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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.

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.

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 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...

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.

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.

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.

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? …

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.

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.

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.

Married cancer patients enjoy a survival advantage, potentially attributable to better health at diagnosis, earlier contact with health personnel, and/or access to resources to ensure more optimal treatment. These mechanisms only invoke the mere presence of a partner, but partners bring varying amounts of resources into the household. It is likely that also spousal resources contribute to differentials in survival net of own resources, as gradients in survival by the latter are well documented. Our aim is to examine the combined roles of own and spouses’ socioeconomic characteristics (SES) and age for cancer survival. Almost 268,000 married patients diagnosed with a first cancer after age 50 during 1975–2007 were identified from the Norwegian Cancer Registry and other national registers. In a sequence of hazard models, differences in survival by patients' own education, income and age and the role of spouses' characteristics were assessed. Furthermore, we also assessed the importance of homogamy/heterogamy along the same dimensions. Partners’ characteristics clearly matter for survival. The relative survival of patients with highly educated partners, net of their own education, is significantly higher than that of patients with lesser-educated partners. Somewhat similar effects are observed for income, net of education. A less consistent pattern is observed for age, although non-normative heterogamy patterns in age and income appear to be associated with a survival disadvantage. The naïve perspective of only considering the presence of partners may thus conceal important differences in cancer survival. Health personnel may take advantage of such knowledge in interactions with patients and their families, and gather information on resources in immediate networks that may impact prognosis favorable and/or unfavorable and help patients utilize these resources to improve prognosis., Highlights • For married cancer patients, survival is influenced by the resources of spouses. • As such, who you marry play a role for your survival. • Having a highly educated and/or a high earning spouse appears to be beneficial. • But, non-normative spousal patterns in age and SES appear to be disadvantageous. • Married patients’ spousal resources may help shed light on inequalities in survival.

We analyze the changing relationship between education and assortative mating over the course of educational expansion in Switzerland between 1970 and 2000. The main question is whether educational expansion has resulted in increased openness of partnership opportunities or whether the educational system became increasingly important for assortative mating. Census data is used to describe this social change employing a cohort design. Over time and across cohorts, the proportion of people who live without a partner has increased, but the educational classes became more similar with respect to partnerlessness. At the same time, overall educational homogamy of partnerships has remained rather stable, although there were different trends for each of the educational levels. Educational expansion has contributed to increasing heterogamy for less educated and untrained persons while homogamy has increased for persons achieving intermediate and higher levels of education. However, after taking opportunity structure into account, the inclination for educational homogamy is actually more pronounced in the lower educational groups than in the higher and, in particular, the intermediate educational groups. In this respect, one can speak of a polarization of assortative mating with social closure at the lower end of the educational scale and relative openness for intermediate educational classes. This polarization, however, declined somewhat in the course of educational expansion., Für die Schweiz wird untersucht, wie sich der Zusammenhang zwischen Bildung und Partnerwahl zwischen 1970 und 2000 im Zuge der Bildungsexpansion gewandelt hat. Im Vordergrund steht die Frage, ob mit der Bildungsexpansion eine Öffnung der Heiratschancen einherging oder ob die Bedeutung des Bildungssystems für den Partnermarkt eher zugenommen hat. Für die differenzierte Beschreibung im Kohortendesign standen Volkszählungsdaten zur Verfügung. Im Zeitverlauf hat der Anteil Personen, die ohne Partner leben, zugenommen, zwischen den Bildungsschichten fand in Bezug auf Partnerlosigkeit jedoch eine gewisse Angleichung statt. Gleichzeitig beobachten wir relativ stabile Verhältnisse bezüglich der Gesamtrate an bildungshomogamen Partnerschaften, obwohl sich aufgeschlüsselt nach Bildungsniveaus unterschiedliche Trends ergeben: Die Bildungsexpansion hat einerseits zur vermehrten Heterogamie in den unteren Bildungsgruppen beigetragen, während in den mittleren und höheren Bildungsgruppen zunehmende Homogamie zu beobachten ist. In einer um die Gelegenheitsstruktur bereinigten Betrachtungsweise zeigt sich allerdings, dass die Neigung für Homogamie in den unteren Bildungsgruppen ausgeprägter ist als in den höheren und vor allem den mittleren Bildungsgruppen. In diesem Sinne kann von einer Polarisierung des Partnermarktes mit einer stärkeren Schliessung am unteren Ende der Bildungsskala und einer relativen Offenheit in den mittleren Bildungsschichten gesprochen werden, wobei das Ausmass an Polarisierung im Zuge der Bildungsexpansion eher etwas abgenommen hat., Dans le cas de la Suisse, il s’agit d’analyser l’évolution du lien entre formation et choix du partenaire entre 1970 et 2000 au cours de l’expansion du système de formation. La principale question est de savoir si l’expansion du système de formation a entraîné une augmentation des opportunités de mariage ou si le système éducatif a plutôt gagner en importance dans le choix du partenaire. La description différenciée par cohortes se base sur des données issues de recensements de la population. Au cours de la période susmentionnée, le nombre de personnes vivant sans partenaire a augmenté. Toutefois, l’écart entre les différents niveaux d’éducation s’est nettement réduit en ce qui concerne le nombre de personnes vivant sans partenaire. Parallèlement, nous observons un taux plutôt stable de partenariats caractérisés par une homogamie de formation, bien qu’une répartition parniveau de formation révèle différentes tendances: l’expansion du système de formation a, d’une part, entraîné une plus grande hétérogamie dans les groupes au niveau de formation inférieur et, d’autre part, une plus grande homogamie dans les groupes au niveau de formation moyen et élevé. Après une prise en compte des opportunités différentielles, nous observons toutefois que le penchant pour l’homogamie est plus fort dans les groupes au niveau de formation inférieur que dans ceux au niveau de formation moyen et élevé. Nous pouvons donc parler d’une polarisation du marché de la recherche de partenaire avec une plus grande fermeture sociale pour les groupes au niveau de formation inférieur et une relative ouverture pour les groupes au niveau de formation moyen. Cette polarisation a toutefois plutôt diminué au cours de l’expansion du système de formation.

Many claims are made about the significance of interethnic partnerships for individuals and for society. Such partnerships continue to be seen as a “barometer” of the openness of society and have spawned extensive analysis investigating their patterns, trends, and determinants. But we know little about the experience of children growing up in families of mixed parentage. In the United Kingdom, the increase in the self-defined “mixed” population is often celebrated. But there has been little quantitative sociological analysis that has investigated the circumstances of the children of mixed ethnicity partnerships. Using two large-scale UK datasets that cover a similar period, this article evaluates the extent to which mixed parentage families are associated with circumstances (both economic and in terms of family structure) that tend to be positive or negative for children’s future life chances and how these compare to those of children with parents from the same ethnic group. It shows that there is substantial variation according to the outcome considered but also according to ethnic group. Overall, children in mixed parentage families do not unequivocally experience the equality of outcomes with majority group children that the assimilation hypothesis implies.

This study examines whether the increase of geographical heterogamy in the nineteenth and early twentieth century is related to modernization. Specifically, we test whether mass communication and mass transport enhanced the likelihood of a geographically heterogamous marriage as well as the distance over which heterogamous marriages took place. Furthermore, we study whether modernization decreased the relationship between social background and geographical heterogamy. We employ individual and municipality level data of some 30,000 marriages in over 40 municipalities in the Dutch province Overijssel between 1823 and 1922. The results from our multi-level analyses suggest that mass communication was more important than mass transport. 1. Introduction Studies of geographical heterogamy in Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth century show a strong tendency for people to marry someone living nearby (e.g. Bossard 1932; Rogoff Ramsoy 1966; Van Poppel & Ekamper 2005). For example, of all marriages in the first five months of 1931 in the city of Philadelphia, 30% of the couples lived one block or less apart just before marriage, and only 18 % of the couples had one partner coming from outside the city (Bossard 1932). Most studies show that during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the size of the marriage market increased (Gueresi, Pettener, and Maruzzi Veronesi 2001; Kok and Mandemakers 2008; Van Poppel and Ekamper 2005; but see Kok 1998 and Van de Putte 2003 for exceptions). Geographical heterogamy increased and shows the same development as heterogamy with respect to other ascribed characteristics, such as class of origin and religion (the latter after 1938) (Hendrickx, Lammers and Ultee 1991; Uunk 1996; Zijdeman and Maas forthcoming). But note that age heterogamy decreased during this period (e.g. Van Poppel et al. 2001). Contrary to studies on heterogamy with respect to age, class of origin, and religion, studies on geographical heterogamy are relatively scarce. However studying geographical heterogamy is highly relevant because it is connected to social cohesion in society. If culture or economic prosperity strongly differs between local entities, this is a potential source of conflict. The likelihood of conflict is less if there is exchange of people between localities, either by migration or by marriage. At the same time, as a consequence of the exchange of people, cultural and economic differences diminish. In the nineteenth century differences between regions in the Netherlands were still strong. Protestants lived in the north and Catholics in the south of the country. Between small regions there were differences in manner of speech as well as manner of dress. Municipalities even differed in their measurement of time, although the use of a universal time was requested by the Dutch government (Knippenberg and De Pater 1988: 77-82). Couples from different geographical backgrounds had to deal with these differences and solve the potential local conflicts. Today the cultural and economic differences between local entities in the Netherlands are small, although still existent. By uncovering the causes of increased geographical heterogamy we may come to understand how local differences were overcome. In an attempt to provide an explanation for the increase in heterogamy, with respect to ascribed characteristics in general and geographical heterogamy specifically, researchers refer to the modernization processes, such as the development of new means of mass transport and the appearance of mass communication (Kok and Mandemakers 2008; Van Poppel and Ekamper 2005; Uunk 1996; Zijdeman and Maas forthcoming). These two aspects of modernization affect heterogamy through different mechanisms. Means of mass transport allow people to travel over larger distances and increase the likelihood of finding a partner outside the local region. Mass communication is thought to spread information, such as news on events, technological developments, and fashion, beyond local regions. …

Two recent trends in marriage imply different consequences for the degree of heterogeneity in American society: Increasing racial intermarriage indicates higher levels of social integration, while continued educational homogamy potentially enlarges socioeconomic inequality. This article analyzes census 5 percent Public Use Micro Samples data from 1980 to 2000 and examines the two trends simultaneously. Results suggest that racial homogamy has gradually declined but remains as the strongest pattern. Educational homogamy shows a diverse pattern of change, with an overall flat or slightly declining trend, and the best educated and the least educated are both more homogamous than those who have intermediate levels of education. Those who intermarry by race tend to have higher levels of education, and there is a modest positive relationship between racial and educational heterogamy.

Substantial previous research indicates that married persons enjoy better mental and physical health than others. One prominent explanation for these patterns is that married persons practice better health behaviors, including lower levels of alcohol consumption, particularly heavy drinking. However, studies of marital status differences in health behaviors have ignored the role of religious homo/heterogamy and attendance, important potential confounding and moderating factors. Focusing on alcohol behavior, we analyze 1977–1994 General Social Survey data, finding that lower levels of drinking are especially pronounced among homogamous conservative couples, and to a lesser extent among mixed-faith unions with one conservative partner. Controlling for other background characteristics, nonconservatives married to nonconservatives do not consistently consume less alcohol than unmarried persons, suggesting that much of the apparent marital status effect on drinking is actually due to religious factors. Contrary to some prior theory and research, these patterns are broadly consistent for both men and women.

In most marriages, husbands are older than wives at the time of marriage. The extent of this age difference is referred to as age heterogamy. Studies of age heterogamous marriages have found men and women married to younger spouses live longer than those married to spouses that are the same age at time of marriage. In this study we examined the role of a religious affiliation as a factor in this age heterogamy effect, by comparing Jewish and Christian husbands and wives. While we confirmed the age heterogamy effect on longevity, we did not find any evidence that it was affected by religion.

En un contexto historico de expansion educativa, mejora de los rendimientos de la educacion y aumento de la participacion de la mujer en la actividad economica, este articulo examina y compara las pautas y tendencias en homogamia educativa en Mexico y Brasil entre 1970 y 2000. Concretamente, tratamos en perspectiva temporal y comparada las siguientes cuestiones: grado y alcance de la homogamia educativa y simetria en las relaciones de genero. Para ello utilizamos las muestras armonizadas de microdatos de los censos de Mexico 1970, 1990 y 2000, y de Brasil 1970, 1980, 1991 y 2000, puestas a disposicion por el proyecto IPUMS-International. Los resultados muestran un aumento de la homogamia entre las capas mas instruidas y una disminucion de la hipergamia femenina en ambos paises. Comparativamente, la homogamia educativa es mayor en Brasil que en Mexico, reflejo de una mayor desigualdad social, mientras que las diferencias de genero son mayores en Mexico. Educational homogamy (marriage between individuals of the same level of educational attainment) in Mexico and Brazil is declining significantly with the revolution in school attainment. In Mexico, over a mere three decades, the proportions finishing primary school doubled, rising from 40 percent for the 1931–40 birth cohort to 80 percent for those born 1961–70. In Brazil, where primary school consists of only four grades (compared to Mexico's six), the completion rate rose even more dramatically from 33 to 73 percent. Nevertheless these figures also show that in both countries sizeable fractions of the youngest generation did not complete primary schooling (one-fifth in Mexico and one-fourth in Brazil). Substantial inequalities of access to schooling persist. At the upper end of the educational spectrum, for these same cohorts the percentage of Mexican husbands with some university studies increased even more dramatically, from 5.1 to 13.2 percent and, for wives, from 1.1 to 8.3 percent. In Brazil the comparable figures are 2.2 to 5.8 percent and 0.6 to 5.7 percent, respectively. Marriage choice in both countries is strongly associated with levels of schooling completed—such as graduation from primary school, completion of basic or upper secondary, and attendance at or graduation from university. Years of schooling completed is not as salient. Thus, this research focuses on culturally significant categories rather than arbitrary number of years of schooling to compare patterns of marriage by educational attainment in the two countries. We analyze three successive ten-year birth cohorts, beginning with the 1931–40 generation, and take into consideration all marital unions, consensual as well as official. All coresident spouses in which either the husband or the wife was born between 1931 and 1970 are considered. The number of Mexican couples analyzed is 2,396,320 and Brazilian, 1,546,365. Our sources are high density integrated, anonymized census microdata samples obtained from https://www.ipums.org/international/index.html for the period 1970–2000. A series of nine log-linear models control for the unequal frequencies of various levels of educational attainment to reveal striking changes in the propensities of marriage within and between these groups. Log-odds ratios show universally positive homogamy for both countries, all censuses, and all levels of educational attainment except for one—where either the husband or the wife began but did not complete the secondary grades. (For this group, heterogamy was the rule in both countries and increased over time.) At the higher levels of educational attainment, homogamy is most extreme and is increasing in intensity over the generations, while at the lowest levels, homogamy is lower and declining slightly. Homogamy levels are much higher in Brazil than in Mexico, a finding which demonstrates the greater social inequalities in Brazil, and the fact that for Brazilians social mobility by means of education is more difficult than for Mexicans. These findings are suggestive rather than conclusive, and call for further research taking into account variables that influence educational attainment.

The tendency towards socio-economic homogamy - partner similarity in terms of socio-economic status - is of great interest to social scientists, for two reasons. First, socio-economic homogamy is an indicator of social closure between status groups in a society. Second, given that homogamy leads to the accumulation of advantageous and disadvantageous socio-economic conditions within couples, it also intensifies social and economic inequalities between families. The objective of this thesis is to enhance knowledge of socio-economic homogamy and its consequences for union stability in Finland. The first aim was to analyse the strength and patterns of socio-economic homogamy in partner choice. The second aim was to determine whether and, if so, how homogamy is associated with the likelihood of ending non-marital cohabitation - through separation on the one hand, or marriage on the other. In addition, two dimensions of socio-economic status, individual educational attainment and social class of the family of origin, were analysed to find out whether matching on individually achieved status or on the status of the parental family had a bigger effect on union dynamics. The analyses were based on sets of register data compiled at Statistics Finland. Log-linear models were applied to study homogamy tendencies and their changes in marriages and cohabitations of women born in 1957-1979 at the age of 30. The effects of homogamy and heterogamy on the likelihood of separation and marriage were analysed with Cox proportional hazards model in cohabitations formed in the period 1995-2002 by women born in 1960-1977. An elaborate approach was adopted: marriage and separation rates were examined in each possible combination of partner status. The results imply that people tend to choose partners who are similar to them in terms of educational attainment and class background. However, homogamy was stronger with regard to education than to social-class origins. This is line with the view that boundaries based on achieved status are more difficult to cross in modern, individualized societies than boundaries based on social origins. The most highly educated - those with a higher university degree - were particularly strongly inclined towards homogamy. The general strength of homogamy did not change much across the birth cohorts from the late 1950s to the 1970s, but the trends differed depending on the level of education: homogamy strengthened among those with a low level of education, and weakened among the highly educated. The results also indicate that in the absence of homogamy, women increasingly tend to have partners whose level of education is lower than theirs. Homogamy in class background had a relatively weak influence on the stability of cohabiting unions. Homogamy increased the marriage rate among the children of farmers, whereas heterogamy was associated with an increased separation risk when one partner came from a farmer family and the other from an upper-white-collar family. Educational differences played a somewhat more significant role in these transitions. Homogamy was associated with a reduced risk of separation among the most highly educated cohabitors in particular. The effects of educational homogamy on the marriage rate were less consistent: homogamy increased the marriage rate among cohabitors with a basic-level education, but reduced it among the most highly educated. The findings reveal that status barriers and cultural differences are of significance in partner choice and the stability of cohabiting unions in Finland, and that group boundaries based on achieved status are stronger than those based on ascribed status in terms of union dynamics. Sosioekonominen homogamia - puolison valitseminen samasta sosioekonomisesta ryhmästä - on yhteiskunnallisesti merkittävä tutkimuskohde pääasiassa kahdesta syystä. Sosioekonomista homogamiaa voidaan ensinnäkin pitää osoituksena statusryhmien välisestä sosiaalisesta sulkeutuneisuudesta. Toiseksi, homogamia johtaa hyväosaisuuden ja toisaalta huono-osaisuuden kasaantumiseen perheissä, ja kasvattaa siten sosiaalista ja taloudellista eriarvoisuutta perheiden välillä. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tutkia sosioekonomista homogamiaa ja sen yhteyttä liiton kestävyyteen Suomessa. Ensimmäisenä tavoitteena oli tarkastella, esiintyykö puolisonvalinnassa homogamiaa ja onko homogamiataipumuksissa tapahtunut muutoksia viime vuosikymmeninä. Toisena tavoitteena oli tutkia, miten puolisoiden samankaltaisuus tai erilaisuus vaikuttaa todennäköisyyteen, että avoliitto päättyy - joko parin erilleen muuttoon tai avioitumiseen. Sosioekonomisen aseman mittareina käytettiin sekä omaa koulutustasoa että lapsuuden perheen sosiaaliluokkaa. Näin voitiin tarkastella, onko samankaltaisuus saavutetun aseman vai sosioekonomisen perhetaustan mukaan tärkeämpää liittojen solmimisessa ja purkautumisessa. Tutkimusaineistona oli Tilastokeskuksessa muodostettu rekisteriaineisto. Homogamiataipumusten ja niiden muutosten tarkasteluun käytettiin vuosina 1957-1979 syntyneiden naisten avo- ja avioliittoja heidän ollessaan 30-vuotiaita. Homogamian yhteyttä avoliittojen purkautumisen todennäköisyyteen tutkittiin vuosina 1960-1977 syntyneiden naisten jaksolla 1995-2002 solmimissa avoliitoissa. Tulosten mukaan suomalaisilla on taipumus valita puoliso samasta sosioekonomisesta ryhmästä. Homogamia oli kuitenkin voimakkaampaa koulutusasteen kuin lapsuuden perheen sosiaaliluokan mukaan. Tulos on yhdenmukainen sen oletuksen kanssa, että nykyaikaisissa yhteiskunnissa saavutetun aseman mukaiset luokkarajat ovat jyrkempiä kuin perhetaustaan liittyvät luokkarajat. Korkeimmin koulutetut - ylemmän korkea-asteen tutkinnon suorittaneet - olivat kaikkein taipuvaisimpia homogamiaan. Homogamiataipumuksissa ei tapahtunut yleisellä tasolla suuria muutoksia 1950-luvun lopulla syntyneistä 1970-luvulla syntyneisiin, mutta koulutusryhmien välillä oli eroja: homogamia heikentyi korkeasti koulutettujen keskuudessa, ja voimistui vähän koulutetuilla. Homogamian ohella naisilla osoittautui olevan taipumus valita yhä useammin puolisoksi mies, jonka koulutusaste on matalampi kuin itsellä. Lapsuuden perheen sosiaaliluokan mukaisella samankaltaisuudella oli vain vähän vaikutusta avoliiton pysyvyyteen. Homogamia oli yhteydessä suurempaan avioitumisen todennäköisyyteen maataloustaustaisilla avopuolisoilla, kun taas maataloustaustaisten ja ylemmistä toimihenkilöperheistä tulevien henkilöiden välisillä avoliitoilla oli kohonnut eroon päättymisen riski. Puolisoiden koulutuserojen merkitys oli jonkin verran suurempi. Homogamia oli yhteydessä pienempään eroriskiin erityisesti korkeasti koulutetuilla. Koulutushomogamia lisäsi avioitumisen todennäköisyyttä pelkän perusasteen koulutuksen saaneilla avopareilla, kun taas korkeasti koulutetuilla avopareilla homogamia oli yhteydessä pienempään avioitumisen todennäköisyyteen. Tutkimus osoittaa, että puolisoiden sosioekonomisella samankaltaisuudella on merkitystä sekä liitonmuodostuksessa että avoliittojen pysyvyydessä Suomessa, ja että saavutetun aseman mukainen samankaltaisuus on tärkeämpää kuin sosioekonomisen perhetaustan mukainen samankaltaisuus.

According to both economic and sociological theory, a couple's divorce rate may be influenced by their own educational attainment, that of their parents, and whether they have taken further education after marriage, although predictions are ambiguous. However, these three variables have never been included simultaneously and few studies have included both partners' characteristics. A discrete-time hazard model based on register and census data on 54178 Norwegian first marriages started 1980-1999 reveals a very strong negative educational gradient in divorce risk and no particularly harmful influence of heterogamy. Parent's education exerts a small positive effect, however. Among couples with the same current level of education, those who have taken education after entry into marriage display the highest divorce rate.

We use data from two national surveys of married individuals-one from 1980 and the other from 2000-to understand how three dimensions of marital quality changed during this period. Marital happiness and divorce proneness changed little between 1980 and 2000, but marital interaction declined significantly. A decomposition analysis suggested that offsetting trends affected marital quality. Increases in marital heterogamy, premarital cohabitation, wives' extended hours of employment, and wives' job demands were associated with declines in multiple dimensions of marital quality. In contrast, increases in economic resources, decision-making equality, nontraditional attitudes toward gender, and support for the norm of lifelong marriage were associated with improvements in multiple dimensions of marital quality. Increases in husbands' share of housework appeared to depress marital quality among husbands but to improve marital quality among wives. Key Words: decomposition analysis, family change, family demography, marital quality, marriage. The belief that the institution of marriage is in decline is widespread (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Glenn, 1996; Popenoe, 1993; Tipton, 1985; Zill & Nord, 1994). The growing popularity of nonmarital cohabitation, the increasing percentage of children born outside of marriage, the rising age at first marriage, the continuing high divorce rate, and the declining remarriage rate demonstrate that marriage is a less permanent part of adult life now than in the recent past. According to a marital decline perspective, people are turning away from marriage because it has become increasingly difficult to maintain happy and stable unions. Other observers view recent changes in marriage as being benign or even beneficial (Coontz, 1992; Scanzoni, 2001; Skolnick, 1991; Stacey, 1996). According to this view, although it is easier for people to leave unhappy marriages these days, the proportion of unhappy marriages in the population has not necessarily increased. Indeed, because divorce removes unhappy couples from the married population, existing marriages may be of higher quality now than in the past. Moreover, increases in married women's education, employment, and income have raised women's status and given wives greater decision-making power, thus increasing the potential for less patriarchal and more egalitarian marital relationships. With respect to marital instability, the divorce rate increased dramatically during the 1970s, peaked around 1980, then declined slightly (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000, Table 77). Therefore, although divorce is common these days, relatively little change in marital instability occurred during the last two decades. Evidence about the quality of existing marriages, however, is sparse. Using merged data from the General Social Survey, Glenn (1991) found that the percentage of people reporting that their marriages were very happy declined between 1973 and 1988. Similarly, Rogers and Amato (2000) compared a sample of young adults married between 1981 and 1997 (and surveyed in 1997) with a sample of young adults married between 1964 and 1980 (and surveyed in 1980) and found that the more recent marriage cohort reported less interaction and more marital conflict. Although these studies suggest a decline in the aggregate level of marital quality in the population, the lack of research on this topic makes it difficult to reach conclusions with certainty. The present study uses two national, representative samples of married individuals in the United States-one interviewed in 1980 and the other interviewed in 2000-to provide new evidence on recent changes in the nature and quality of marriage. SOCIAL CHANGE 1980-2000 During the latter part of the 20th century, a variety of demographic, economic, social, and cultural changes in the U.S. population had the potential to affect people's marriages either positively or negatively. …

Results from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth indicate that marriages contracted after 1980 are becoming more stable. This article examines several individual characteristics in search of an explanation for increasing stability. A person-year file is created and logistic regression is used to determine which covariates account for the negative effect of year in a model predicting the likelihood of marital dissolution. Increasing experience of premarital sex, premarital birth, cohabitation, and racial and religious heterogamy are detracting from marital stability. However, rising age at marriage and, to a lesser degree, increased education are associated with increasing marital stability. These latter effects more than counterbalance the factors associated with instability leading to an overall decline in the rate of marital dissolution.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health issue. Few studies, however, have examined the role of religion in IPV perpetration and victimization. This study analyzed the contribution of religious factors to IPV risk and prevalence among a sample of 1,440 married couples interviewed for the 1995 National Study of Couples. Results indicate that rates of IPV did not significantly differ by couple homogamy/heterogamy or type of denominational affiliation. Attendance at religious services at least weekly was associated with lower rates of IPV perpetration among men and with lower rates of IPV victimization among men and women. These findings were attenuated in the multivariate logistic regression analyses. Study findings suggest that religion does not have a strong or direct influence on the occurrence of IPV; alcohol-related problems, however, may be a mediating factor. Despite the null findings, religious institutions can play an important role in primary and secondary IPV prevention.

Objectives Homogamy, mating based on similarity, has been demonstrated for a great variety of traits such as age, education, religion, and physical and psychological traits. Recently, pro-fertile effects of religious as well as educational homogamy have been reported. We investigate whether ethnic homogamy also has a pro-fertile effect and whether ethnic and religious homogamy interact in their putative effects on reproduction (in terms of average number of offspring). Methods We analyzed the association between ethnic as well as religious homogamy and woman's average number of offspring based on census data from ten countries provided by IPUMS international, encompassing a total of 1,485,433 married women aged 46-60 years (who have thus completed or almost completed reproduction) and their spouses. Results We find a clear pro-fertile but nonadditive effect of both ethnic and religious homogamy, which is most pronounced in the case of double homogamy. Our results further indicate that homogamy for one trait may compensate for heterogamy of the other, albeit countries differ regarding which trait compensates for the other. Conclusions We suggest that the interaction between ethnic homogamy, religious homogamy, and reproduction provides an interesting example for gene-culture co-evolution.

Studies of online dating suggest that physical attraction is a key factor in early relationship formation, but say little about the role of attractiveness in longer-term relationships. Meanwhile, assortative coupling and exchange models widely employed in demographic research overlook the powerful sorting function of initial and sustained physical attraction. This article observes the effects of one physical characteristic of men--height--on various relationship outcomes in longer-term relationships, including spouses' attributes, marriage entry and stability, and the division of household labor. Drawing on two different cohorts from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the authors show that (1) height-coupling norms have changed little over the last three decades, (2) short, average, and tall men's spouses are qualitatively different from one another (3) short men marry and divorce at lower rates than others and (4) both men's height relative to other men and their height relative to their spouse are related to the within-couple distribution of household labor and earnings. These findings depict an enduring height hierarchy among men on in the spousal marriage market. Further, they indicate that at least one physical characteristic commonly associated with physical attraction influences the formation, functioning, and stability of longer-term relationships.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

BACKGROUNDDespite the increasing prevalence of cohabitation, knowledge of how socio-economic homogamy affects the stability of cohabiting unions is scant. Few studies have compared the effects of homogamy in both ascribed and achieved socio-economic status on union dissolution.OBJECTIVEOur aim is to determine how homogamy and heterogamy in educational level and parental social class affect the risk of cohabitation dissolution in Finland.METHODSWe use unique Finnish register data that includes information on non-marital cohabitation. Cox regression is used to analyse the risk of dissolution in 20,452 cohabitations. We examine the dissolution rates in all possible combinations of partner status, and analyse how these estimates deviate from the main effects of each partner's status.RESULTSAccording to the findings, homogamy in parental social class is of little consequence in cohabitation dissolution, although cohabitations between people from upper-white-collar and farmer families are disproportionately likely to dissolve. Educational differences between partners are more significant determinants of cohabitation stability: extreme heterogamy is associated with an increased separation risk, and homogamy decreases the separation risk among cohabitors with a higher university degree.CONCLUSIONSIn line with the perception that personal achievement is more significant than social origins in contemporary union dynamics, similarity in educational level increases cohabitation stability more than similarity in socio-economic origin. Although previous Nordic studies report little or no association between educational homogamy or heterogamy and marriage dissolution, our study shows that educational differences do matter in cohabiting unions.1. IntroductionThe extent to which socio-economic homogamy - in other words, similarity in partner status - guides union formation and dissolution is considered an indicator of barriers between status groups in a society. A strong homogamy tendency in partner selection and a disproportionate likelihood of union disruption among heterogamous couples may point to large social and cultural gaps between socio-economic groups. This study explores the effects of homogamy and heterogamy in educational level and parental social class on union dissolution in Finland. The aim is to assess the significance of status differences for union stability, and to determine whether similarity in childhood socio-economic circumstances or the achieved position of the partners is more decisive in contemporary union dynamics. Few studies thus far compare the effects of homogamy in ascribed and achieved socio-economic position on union stability. Research on partner selection nevertheless indicates that homogamy in achieved status is more prominent than in ascribed status (Kalmijn 1991, 1998; Hansen 1995). However, tendencies in partner selection result not only from people's preferences but also from the structural opportunities to meet and interact with potential partners of a similar status. One means of eliminating the effect of these structural factors is to examine the decisions the partners make after they have formed the union, such as to separate (see Hansen 1995; Muller 2003). Examining the effects of homogamy and heterogamy on union dissolution may thus facilitate assessment of whether people actually prefer partners who share similar socio-economic characteristics.The focus of the study is on the dissolution of non-marital cohabiting unions. Cohabitation has become increasingly prevalent in Western countries in recent decades, and the Nordic countries have been forerunners in this development: currently there is little social distinction between cohabitation and marriage in these countries, and children are born and raised in both union types (Kiernan 2001; Heuveline and Timberlake 2004). Nine out of ten new unions in Finland are cohabitations (Jalovaara 2012). …

This study provides a much-needed exploration of the determinants of age-discrepant unions in Canada. What little research has been conducted in this area of sociology of the family is now outdated. Further, the growing number of Canadians living in nonmarital cohabitation warrants their inclusion in any consideration of contemporary, heterosexual unions, and we have done so here. Utilizing multinomial logit modeling techniques, we analyze data drawn from the 1995 Canadian General Social Survey. We find that cohabitations and remarriages are more likely to be age-discrepant than marriages, and that as age at union formation increases, so does the likelihood that the union will be age-heterogamous. Although we hypothesized a positive relationship between education and the chances of age-heterogamous unions because the availability of eligible mates may decrease with education, we actually find an inverse association for women: a one-level increase in education decreases a woman's odds of entering an age-discrepant union by about 4 percent. We speculate that for women, greater education (economic position) may increase age-homogamy because they may be more economically attractive and thus more able to select a partner of their own age.

In this article, we approach the most recent evidence concerning union breakdown in Spain using mainly the retrospective Spanish Socio-demographic Survey (1991). Life-table analysis was used as the main statistical methodology. We examine three basic aspects. First, we present the evolution of the phenomenon across generations and regions, taking into account the duration of first marriages. Second, we make a first attempt to study the determinant factors of marriage dissolution, considering for this purpose four dimensions: family background (parents' experience of divorce), individual characteristics (age at first marriage and educational level), economic autonomy of the partners, (occupation and socio-professional status), and characteristics of marriages (type of marriage and heterogamy). Third, we study the consequences of marital disruption for the custody of children and remarriage

This article uses data from the 1987–1988 National Survey of Families and Households to study the determinants of religious intermarriage in the United States as well as changes over time in its prevalence. Separate logit regressions are estimated for exclusivist Protestant, ecumenical Protestant, and Catholic respondents. Variables identified as playing a role in the intermarriage decision include the proportion of coreligionists in the relevant marriage market, various proxies for religiosity and for commitment to the parental faith, education, a premarital pregnancy, and gender. The estimated effects are generally consistent with hypotheses derived from a model of religious intermarriage. The results also show that the prevalence of religious heterogamy has increased significantly over the past decades for Catholics and ecumenical Protestants. In sharp contrast, there has been no perceptible change in the probability of marrying outside the religion for exclusivist Protestants, a group which continues to display distinctive patterns of economic and demographic behavior.

This paper describes the matrimonial and reproductive behaviour of Italians who migrated to Belgium after the Second World War. Migrants were either already married, or later became married, to other Italians. Among the children of migrants, men equally chose Italian or Belgian wives but women tended to prefer Italian partners. Italian-Belgian marriages were more frequent among the better educated groups. Family size is smaller among migrants marrying after migration and in heterogamous marriages. Significant differences in birth intervals are found when marriage occurred before or after migration, between generations, and between homogamous and heterogamous marriages.

Hypotheses are developed about the effects of husbands' and wives' religious affiliations upon fertility. The hypotheses are based upon the following ideas. First, different religions have different norms about fertility and the tradeoffs between the quality and quantity of children. Differences in religious beliefs between spouses may therefore lead to disagreement and conflict over fertility decisions and any possible resolution through bargaining. Second, a low level of religious compatibility between spouses may increase the probability of marital dissolution, decreasing the optimal amount of investments in spouse-specific human capital. Analyses of data from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households conducted in the US suggest that both of these effects are important factors in explaining the observed linkages between the religious composition of marital unions and their fertility behavior.

This article compares divorce risks according to marriage type. The common dichotomy between ethnic homogamous and ethnic heterogamous marriages is further elaborated by differentiating a third marriage type; ethnic homogamous marriages between individuals from an ethnic minority group and a partner from the country of origin. Based on the analysis of data concerning the Turkish and Moroccan minorities in Belgium, it has been confirmed that the divorce risk associated with these marriages is higher than that of other ethnic homogamous marriages. However, specific divorce patterns according to marriage type also indicate the importance of differences between the minority groups.

This article studies the relationship between partner selection and socioeconomic status (SES) attainment and mobility in five rural parishes in southern Sweden, 1815-1894. Three different aspects of partner selection are considered: age, social origin, and geographical origin. We use an individual-level database containing information on the SES origin (parental land holding and occupation), age difference, and place of birth of the married couple. The results show a powerful association between partner selection and SES attainment and mobility. Social heterogamy was particularly important, but age heterogamy and geographic exogamy was also clearly related to both SES attainment and mobility. 1 Associate Professor, PhD, Centre for Economic Demography and Department of Economic History , Lund University. P.O. Box 7083. 22007 Lund, Sweden. E-mail: Martin.Dribe@ekh.lu.se. Phone: +46462224677. Fax: +46462227339. 2 Professor, PhD, Department of Economic History. University of Gothenburg. E-mail: Christer.Lundh@econhist.gu.se.

This research focuses on age differences in marriage. The purpose is to develop a partial test of whether over the past five decades age has become less relevant and age norms less constraining. A reduction in the strength of age norms should result in a decrease in coeval marriages. If age norms become less binding, then one should expect people to cast a wider age net when selecting their mate, leading to an increase in the number of marriages with unconventional age differences. Microdata samples of 111000 from 1940 through the 1980 Census of the United States Population were used to derive trends in the proportion of ageheterogamous and age-homogamous couples. The results show that between 1940 and 1980 there was no abatement of age homogamy. In fact a strong trend towards increasing homogamy was discovered. This movement toward increased homogamy, and the converse decrease in the age heterogamy, indicates that age has become more, not less, relevant in mate selection.

A textbook hypothesis about divorce is that heterogamous marriages are more likely to end in divorce than homogamous marriages. We analyse vital statistics on the population of the Netherlands, which provide a unique and powerful opportunity to test this hypothesis. All marriages formed between 1974 and 1984 (nearly 1 million marriages) are traced in the divorce records and multivariate logistic regression models are used to analyse the effects on divorce of heterogamy in religion and national origin. Our analyses confirm the hypothesis for marriages that cross the Protestant–Catholic or the Jewish–Gentile boundary. Heterogamy effects are weaker for marriages involving Protestants or unaffiliated persons. Marriages between Dutch and other nationalities have a higher risk of divorce, the more so the greater the cultural differences between the two groups. Overall, the evidence supports the view that, in the Netherlands, new group boundaries are more difficult to cross than old group boundaries.

People have a tendency to marry within their social group or to marry a person who is close to them in status. Although many characteristics play a role in the choice of a spouse, sociologists have most often examined endogamy and homogamy with respect to race/ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. I first give an overview of hypotheses on the causes of endogamy and homogamy. The various hypotheses that have been suggested in the literature can be distinguished as arguments about three more general factors: (a) the preferences of marriage candidates for certain characteristics in a spouse, (b) the interference of “third parties” in the selection process, and (c) the constraints of the marriage market in which candidates are searching for a spouse. Second, I summarize empirical research by answering four questions: (a) To what extent are groups endogamous and how do groups differ in this respect? (b) How has endogamy changed over time? (c) Which factors are related to endogamy? (d) How do various dimensions of partner choice coincide? Third, I discuss strengths and weaknesses of past research. Strengths include the mass of descriptive work that has been done and the development of a multifaceted theoretical perspective which gives sociological theorizing an edge over psychological and economic theories of partner choice. Weaknesses include the lack of standardization of methods in describing patterns and trends and the relatively weak integration of empirical and theoretical work.

This paper focuses on the effects of age at marriage and the sex-ratio on patterns of ethnic homogamy among Israeli women. We hypothesize that later marriages are more likely than early marriages to be heterogamous as the 'marriage market' shifts from school to the work-place. By the same token, when facing severe marriage squeezes women will be forced to out-marry. Employing data from the 1983 census, we model mate selection of women from Afro-Asian and Euro-American origin in various birth-cohorts. The results do not fully support our hypotheses: we find that in and of itself, age at marriage does not enhance ethnic heterogamy. Women of both ethnic groups who marry later are more likely to marry men of Euro-American origin than those who marry early but this seems to reflect educational rather than ethnic assortative mating. We also find that Afro-Asian women born to cohorts which face severe marriage squeezes are more likely to stay single and those who marry are more likely to out-marry.

Evidence suggests that the presence of children has a positive impact on the stability of both marital and nonmarital relationships. It is therefore important to understand the determinants of childbearing decisions made by couples in both types of relationships....Using data from the 1990 [Canadian] Friends and Family Survey and employing an uncertainty reduction model this article attempts to shed light on the childbearing experiences of cohabiting women after their entry into a cohabitational relationship. We find that the hazard rate of a cohabiting woman bearing a child within the union is associated with her age at the start of cohabitation her educational status nativity number of siblings heterogamy in cohabiting unions the year of the start of cohabitation and geographic region. (EXCERPT)

Data drawn from the 1991 US National Survey of Women revealed significant differences between married women and cohabiting or dating women in their level of commitment to a partner. Sexual exclusivity was selected as the proxy for commitment and compared in 1235 dating cohabiting and married women 20-37 years old. 4% of married women 18% of dating women and 20% of cohabiting women reported a secondary sex partner. In the latter group each month of cohabitation increased the odds of a secondary sexual relationship by 2%. Characteristics of married women that significantly increased the odds of a secondary relationship included no religious affiliation 4 or more previous sexual partners husband more than 2 years older and higher educational level on the part of the female versus the male partner. Among dating and cohabiting women the significantly predictive factors of a secondary sexual relationship included college education no religious affiliation religious heterogamy with partner higher educational attainment on the part of the woman versus her partner minority race or ethnicity and having had previous sex partners. Both before and after marriage the risk of having a secondary sex partner was increased (1.7 and 3.3 times respectively) among married women who had cohabited prior to marriage compared to those who had not. These findings support previous research suggesting that cohabitation is selective of women less committed to a relationship. Finally the research revealed that cohabiting women are more likely when they marry than women with no history of cohabitation to select partners similar to themselves in terms of educational level--another indication that women in this category value independence and equality in a relationship.

Trends in assortative mating were examined using the 1% Public Use Microdata samples (PUMS) of the 1940 1960 1970 and 1980 US Censuses and the Current Population Surveys (CPS) of 1985-87. 2 samples were drawn: 1) couples between the ages of 16-34 years and married for the 1st time 1 year prior to the census or CPS (newlyweds) and 2) couples between the ages of 21-39 years and married 5-6 years prior to the census/CPS. The methods of Hauser and Johnson are used to analyze trends that distinguish patterns of change in marginal distributions of husbands and wives traits from those which show an association between spouses traits. These "crossings" models indicate which educational differences between prospective spouses are serious barriers to intermarriage and reflect patterns of change between years. The implications are that marriages between persons who differ in educational attainment may be more common at some levels of the educational hierarchy than at others and that the effect of the time gap between school leaving and marriage is greater at higher levels of schooling than at lower levels. The proportion of marriages with spouses of the same educational attainment declined between 1900-50 and increased from 1950 to 1970 which was due to distributions of spouses schooling rather than from the association between spouses attainment. There is further discussion of the effects of changes in the timing of schooling and marriage and changing competitiveness of the marriage market. The results take into consideration log linear models that relate to the trends in schooling and educational assortative mating and that relate to the timing of marriage and educational assortative mating. The findings suggest that even after the relative timing of leaving school and entry into marriage are accounted for the trend remains for increased educational assortative mating particularly for college graduates and persons without college degrees. Although not empirically tested it is suggested that changes in rates of participation in the armed forces in rates of childbearing before marriage in the incidence of cohabitation in womens labor force participation and in the status of jobs held by women affect the timing of marriage and exposure to potential spouses of varying educational statuses. There may also be an influence on patterns of assortative mating. When barriers to marriage between educational strata increase between family inequalities increase and the effects on family inequality and educational mobility require further analysis. The findings suggest however that the structure of marriage and inequality within and between generations are affected by trends in age at marriage.

Combined data from six U.S. national surveys conducted from 1973 to 1978 were used to study patterns of interreligious marriage in the mid-1970s and to indicate changes since the Current Population Survey gathered data on interreligious marriage in 1957. Data on current religious preference showed an important degree of increase in religiously mixed couples from 1957 to 1973-1978. Data on the religions in which individuals had been raised indicated no extremely strong barriers to religious outmarriage except among Jews--the fairly high degree of homogamy in current religious preference apparently being achieved to a large extent by religious switching after marriage or in anticipation of marriage. The impact of interreligious marriage on marital happiness is also studied. (EXCERPT)

This paper examines "May-September" and "May-December" marriages--that is marriages in which spouses are separated by unconventional age differences. These marriages are not interesting for their numbers; only about 8% of marriages are age-heterogamous. What makes them interesting is their potential for theorizing about homogamy and its social consequences. Using data from the US Panel of Income Dynamics and a major epidemiological study in Florida this paper compares age-heterogamous and age-homogamous couples in terms of socioeconomic status and marital quality to examine the truth of the popular hypotheses that age-heterogamous couples are mostly from the upper middle class and that these marriages are burdened by problems that make them very unstable. The 4 groups studied include: 1) wives who are at least 4 years older than their husbands 2) husbands and wives who are separated by no more than 3 years in either direction 3) husbands who are between 4 and 10 years older than their wives and 4) husbands who are 11 or more years older than their wives. For all races marriages with husbands who are at least 11 years older than their wives diminished steadily from 13.45% of those making $4999 or less to 6.21% of those making $30000 or more. Couples with wives 4 or more years older than their husbands are also roughly twice as frequent in families with incomes of $4999 or less than those with incomes of $30000 or more. The data also show that age difference is a nonpredictor of marital satisfaction when socioeconomic status race duration of marriage sex and age are controlled. Measures of marital quality also did not discriminate between groups. These findings dramatically contradict popular wisdom and cast doubt on theories on the nature and effects or marital homogamy and heterogamy.