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© 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

SummaryHumans in many societies are known to mate, or marry, assortatively for a number of characters such as eye colour, height, IQ and place of birth. In this assortment an element of active choice may be involved. It is not known whether this choice is genetic. Two models of human mate choice are examined in which both males and females can express a mating preference. In the first, ‘sexual’ preferences can be expressed for any phenotype not necessarily one's own; in the second, preferences are only expressed for an individual's own phenotype. The results of the examination indicate how much active choice would be needed to account for the observed correlations between human mates, and suggest whether human mating preferences are more likely to be sexual or assorting.

This thesis evaluates whether the increasing socioeconomic resources of women and men and the distribution of work within the couple have an effect on union instability. On the one hand, it assesses each spouse’s satisfaction with the union, testing the differences between partners in their perceptions of the quality of the marriage. On the other hand, it studies the stability of the relationship, focusing on the risk of dissolution over time and differentiating between cohabiting and married unions. The focus is on the factors that account for this stability and whether their effects differ by type of couple, both from the perspective of the individual (distinguishing between men and women) and of the couple. The findings suggest that the nature of marriage is different from that of cohabitation and that cohabiting partners are more susceptible to the internal and external negative conditions that unions have to deal with. Finally, the thesis demonstrates that it is important to take into account, if possible, the responses of both partners., Esta tesis evalúa si el incremento en los recursos socioeconómicos de mujeres y hombres y la distribución del trabajo dentro de la pareja afectan a la estabilidad de la unión. Por un lado, investiga la satisfacción individual con la pareja, investigando las diferencias en las percepciones de la calidad de la relación. Por otro lado, estudia la estabilidad de la relación, centrándose en el riesgo de separación en el tiempo y diferenciando entre parejas que cohabitan y parejas que se casan. En concreto, analiza los factores que pueden incidir en la estabilidad y comprueba si sus efectos difieren por tipo de pareja desde una perspectiva individual (diferenciando entre hombres y mujeres) y desde una perspectiva de pareja. Los resultados de los análisis parecen indicar que la naturaleza del matrimonio es diferente de la naturaleza de la cohabitación y que los cohabitantes son más vulnerables a las condiciones negativas, tanto internas como externas, a las que tienen que hacer frente las parejas. Por último, esta tesis demuestra que es importante, si es posible, tener en cuenta la información de los dos miembros de la pareja.

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.

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.

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.

This study adds a microeconomic perspective to the discussion on ethnic diversity and economic performance in developing countries by investigating the motivation for intra-ethnicity marriage in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, the paper proposes that ethnic similarity between spouses enhances economic outcomes through a shared agricultural production technology. Furthermore, the framework suggests that the probability of marriage within the same ethnic group is positively related to the size of the group due to frictions in the marriage market: Search costs for co-ethnic spouses are larger the smaller the group. The theoretical propositions are supported using Ethiopian rural household data by demonstrating that inter-ethnicity marriage of the household head has adverse implications for family income. The negative effect is robust to controlling for lagged income and initial conditions, present when investigating the link with changes in family wealth, and persists in additional sensitivity checks.

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.

A mechanism of mate selection in humans is proposed and elaborated. It is further proposed that this mechanism constitutes one of the important factors for stability and the necessary longevity of the procreational dyad and therefore the procreational success of humans as a species. The concepts and mechanisms of assortative mating (homogamy) and that of complementarity of temperaments of the mates (heterogamy) which guide such selections are described, the relationships between the two are explored, and finally their possible early developmental origins are proposed. Evidence from a small study of 20 married couples' responses in temperament tests is offered as well as some illustrative case histories all pointing to those mechanisms. The argument is based mainly on principles of evolutionary psychology.

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.

This article discusses the question of homogamy and/or heterogamy in human mate selection with particular emphasis on Winch's principles of type I and type II complementarity. The experiment was performed on 82 married couples, at least one spouse of which was a graduate student at the University of Illinois. All were given the 16PF, the Motivational Analysis Test (MAT), and the Marriage Role Questionnaire. The authors found that except for fear and pugnacity all husband-wife trait correlations were positive, in contrast to Winch's principle of type I complementarity. They also found that their data did not support Winch's principle of type II complementarity.