematic evidence of trade-offs showing that marriage order (i.e., status of being never-married) is a valued trait for exchange. Never-married persons are better positioned than previously married persons to marry more attractive marital partners, variously measured (e.g., highly educated partners). Previously married persons—especially women—are disadvantaged in the marriage market, facing demographic shortages of potential partners to marry. Marriage market constraints take demographic expression in low remarriage rates and in heterogamous patterns of mate selection in which previously married partners often substitute other valued characteristics in marriage with never-married persons.

This paper presents the general determinations of interculturalism, intercultural communication, marriage and mixed marriage. Attention is directed to the general conditions that are conducive to mixed marriages, as well as the conditions that inhibit them. In the focus of consideration are the mixed marriages in Vojvodina and features of heterogamy that occurs in this region, while the analysis derived from the available data of the 2011 Census in Serbia. Special attention was paid to the frequency of heterogeneous marriages in relation to the total number of marriages in Vojvodina for the period from 2003 to 2013. The paper also discusses some indicators of the manifestation of interculturalism in mixed marriages, and points to the need and possible directions for their more detailed study.

Горанци склапају углавном етнички хомогене бракове. Постоји такође пракса избора брачног партнера у оквиру једног села. Сеоска ендогамија је присутна у оквиру горанске заједнице у континуитету један дужи период. Миграције становништва из Горе обележиле су како 20. тако и почетак 21. века. Уколико узмемо у обзир да Гора представља средину са интензивним и бројним исељавањима становништва и да миграције могу да утичу на промене у оквиру постојеће праксе избора брачног партнера, питање везе између миграција горанског становништва и етничке хомогамије/хетерогамије се чини потпуно оправданим. Нарочито ако се узме у обзир да већина мојих саговорника подржава праксу склапања хомогамних бракова јер сматра да она доприноси складним односима у браку и практиковању културних особености горанске заједнице. У раду сагледавам и образлажем праксу избора брачних партнера код Горанаца који живе у Београду и Тутину. Друга половина 20. и прва деценија 21. века чине хронолошки оквир истраживања. На основу анализа емпиријске грађе и релевантне литературе закључујем да миграције нису значајније утицале на праксу избора брачног партнера. Уједно закључујем да етнички хомогамни бракови не успоравају процес интеграције. For the most part, the Gorani enter ethnically homogenous marriages. Marrying into the same village is also a common practice. This village endogamy has continuously been present in the Gorani community for a longer period of time. Migration of population from the Gora region has been characteristic for the most of the 20 th century and the beginning of the 21 st . Considering the fact that Gora is an area of intensive and populous emigration and that migrations can influence changes in the current practices of choosing the spouse, the issue of the relation between the Gorani migrations and ethnic homogamy/endogamy seems entirely relevant. This also stands true given that the majority of the informants endorse the practice of homogamous marriages, believing that it contributes to harmonious relations in the marriage and to practicing of the Gorani community’s cultural specificities. In this paper I am presenting and interpreting the practices of choosing marital partners among the Gorani living in Belgrade and Tutin from the second half of the 20 th until the beginning of the 21 st century. Based on the analysis of the empirical data and relevant literature I argue that migrations have not significantly influenced the practice of the selection of the spouse, as well as that ethnically homogamous marriages are not slowing down the process of integration. Тема броја – Истраживање миграција (ур. Јадранка Ђорђевић Црнобрња и Мирослава Лукић Крстановић) / Topic of the Issue – Research of Migrations (eds. Jadranka Đorđević Crnobrnja and Miroslava Lukić Krstanović)

Although most Americans have limited interpersonal relations with different-race others, interracial ties are notably more common among gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals. Departing from the modal explanation of intergroup relations theories, which suggests that individual propensities for between-group interactions are driven by demographic groups’ physical location relative to one another, we show that, beyond propinquity, GLB interraciality is spiked through active identification as GLB. We evaluate full romantic/sexual partnership histories along with friendship network racial compositions for respondents in a large, nationally representative sample. We show that GLBs have a greater likelihood and frequency than heterosexuals of forming multiple types of interracial ties and also that this effect applies only to those who actively identify as GLB and not to those who engage in same-sex relations but do not identify as GLB. This discovery refines theories of intergroup relations, isolating how identification serves as a mediating mechanism that can heighten the propensity for intergroup interaction. We argue that active identification with a group that crosses racial boundaries spurs overriding the rigidity of intergroup borders that otherwise dissuade interpersonal diversity.

By integrating the complementary needs theory of mate selection and the notion of complementary assets into the research of family business, we propose that three components of spousal capital comp...

This study examines patterns of homogamy and heterogamy and their implications for couple’s fertility behaviour. Data were obtained from demographic and health surveys conducted in Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia between 2001 and 2014. The study population were couples in a monogamous union where wives were aged 35 years and over: 1785 in Ghana, 3185 in Nigeria and 3175 in Zambia. Results of the descriptive analysis show that educational, religious and ethnic homogamy and occupational heterogamy were predominant among the couples and mean children ever born varied according to couples’ characteristics. The significant predictors of fertility as revealed in the multivariate analysis included educational homogamy and heterogamy, occupational homogamy, age difference and religious and ethnic homogamy. To expedite fertility transition in the three countries and other sub-Saharan African countries, programmes and policies aimed at reducing fertility in the region should incorporate strategies that focus on t...

Many young Protestants in the Chinese city of Xiamen marry a non-Christian spouse. How does religious heterogamy illuminate the social and ritual boundaries created by Protestants in Xiamen? Considering the function and permeability of these metaphoric boundaries, how should we visualize them? This article draws on data collected between August 2014 and February 2016. Intermarriage with non-Christians is condemned by most ministers in Xiamen, but it is an essential option for young women who far outnumber marriageable men in most church communities. The resulting weddings are marked by a search for compromises among the bride and groom, their parents, and the social communities for whom their parents host the wedding. It is argued that in terms of function and permeability, the social and ritual boundaries of Protestantism in Xiamen are less like barbed-wire fences than like the gates of a subway system, or the emergency exit of a shopping mall. Since a central aim of Chinese Protestants is to recruit more people to the faith, there is room for women to briefly exit the community and to re-enter with a converted husband. This focus on boundaries as metaphors may contribute to the field of interreligious studies, where boundaries are a key concept.

Thèse sous la direction de Michel Bozon

Social cohesion – particularly with regard to the integration of migrants – is primarily measured in terms of education, labour market participation, unemployment, income levels and poverty. When seen from a historical long-term perspective (considering the migrations of Homo sapiens in the past 300,000 years) admixture merged members of diverse groups and forged – in addition to social ties – ‘strong biological ties’ of kinship, proposing that religious heterogamy is a long-term layer of social cohesion. Accordingly, this study investigated, on the basis of more than 600,000 men and women aged 26–35 years from Austria 2001, Germany (West) 1987, Ireland 2011, Portugal 2011, Romania 2011 and Switzerland 2000, which demographic characteristics foster religious heterogamy, controlling for various confounding factors using linear mixed modelling. By far the most important factor explaining religious heterogamy was the share of adherents to an individual’s religious group in their area of residence. It can be concluded that the rate of intermarriage declines with the increasing size of an individual’s religious group in their area of residence. From a long-term perspective the lack of familial ties (and conjoint offspring) between religious groups could lead to a lack of social cohesion.

Phenotypic invariance—the outcome of purifying selection—is a hallmark of biological importance. However, invariant phenotypes might be controlled by diverged genetic systems in different species. Here, we explore how an important and invariant phenotype—the development of sexually differentiated individuals—is controlled in over two dozen species in the frog family Pipidae. We uncovered evidence in different species for 1) an ancestral W chromosome that is not found in many females and is found in some males, 2) independent losses and 3) autosomal segregation of this W chromosome, 4) changes in male versus female heterogamy, and 5) substantial variation among species in recombination suppression on sex chromosomes. We further provide evidence of, and evolutionary context for, the origins of at least seven distinct systems for regulating sex determination among three closely related genera. These systems are distinct in their genomic locations, evolutionary origins, and/or male versus female heterogamy. Our findings demonstrate that the developmental control of sexual differentiation changed via loss, sidelining, and empowerment of a mechanistically influential gene, and offer insights into novel factors that impinge on the diverse evolutionary fates of sex chromosomes.

Contrary to expectations of joint decision-making, a substantial minority of older married couples report only one spouse possessing an advance directive. Using Health and Retirement Study data, the authors examined advance directive discordance among heterosexual married couples in which at least one spouse had completed an advance directive. It was predicted that spouses who differed in age, self-rated health, or race/ethnicity would be more apt to adopt individualistic as opposed to relational motivational stances, resulting in higher odds of nonmatching advance directive status. Heterogamy did not account for discordance, but couples in which one or both spouses attended some college were more likely to report advance directive concordance. In contrast, couples in which one or both spouses were non-White were more likely to display advance directive discordance. Study results raise concerns about the effectiveness and reach of advance care planning promotion efforts among low-education and non-White older married adults.

This study examines the effect of religious heterogamy on the transmission of religion from one generation to the next. Using data from 37 countries in the 2008 Religion III Module of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), I conduct a cross-national analysis of the relationship between parents&rsquo, religious heterogamy and their adult childrens&rsquo, religious lives. By estimating fixed effects regression models, I adjust for national-level confounders to examine patterns of association between having interreligious parents during childhood and level of adult religiosity as measured by self-rated religiousness, belief in God, and frequencies of religious attendance and prayer. The results indicate that having religiously heterogamous parents or parents with dissimilar religious attendance patterns are both associated with lower overall religiosity in respondents. Parents&rsquo, religious attendance, however, mediates the relationship when each parent has a different religion. Having one unaffiliated parent is associated with lower religiosity regardless of parents&rsquo, levels of religious attendance. The negative impact of parents&rsquo, religious heterogamy on religious inheritance is independent of national-level factors and has implications for anticipating changes in the religious landscapes of societies characterized by religious diversity and growing numbers of interreligious marriages.

Using data from a nationally representative sample of married fathers of school-aged children, we examined the association between religious heterogamy of parents and fathers&rsquo, involvement in children&rsquo, s lives. We further examined whether that association is mediated by marital quality and father&ndash, child religious discord. Results showed that greater religious heterogamy is associated with less interaction and more relational distance between fathers and children. Results also suggested that fathers&rsquo, reports of marital happiness play an important role in mediating the association between religious heterogamy and paternal engagement. We concluded that religious fathers are more involved in their children&rsquo, s lives insofar as their wives are equally religious and they are in happy marriages.

International audience; In the last decade, progress has been made in methods to identify the sex determination system in plants. This gives the opportunity to study sex chromosomes that arose independently at different phylogenetic scales, and thus allows the discovery and the understanding of early stages of sex chromosome evolution. In the genus Silene, sex chromosomes have evolved independently in at least two clades from a nondioecious ancestor, the Melandrium and Otites sections. In the latter, sex chromosomes could be younger than in the section Melandrium, based on phylogenetic studies and as no heteromorphic sex chromosomes have been detected. This section might also exhibit lability in sex determination, because male heterogamy and female heterogamy have been suggested to occur. In this study, we investigated the sex determination system of two dioecious species in the section Otites (Silene otites and its close relative Silene pseudotites). Applying the new probabilistic method SEX-DETector on RNA-seq data from cross-controlled progenies, we inferred their most likely sex determination system and a list of putative autosomal and sex-linked contigs. We showed that the two phylogenetically close species differed in their sex determination system (XY versus ZW) with sex chromosomes that derived from two different pairs of autosomes. We built a genetic map of the sex chromosomes and showed that both pairs exhibited a large region with lack of recombination. However, the sex-limited chromosomes exhibited no strong degeneration. Finally, using the "ancestral" autosomal expression of sex-linked orthologs of nondioecious S. nutans, we found a slight signature of dosage compensation in the heterogametic females of S. otites.

This study analyses social heterogamy in western and southern Finland during the early stages of industrialisation, from 1700 to 1910. Marriage patterns are examined by comparing the social classes of spouses' parents, which can be understood as the social origin of the spouse. The rate of heterogamy within the freeholder class was only 19.8%, whereas it was 71.1% in the upper classes, 59.7% in the tenant class and 76.5% in the labour class. In addition, only roughly 20-30% of grooms whose fathers were landowners married brides from lower social classes. Certain individual- and family-level characteristics increased the odds of a heterogamous marriage: remarrying, age difference, being an illegitimate child or a single mother, and the first marriages of those in the labour class. Regarding macro-level variables, we found that higher rates of emigration and poor-relief recipients, along with having a larger Finnish-speaking population, led to higher levels of heterogamy. Other issues increasing the odds of heterogamy included living in the more urbanised or industrialised regions and moving to different regions. This study identified strict marriage patterns, which did not significantly change with respect to heterogamy. Nevertheless, indications exist that industrialisation and urbanisation began eroding the prevailing traditions.

Interracial couples continue to grow in numbers, though there has been little research aimed to understand the experiences and unique challenges of this population. Among these challenges are stressors associated with the interplay between cultural differences and similarities. In this paper, we present an intervention called the visible invisible grid, that can be used to help interracial and intercultural couples discuss their invisible and visible differences and similarities. To illustrate the intervention, a case example is provided along with contraindications and clinical implications.

The authors assessed how the relative age of spouses affects whether men or women initiate a divorce, using data from the National Survey of Families and Households. Ex-spouses' reports of who left generally agreed, but not always, so the analysis used a latent class model embedded in an event-history model with competing risks that the woman leaves the man or the man leaves the woman. Support was not found for the hypothesis that age heterogamy itself increases the odds of divorce: Even large age differences did not make men more likely to leave younger wives, and women's exits were as likely when the marriage is homogamous as when she was older. The main conclusion is that both men and women are more likely to leave if their spouse is older than they are. The effects were stronger for men, but the gender difference in effect size was not statistically significant.

Past research on religious homogamy has struggled to distinguish whether religiosity or homogamy has a stronger impact on preventing a marital dissolution. To rectify this problem, I use a latent class approach to compare couples with various forms of partner religiosity and similarity. Based on 707 newlywed couples from the Marriage Matters survey (1998–2004), I discovered four latent classes: “holy” couples (both partners are highly religious), “nonattending” couples (both partners identify as religious but don’t regularly attend services), “unbalanced” couples (the wife is religious but the husband is not), and “secular” couples (both partners are not religious). Findings indicate that holy, nonattending, and unbalanced couples experience less odds of divorce compared with secular couples, suggesting that religiosity in a variety of forms is more important than partner similarity in avoiding divorce.

This study examines whether family patterns (social origin of family, marital SES, arranged marriage, higher family size norm, and patriarchal family structure (e.g., extended/joint family, patrilocal residence, and family authority) affect age-heterogamy in marriage in rural Bangladesh. One thousand seven hundred fifty-five pairs of married couples for research purpose were randomly selected from Tanore Upazila of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. The selected couples (e.g., both husband and wife) were individually interviewed, using questionnaire method (e.g., open-ended and close-ended questions). The collected data were analyzed, applying Spearman’s rank order bivariate correlation, X 2 test, and binary logistic regression. Descriptive findings indicated that most of the couples (76.58 %) studied were age-heterogamous than age-homogenous (23.42 %) in the study area. Results suggested that age-heterogamous marriages than age-homogamous marriages were significantly associated with ethnicity, marital SES, family income, arranged marriage norms, patrilocal residence, and autocratic family authority, adjusting for sex, age, age at marriage, and marital duration. Of the predicting factors, Muslim ethnicity, lower marital SES, middle family income, arranged marriage, middle family size, patrilocal residence, and autocratic family authority were the greatest (1–3 % times) risks factors to persist age-heterogamous marriages among the married couples in rural Bangladesh. This research found that age-heterogamous marriages than age-homogamous marriages were significantly associated with Muslim collective identity than Santal identity, hyper marital SES, arranged marriage, middle family size, and patriarchal family structure (patrilocal residence and men’s absolute authority than other characteristics in the family in rural Bangladesh, adjusting for current age, age at first marriage, and marital duration. The findings may have implications in social policy practice with age-heterogamous married couples in rural Bangladesh.

Marriage research consistently shows that spousal religiosity is positively associated with higher marital quality and stability (for reviews, see Mahoney, 2010; Mahoney, Pargament, Tara- keshwar, & Swank, 2008; Waite & Lehrer, 2003). Yet, with few exceptions (e.g., Brown, Orbuch, & Bauermeister, 2008; Bulanda & Brown, 2007; Ellison, Burdette, & Wilcox, 2010; Wilcox & Wolfinger, 2007), the majority of studies linking religious commitment to marriage outcomes have ignored the potential moderating influence of race and ethnicity. This is a notable oversight, for two reasons. First, religious beliefs and practices often shape social life differently across racial and ethnic groups as a consequence of differential access to power and collective group exposure to stigma, discrimination, and socioeconomic deprivation (Taylor, Chatters, & Levin, 2004). Because religion may function differently according to racial and ethnic identity, it is reasonable to suspect that the link between religion and marriage outcomes may also vary according to racial and ethnic identity. Second, scholars have noted the paradoxical finding that whereas religious commitment is positively associated with marital quality, racial and ethnic minorities, who tend to be more religious than non-Hispanic Whites (Espinosa, Elizondo, M Taylor et al., 2004), consistently report lower marital quality relative to non-Hispanic Whites (Broman, 1993; Bulanda & Brown, 2007; Cherlin, 1998; Raley & Sweeney, 2009). This paradox also suggests that the religion-marriage link may differ across racial and ethnic groups.Among the few studies that have examined how race and ethnicity potentially moderate the association between religion and marriage outcomes the focus has either been limited to predicting marriage entry or its dissolution (Brown et al., 2008;Wilcox W Ellison, Trinitapoli, Anderson, & Johnson, 2007; Ellison et al., 2010). Drawing on insights from deprivation theory as well as recent research on religious intimacy, in the present study I shifted the focus to examine how perceived spousal religiosity (holding constant a respondent's own religious characteristics) may be associated with greater returns or benefits to marital quality for particular racial and ethnic groups. To accomplish this, I analyzed data on married Americans from the nationally representative 2006 Portraits of American Life Study (PALS; http://www.thearda.com/pals/). Before I describe the present study in detail, in the following sections I briefly survey what is known about the links among religion, race, ethnicity, and marriage outcomes. I draw on this research to generate expectations about the potential moderating effect of racial and ethnic identity on the relationship between perceived spousal religiosity and marital quality.Religion and Marital QualityWithin the enormous body of research on religion and marriage outcomes (see Mahoney, 2010; Mahoney et al., 2008), findings consistently underscore the importance of religious homogamy in predicting marital quality and stability. Spouses who are homogamous in terms of religious practice (Call & Heaton, 1997; Heaton, 1984; Myers, 2006; Shehan, Bock, & Lee, 1990), broad religious tradition or denominational affiliation (Heaton, 2002; Heaton & Pratt, 1990; Lehrer & Chiswick, 1993; Ortega, Whitt, & William, 1988; Wilson & Musick, 1996), and beliefs (Curtis & Ellison, 2002; Ellison et al., 2010; Lichter & Carmalt, 2009; Vaaler, Ellison, & Powers, 2009) are less likely to separate or divorce, and their marriages are more satisfying for both partners. Conversely, marriages in which there is a good deal of heterogamy in the areas of religious practice, identity, or belief tend to have lower marital quality and stability (Call & Heaton, 1997; Curtis & Ellison, 2002; Lehrer & Chiswick, 1993; Lichter & Carmalt, 2009; Perry, 2015a; Waite & Lehrer, 2003). …

Ahmadiyya has a different concept of kafā’ah in marriage compared to several Muslims communities. The majority of Muslim scholars agree the main factor of kafā’ah in marriage is religiosity which is interpreted as theistic and moral, but Ahmadiyya interprets it as religious commonality. As a result, an Ahmadi woman is forbidden to marry a non-Ahmadi man. Meanwhile, an Ahmadi man is allowed to marry a non-Ahmadi woman, even a non-Muslim woman. Any adherent who violates the provision will be removed from the sect as an organizational sanction. Related to the facts, this paper aims to discuss the motivation, strategy, and goal of the provision. It uses a descriptive-analytic approach to analyze kafā’ah provision in Ahmadiyya literature with homogamy and heterogamy concepts. The results of this study show that the provision is motivated by historical and social factors, such as group discrimination, operational prohibitions, physical and non-physical violence. In addition, Ahmadiyya implements a homogamous-heterogamy concept in the provision as a strategy to preserve its teachings and resist its adherents from other religious affiliations. The provision has been preserving the existence of Ahmadiyya from its establishment to the present. Keywords: Ahmdiyya, Kafā’ah, Homogamy, Heterogamy

Advance directives are used to communicate preferences about future life-sustaining treatment. Most research treats advance directive completion as an individual health behavior. Scholars have recently highlighted the importance of understanding how spouses may influence one another’s planning. Prior research suggests spousal heterogamy influences health behaviors. Using dyadic data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examined how spousal age, education, and health heterogamy related to discordant advance directive completion among heterosexual married couples (65+). Just under 30% of 1,611 couples displayed advance directive discordance. Odds of only one spouse possessing an advance directive increased when the wife was 3+ years older (OR = 1.74, p < .01) and when the wife had more education (OR=1.63, p

Assortative mating provides an indicator of integration and fragmentation in modern societies, and of shifting social boundaries between groups. Assortative mating is expressed in both marital homogamy (likes marrying likes) and heterogamy, variously labeled exogamy, out-marriage, or intermarriage. The goal of this chapter is to demonstrate the great progress—both conceptually and methodologically—in studies of assortative mating over the past 25 years. It provides a forward-looking view of key research questions on assortative mating in rapidly globalizing societies and emerging data analytical problems that increasingly require new data, measurement frameworks, and statistical or empirical approaches. The rise of cross-cutting social circles in an increasingly globalized environment, in an age of the internet of growing interpersonal connectivity (i.e., social media), and on-going reductions in the constraints of space suggest new research questions that will create new opportunities for innovation and build on a rich theoretical and research tradition in family demography.

There exists extraordinary variation among species in the degree and nature of sex chromosome divergence. However, much of our knowledge about sex chromosomes is based on comparisons between deeply diverged species with different ancestral sex chromosomes, making it difficult to establish how fast and why sex chromosomes acquire variable levels of divergence. To address this problem, we studied sex chromosome evolution in two species of African clawed frog (Xenopus), both of whom acquired novel systems for sex determination from a recent common ancestor, and both of whom have female (ZW/ZZ) heterogamy. Derived sex chromosomes of one species, X. laevis, have a small region of suppressed recombination that surrounds the sex determining locus, and have remained this way for millions of years. In the other species, X. borealis, a younger sex chromosome system exists on a different pair of chromosomes, but the region of suppressed recombination surrounding an unidentified sex determining gene is vast, spanning almost half of the sex chromosomes. Differences between these sex chromosome systems are also apparent in the extent of nucleotide divergence between the sex chromosomes carried by females. Our analyses also indicate that in autosomes of both of these species, recombination during oogenesis occurs more frequently and in different genomic locations than during spermatogenesis. These results demonstrate that new sex chromosomes can assume radically different evolutionary trajectories, with far-reaching genomic consequences. They also suggest that in some instances the origin of new triggers for sex determination may be coupled with rapid evolution sex chromosomes, including recombination suppression of large genomic regions.

When it comes to heterosexual relationships, choosing a slightly older man is the norm for women around the world, a partnering practice referred to as age hypergamy. In the United States, husbands marrying for the first time are, on average, 2 years older than their wives (Darroch, Landry, & Oslak, 1999; Vera, Berardo, & Berardo, 1985). Overall, nearly one third of all husbands in the United States are at least 4 years older than their wives, but the reverse (known as age hypogamy) is much less frequent. Indeed, census data suggest that only 7.7% of wives are at least 4 years older than their husband (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2012, Table FG3). Empirical work has shown that age hypergamy is not only quite common for marital unions but also for sexual relationships more broadly, that is, regardless of the commitment level in the relationship. For instance, Darroch et al. (1999) looked at the age gap between women and their main sex partner and found that 38% of women age 15-44 were in a sexual relationship with a man at least 3 years older than they; in comparison, only 10% of women were sleeping with a man at least 3 years their junior.Over the past decade, there has been an increasing number of media portrayals and discussions about "cougars"-the term often used to refer to middle-aged women engaging in age-hypogamous sexual relationships- suggesting that we are witnessing the rise of a new phenomenon. For instance, television shows such as Sex and the City (1998-2004) and Cougar Town (2009-present) or movies such as Prime (2005) and Adore (2013) portray middle-aged women having sexual relationships with younger men. There is also a growing consumer market for "cougars," with a proliferation of books advising women on how to find a younger male partner (e.g., Gibson, 2002), dating websites (e.g., https://cougarlife.com), parties, annual meetings, and boat cruises organized for women interested in younger men.The media portrayals of age hypogamy in heterosexual relationships often present "cougars" as White, affluent, and successful women. Furthermore, women's relationships with younger men are generally depicted as temporary flings that rarely culminate into a serious commitment (Kaklamanidou, 2012; Tally, 2006). Cultural representations of women engaging in age-hypogamous relationships are not always positive; indeed, scholars have shown that media depictions of "cougars" often hold these women up for ridicule or present them as somewhat dangerous (Barrett & Levin, 2014; Collard, 2012; Kaklamanidou, 2012). In many ways, the term "cougar" is culturally loaded, given that it includes these negative stereotypes (Montemurro & Siefken, 2014). To avoid such negative connotations, hereafter we refer to older woman-younger man relationships as age-hypogamous sexual relationships.At present, there is little academic research on the occurrence of age-hypogamous sexual relationships. This can be attributed in part to the fact that little scholarly attention has been directed at improving our understanding of middle-aged women's sexuality beyond health-related studies (Gannon, 1999; Montemurro & Siefken, 2014; Rostosky & Brown, 2000). The limited amount of scholarship that has addressed age heterogamy between heterosexual partners has tended to focus almost exclusively on married couples and has virtually ignored those involved in less committed relationships. As a consequence, our knowledge about the prevalence of age-hypogamous sexual relationships (regardless of the commitment level) is very limited. Furthermore, it is unclear who these women are and to what extent they conform to the media depictions of "cougars."With this study, we began to fill this gap in the literature by answering two primary research questions, using detailed data on sexual relationships drawn from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) 2002 (see http://www.cdc. gov/nchs/nsfg.htm). First, how prevalent are age-hypogamous sexual relationships in the United States? …

O objetivo deste artigo é conhecer os principais tipos de relações matrimoniais que se estabelecem entre pessoas de nacionalidade espanhola e brasileira. Os dados foram obtidos a partir da consulta ao Movimento Natural da População (MNP). Os resultados mostram que as uniões entre os nacionais do Brasil residentes em Espanha e a população espanhola são um fenómeno em crescimento desde 2005. Destacam-se especialmente as relações entre os espanhóis e as brasileiras. Conclui-se, também, que as uniões homossexuais são mais frequentes entre homens brasileiros e espanhóis do que entre mulheres de ambos os países. Da mesma forma, pode-se comprovar que as uniões homossexuais entre as duas nacionalidades, de 2005 a 2010, são mais heterogâmicas que as estabelecidas pelos heterossexuais., The the aim of this paper is to identify the main marriage patterns that develop between people of Spanish and Brazilian nationality. The data are obtained from Natural Population Movement (MNP). The results show that unions between nationals of Brazil residents in Spain and Spaniards are a growing phenomenon since 2005. Particularly noteworthy are the links established between Spanish and Brazilian. And homosexual unions are more prevalent among Brazilian and Spanish men than among women of both countries. Similarly, it is observed that homosexual mixed marriages from 2005 to 2010 are more heterogamous than heterosexual mixed marriages., Le but de cet article est d’identifier les principaux modèles de mariage qui sont établis entre les personnes de nationalité espagnole et brésilienne. Les données ont été obtenues à partir du Mouvement naturel de la population (MNP). Les résultats montrent que les mariages entre ressortissants du Brésil et de l’Espagne sont un phénomène croissant depuis 2005. Particulièrement remarquables sont les liens établis entre les espagnols et les brésiliennes. Et les unions homosexuelles sont plus fréquentes entre des hommes brésiliens et espagnols que parmi les femmes brésiliennes des deux pays. De même, on observe que les mariages mixtes homosexuels de 2005 à 2010 sont plus hétérogames que celles établis par des hétérosexuels., El objetivo de este trabajo es identificar los principales patrones matrimoniales que se establecen entre las personas de nacionalidad española y brasileña. Los datos se obtienen a partir del Movimiento Natural de la Población (MNP). Los resultados muestran que las uniones entre nacionales brasileños residentes en España y los españoles son un fenómeno creciente desde 2005. Particularmente digno de mención son los vínculos que se establecen entre el español y la brasileña. Y las uniones homosexuales son más frecuentes entre hombres brasileños y españoles que entre mujeres de ambos países. De igual modo, se observa que las uniones mixtas homosexuales desde 2005 hasta 2010 son más heterógamas que las heterosexuales.

Objectives Prior research points to the importance of couple-level religious similarity for multiple dimensions of partnership quality and stability but few studies have investigated whether this association holds for older couples. Method The current article uses dyadic data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a representative sample of 953 individuals age 62–91 plus their marital or cohabiting partners. We use modified actor-partner interdependence models. Results Religious service heterogamy predicted lower relationship happiness and satisfaction. Both associations were partially explained by the fact that religiously dissimilar partners report relatively little free time in joint activity. Further, religiously heterogamous couples had less frequent sex and engaged in less nonsexual touch than their more similar counterparts. Conclusions Taken together, results attest to the ongoing importance of religious similarity—service attendance, in particular—for partnership quality in late life. Future research is needed to more fully examine which mechanisms account for these patterns.

Background: Very little is known about recent marriage differentials by education in times of marriage decline and economic restructuring in East Asia. Objective: This study aims to contribute to family research in Asia by investigating educational variations in retreat from marriage and mate selection in Taiwan. Methods: This study applied Schoen's (1988) harmonic-mean two-sex marriage propensity approach to nationwide marriage registration data to examine the changing marriage patterns by education in Taiwan between 2000 and 2010. Results: The findings show that the drop in marriage rates is particularly drastic among the least educated. Marriage has become more prevalent and affordable for better-educated Taiwanese. Additionally, the proportion of educationally homogamous marriages has increased, and the share of female-hypergamous marriages of all heterogamy also increased from 2000 to 2010. Decomposition analyses show that these changes are mainly due to decreased marriage propensities, not to the availability of eligible partners. Educational and sex variations in marriage intentions, gender-role and marriage values, and the changing economic structure and financial well-being of young adults were investigated as potential causes. Conclusions: Period marriage differentials by education have reversed from negative to positive in post-millennium Taiwan. A continued reliance on men‟s economic resources is also observed. Differences in gender-role values and economic well-being across social groups are plausible reasons for these family changes. Comments: More research is needed to unravel the impact of education on men and women's family formation prospects and how social inequality may be reinforced and reproduced through matrimony in Asia.

This article examines the effects of parental educational levels on the art/heritage and pop/rock participation of adolescents. We use a subset of adolescents from the survey ‘Cultural Participation in Flanders 2003–2004’ (N = 1030) to test the relative effects of the educational levels of the mother and father. Using diagonal reference models, we find that the parent with the highest educational level – regardless of whether it is the father or mother – has the largest influence on the cultural participation of their children, which can be interpreted as a status maximization effect. However, we also find that a lower educated mother still has an influence on art and heritage participation and a lower educated father still has an influence on pop and rock participation. These results highlight the need to reassess the influence of the mother in the Bourdieusian framework. Furthermore, they have important implications for the conceptualization and operationalization of the social status position of families.

We study the determinants of intra-household decision-making responsibility over economic and financial choices using a direct measure provided in the 1989–2010 Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth. We find that the probability that the wife is responsible for decisions increases as the wife's characteristics in terms of age, education and income become closer or even higher than those of her husband's. Thus, consistently with a bargaining approach, decision-making responsibility is associated with marriage heterogamy, and not only along strictly economic dimensions. However, in support of an alternative household production approach, we also find that the probability that the wife is responsible is lower when she is employed, which suggests the presence of a specialization pattern assigning responsibility to the spouse with more available time. Our results are robust to additional controls and alternative samples.

Although the impact of widowhood on the surviving spouse's health has been widely documented, there is little empirical research examining whether certain spousal choice decisions and marital sorting patterns predispose individuals to be more vulnerable to the adverse consequences of widowhood for health.We use data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and employ ordinary least squares models to (a) document variations in mental and physical health between married and widowed persons, (b) determine whether widowed persons in age heterogamous unions are especially vulnerable to the adverse consequences of widowhood, and (c) investigate to what extent differential selection, marital quality, and health practices account for health disparities by marital status and the spousal age gap.Widowed persons, especially those in age heterogamous unions, have worse mental health than married persons, but they do not seem to be more disadvantaged in terms of physical health. Differential selection, marital quality, and health behaviors partly account for some of the health disparities by marital status and spousal age gap.Our findings suggest that marrying a spouse who is very dissimilar in age may enhance one's vulnerability to the adverse consequences of widowhood for health.

A common stereotype holds that in Mexico male violence toward women is common among indigenous peoples and reflects cultural norms that sanction a male's domination of his female partner. We employ a recent Mexican survey to examine the relative risk of violence against women as a function of the couple's ethnic homogamy. Among couples in which both partners are either non-indigenous or indigenous the female's risk of partner violence is similar. Among heterogamous couples non-indigenous females in relationships in which the male is indigenous are at elevated risk of violence, while indigenous women in relationships with non-indigenous males are at a lower risk of violence. The stresses associated with heterogamy appear to be more salient in determining a woman's risk of violence than ethnicity per se. The implications for future research and the need to deal with the issue of ethnic homogamy in culturally heterogeneous populations are discussed.

BACKGROUNDIn their pioneering research, Becker, Landes, and Michael (1977) found that beyond age 30 there is a positive relationship between women's age at first marriage and marital instability. They interpreted this finding as a "poor-match effect" emerging when the biological clock begins to tick.OBJECTIVEOur objective was to ascertain with more recent data whether or not there is evidence of a poor match effect and if so, whether it is associated with higher marital instability.METHODSWe used data on non-Hispanic white women from the 2006-2010 National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG) (N = 3,184).RESULTSWe found evidence of the existence of a poor-match effect: women who delay marriage disproportionately make unconventional matches, which are generally associated with high marital instability. We also found, however, that their unions are very solid. Both of these results were consistent with earlier findings for the 1995 and 2002-2003 NSFG cycles. In attempting to explain this puzzle, we proposed and tested competing hypotheses. We found that the destabilizing effects associated with indicators of unconventional matches are also present in marriages contracted late, but are dwarfed by the stabilizing influences associated with higher levels of education and older ages.CONCLUSIONSThis paper contributes to our understanding of the determinants of marital instability and the poor match effect by providing a new interpretation for the puzzle described above.COMMENTSOur findings have implications for analyses of changes over time in the extent of positive assortative mating in the marriage market, and for the extensive literature showing that heterogamy in traits that are complementary in the context of marriage is destabilizing - heterogamous marriages contracted at a late age are likely to be stable.1. IntroductionThe steady increase in age at first marriage has been one of the most salient demographic trends in the U.S. landscape in recent decades. The median age rose from 20 and 23 for women and men, respectively, in 1950-1960, to 26 and 28 in 2010 (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). Several factors contributed to this trend, including the development of oral contraception and the legalization of abortion, the growth in cohabitation, changes in household technology, and the decline in the male-female wage gap (Cherlin 2004; Goldin and Katz 2002; Greenwood and Guner 2008; Isen and Stevenson 2012). The focus of this paper is on the growing number of women in the U.S. who are entering marriage in their late twenties or thereafter: What are the characteristics of the unions that they form? Are such unions stable?Two main theoretical concepts are relevant to these questions. First, Becker (1974) developed the idea that in the optimal sorting, there is positive assortative mating (mating of likes) for traits that are complementary within the context of marriage (e.g., education, age, religion, race/ ethnicity) and negative assortative mating (mating of people who are dissimilar) for those that are substitutes (e.g., productivity characteristics). When such sorting does not occur along important dimensions, so that there is a mismatch and the resulting gains from marriage are low, the outcome is a high probability of divorce (Becker, Landes, and Michael 1977; Becker 1990). Expanding on these insights, Oppenheimer (1988) advanced the notion of a "maturity effect:" marriages contracted at an early age are at a higher risk of disruption because they are more likely to be based on mistaken expectations. At young ages individuals have inadequate self-knowledge and are uncertain about their own and their partners' potential trajectories. Moreover, some of their adult attributes have not yet emerged, making assortative mating by such traits impossible. The maturity effect postulates that postponement of entry into first marriage has a stabilizing influence for all these reasons. …

This study investigates the effect of native/immigrant intermarriage on divorce. We used a rich longitudinal dataset from the German Socio-Economic Panel and applied event-history techniques to examine the risk of divorce among immigrants in Germany. Our analysis of the divorce rates of 5,648 marriages shows that immigrant couples have a lower risk of divorce than do natives. However, marriages between German-born individuals and immigrants have a higher likelihood of separation than marriages between two German-born individuals or between immigrants from the same country, supporting the exogamy hypothesis. This pattern largely persists when controlling for the socio-demographic and human-capital characteristics of the spouses. The divorce risk increases with the cultural distance between the partners and when the spouses demonstrate differences in their social backgrounds, also supporting the heterogamy hypothesis and the selectivity hypothesis. We found no support for the adaptation and convergence hypotheses. Divorce levels for mixed marriages are neither similar to the levels of one of the constituent origin groups, nor do they fall between the levels of the two groups; the divorce levels for native/immigrant marriages are higher than those for endogamous marriages.

INTRODUCTIONMany studies have found that ethnic heterogamy, or exogamy, is associated with increased dissolution risks of marriages and cohabiting unions (Jones, 1996; Finnas, 1997; Kalmijn et al., 2005; Dribe and Lundh, 2012; Saarela and Finnas, 2014). As compared with ethnically homogamous unions, partners of ethnically mixed unions can be assumed to have more divergent cultural norms, values and tastes, which will make it more difficult to make joint decisions about the future, including plans about marriage, childbearing, and upbringing (Kalmijn, 1998). In that perspective, the relatively high dissolution risk of ethnically mixed couples comes as no surprise.The traditional approach has been to use information about the ethnic affiliation of each partner in the couple, as generally recorded in population censuses of different countries. In unions with children, additional insights into the relation between ethnic heterogamy and union stability can be gained by infomation about how the offspring is ethnically categorised. To our knowledge, this approach has not been fully utilised in previous research. In this paper, we demonstrate how it can be accomplished using data from Finland.The decisions made after union formation may be more thoughtful than behaviours before mating. If parents of ethnically mixed unions are forced to make a decision about the ethnic categorisation of their children, a conscious choice must be made and this choice might reflect some agreement based on the parents' ethnic preferences (see Xie and Goyette, 1997; Qian, 2004). Ethnic awareness is then reflected by how the ethnically mixed couples choose their children's ethnic affiliation. This is particularly the case in Finland, since the parents must choose how a new-bom baby is ethno-linguistically classified at the time when it enters the country's electronic population register, and this generally occurs when the child is baptised. In contrast to classical assimilation theory, which considers intermarriage to be the final stage of a minority group's assimilation into mainstream society (Gordon, 1964), ethnic awareness may instead be heightened just because of the contrast and competition with the norms of mainstream society and the direct contact with the majority group (Olzak, 1983; Saenz et al., 1995). Ethnic identification of children from interethnic marriages provides an opportunity to exercise one's options (Hout and Goldstein, 1994), and actual behaviour rather than attitudes serves as a guide to individuals' orientation towards their own and other ethnic groups (Finnas and O'Leary, 2003).In this study, we focus on the stability of ethnically mixed and homogamous unions in Finland, and argue that the first-bom child's ethnic affiliation can be used as a rough indicator of individual preferences towards ethnically related norms, values and tastes. Using detailed longitudinal data from population registers, which contain a single classification of each person's ethno-linguistic group, we demonstrate how information about the children can be used to enhance our understanding of previous research on union stability. Since these electronic registers cover the entire population of the country, access to representative samples are easily obtained. The primary aim is to analyse whether it is possible to find effects of ethnic-related individual preferences in terms of how parents in ethnically mixed unions have chosen to register the child. In spite that the prerequisites for this kind of detailed analysis are unusual in an international perspective, we are confident that the behaviour studied here is not unique to this one society, but should be applicable to many other ethnic or religious groups as well (see e.g., Chew et al., 1989; Judd, 1990; Xie and Goyette, 1997; Qian, 2004; Finnas and O'Leary, 2003; Lee and Edmonston, 2005). The particular case of Finland is described next.CONTEXTApproximately 90 per cent of the population in Finland consists of native Finnish speakers, while there also is an indigenous ethno-linguistic group of Swedish speakers that amounts to 291,000 persons, or 5. …

Building on the growing importance of partner effects in stratification research, this study adopts a couple perspective on the division of paid labour in the family. It considers the role of educational heterogamy, and takes account of the family life cycle by means of the presence of (young) children. The importance of these two factors for women’s relative labour market participation is compared between Belgium and Sweden – two European countries that share socio-economic features but differ regarding labour market and social policies. Multinomial logistic Diagonal Reference Models are used to analyse the pooled cross-sectional data of the EU-SILC 2004-2008. Our results show that women’s relative labour market participation is less education-driven in Sweden than in Belgium, and it is more related to the couple effect of educational heterogamy and the life cycle effect of the presence of (young) children, confirming more egalitarianism and family friendliness in Scandinavia than in continental Europe.

This study explores the effects of homogamy and heterogamy in socio-economic background and educational level on the marriage rate among cohabitors. Using unique register data and the Cox proportional hazards model, we analyse marriage formation in over 20,000 cohabiting unions in Finland. The large number of observations enables an inspection of the interactive effects in all partner-status combinations. Our results show that homogamy or heterogamy in socio-economic background is of little consequence for the couple’s probability of marrying; homogamy encourages marriage only among cohabitors from farmer families. With regard to education, homogamy increases the marriage rate among cohabitors with a low level of education, but reduces it among the highly educated. Whether educational heterogamy promotes, deters or has no effect on the marriage rate depends on the combination. The results emphasize the importance of a detailed measurement of homogamy and heterogamy when examining the role of group boundaries in union transitions.

Heterogamous marriages, in which partners have dissimilar attributes (e.g. by socio-economic status or ethnicity), are often at elevated risk of dissolution. We investigated the influences of heterogamy by religion and area of residence on risk of marital dissolution in Northern Ireland, a country with a history of conflict and residential segregation along Catholic–Protestant lines. We expected Catholic–Protestant marriages to have elevated risks of dissolution, especially in areas with high concentrations of a single religious group where opposition to intermarriage was expected to be high. We estimated risks of marital dissolution from 2001 to 2011 for 19,791 couples drawn from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (a record linkage study), adjusting for a range of compositional and contextual factors using multilevel logistic regression. Dissolution risk decreased with increasing age and higher socio-economic status. Catholic–Protestant marriages were rare (5.9 % of the sample) and were at increased risk of dissolution relative to homogamous marriages. We found no association between local population composition and dissolution risk for Catholic–Protestant couples, indicating that partner and household characteristics may have a greater influence on dissolution risk than the wider community. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10680-016-9398-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.