Search

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

The prevalence of marital homogamy provides insight into the social organization of group boundaries. For example, educational homogamy reflects the importance of social class (Schwartz and Mare 2005), and racial homogamy is a key indicator of race relations (Qian and Lichter, 2007). It follows that changing rates of intergroup marriage are indicative of shifts in the strength of social boundaries between groups. Marriage implies strong attachment in the most intimate of settings such that increasing intergroup marriage indicates a weakening of social barriers to interaction. The weakening of barriers may also extend to kin, friends and other social networks. Conversely, if social characteristics become more salient in interpersonal relationships, then rates of intermarriage will decline. In turn, increased visibility of couples in heterogeneous relationships can be a force for social change in the social acceptance of these types of relationships, and this change is further reinforced when new cohorts are reared in homes with greater degrees of homogeneity or heterogeneity. Education, race, and religion form different contexts where people form relationships that could lead to marriage. Religious beliefs and behavioral codes shape preferences based on moral judgments and racial preferences are shaped by social constructions of race. Educational and religious institutions also provide a context where potential partners meet. Race affects marriage markets to the degree that neighborhoods, recreational activities and institutions such as education and religion are segregated. Thus, it follows that changes in the racial, religious, or educational context of a society would strongly influence rates of intermarriage. In fact, a large body of research documents multiple mechanisms through which religious, educational, and racial context influences intermarriage rates around the world (Goode 1970; Mare 1991; Kalmijn 1991a, 1991b, 1998; Thornton 2005; Qian and Lichter 2007; Esteve and McCaa 2007; Fu and Heaton 2008; Rosenfeld 2008; Jacobson and Heaton 2008). However, despite the extensive research showing that religion, education, and race each structure interpersonal interaction, the relative importance of these characteristics is not well understood. To date, some research has examined the joint distributions of marriage by education and race, but few have been able to study the joint distributions of all three. Further, none of these studies have examined changes in racial, educational, and religious assortative mating simultaneously. The purpose of this research is to explore changes in the relative importance of religion, race and education in mate selection in a society undergoing dramatic changes in race relations, educational expansion, and religious diversity. More specifically, this research addresses four sets of questions about the nature of intergroup marriage in Brazil. Each set of questions involves both a description of the general tendency and the pattern of change. First, how does the overall likelihoods of homogamy compare across education, race and religion? Second, do sub-categories of education, race and religion vary in the likelihood of homogamy? Third, are there specific patterns of heterogamy that are more common? Finally, is education associated with racial and religious homogamy? This paper addresses these questions by comparing national probability samples for the periods 1991 to 2000, and 2001 to 2008. Answers to these questions will not only provide information about the relevance of these three characteristics in mate selection, but also give clues about how broad social change influences the formation of intimate relationships. Thus it offers a more comprehensive analysis of changing patterns of intermarriage by considering education, race, and religion.

Item does not contain fulltext The effect of educational differences between partners on marital quality and stability is commonly analysed using difference, or compound measures. This article considers the theoretical foundations for these approaches and examines an alternative approach, diagonal reference models (DRMs). The three methods are then compared empirically, using data on 629 married couples from the survey Child-Rearing and Family in the Netherlands. Difference measures show no effect on marital satisfaction, whereas compound measures and DRMs do show an effect. As DRMs also allow for the quantification of this effect, while being theoretically and methodologically appropriate, they are affirmed the best method. 14 p.

This qualitative study explores assumptions of family scholars who draw on age heterogamy and marriage-gradient approaches to suggest that marriages between older husbands and much younger wives are likely to be male-dominated, with traditional gender arrangements. Drawing on resource theory and marital power perspectives, we analyze the life histories, psychosocial understandings, and day-to-day arrangements of both partners in eight husband-older marriages to uncover their unique features. We present four cases with distinct dynamics to suggest that future research needs to consider that (a) husbands’ older age does not automatically translate into male dominance and rigid gender arrangements; (b) when combined with additional forms of heterogamy, such as racial status, social class, occupational prestige, and education, age heterogamy is likely to be associated with male dominance; (c) men can experience a shift toward more marital sharing and androgyny upon remarriage to a younger woman; and (d) gender arrangements in husband-older marriages can undergo major shifts across the life course.

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.

This study provides insight into the lives of eight married couples involved in an age-heterogamous relationship where the wife is ten or more years older than her husband. While there is a lot of information in the literature about men who date and marry younger women, the research on this subject is very limited or outdated. This exploratory study provides valuable information in several areas about couples in woman-older marriages. The interviews were conducted with each participant separately and explored three major topics of interest: The impact the age difference has on the relationship, the issues that arise for the couple, and any difference in husbands and wives experience. Implications for professionals working with such couples, as well as for further research, are discussed.

Marrying someone from an outside group deserves more sociological attention since it may lead to an unstable or even conflicting relationship for the prospective couple. In spite of such a risk, many people still choose to marry someone from an outside group. Traditionally, scholars in the area of social stratification have considered homogamy to be an indicator of social closure. Sociologists have also focused on the status resemblance of marriage partners in that it indicates the extent of social rigidity. However, instead of focusing on status homogamy, this study examines the heterogamy of marriage patterns, which is an alternative way of revealing the degree of social openness. Heterogamy is a more powerful indicator of social openness than homogamy because certain types of heterogamy have to defy the expectations of and/or opposition from the marriage partner’s family, community or society, and such instances can be conceptually interpreted as crossing the strongest social boundaries between social groups. Marriages crossing the boundaries of age, education, social origin and ethnicity have been regarded as the four major types of heterogamy. This study uses binary logistic and multinomial logistic models to explore the relative effect of the factors that contribute to cross-boundary marriages. Using data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey, this study demonstrates that certain factors, such as achieved status (education), contextual characteristics (timing of marriage, setting of contacts) and ways of making acquaintances with the prospective spouse have contributed to cross-boundary marriages. Although achieved status and personal traits both have strong effects on the likelihood of heterogamy, social backgrounds and the process of meeting/courting also have a substantial impact on the formation of cross-boundary marriages in Taiwan.

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.

In this analysis we assess the effects of different social charasteristics of individuals on their propensity for the first marriage taking into account the joint educational distribution of spouses. In line with the theoretical hypotheses and the findings of previous research, we have found a tendency for individuals with similar levels of education to marry one another. People with compulsory schooling and with university degrees are the most likely to marry homogamously. The odds of marrying people with equal or higher education are greater as individuals get older. However, the effect of the variable describing time out of school becomes smaller at the higher levels of the educational hierarchy, especially at the university level. This findings suggests the low-cost marriage market function of universities, the fact that these institutions collect students whose future socio-economic prospects re very homogeneous. Parental education has a consistent effecgt on marital behaviour. Well-educated individu...

This study addresses two questions: Do religiously dissimilar couples argue more often than other couples? Are religious differences among partners associated with arguments concerning particular issues? We investigate these issues using data on 2,945 co-residing, first-time married couples from Wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households. Denominational homo/heterogamy, measured in several different ways, has little bearing on the frequency or types of marital disagreements. Men's religious attendance is inversely related to the overall frequency of disputes and to disagreements over housework, money, how time is spent, and sex, whereas women's attendance is not. Attendance (dis)similarities among partners are positively associated with the overall frequency of conflicts. Theological disparities between partners are linked with more frequent conflicts overall and also with disagreements over household labor and finances. Several implications and promising directions for future research are discussed.

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.

Item does not contain fulltext Socio-demographic heterogamy is commonly believed to lead to lower relationship stability due to the presence of cultural differences between partners. This explanation lacks empirical support, as psychology studies have not confirmed the link between heterogamy and cultural differences, whereas sociological studies have been characterized by problems related to the choice and measurement of cultural differences. Progressing from previous research, this article examines the specific link between educational heterogamy and cultural differences in the domain of child-rearing. Results partly confirm the alternative hypotheses of child-rearing values and behaviors being subject to gender differences and processes of selection between partners. Nonetheless, they also indicate a positive link between educational heterogamy and differences in child-rearing values and behaviors between partners. 22 p.

Based on a national sample of Christian couples, interchurch respondents reported lower levels of religiosity than same-church respondents on a number of religious variables. Respondents in same-church marriages were similar in religiosity regardless of whether the relationship was initially interchurch or same-church. The study did not find evidence that interchurch respondents were more likely than same-church individuals to drift away from church practice. Strength of denominational identity at engagement was the strongest predictor of religious behavior among interchurch respondents, while church attendance at engagement was the strongest predictor among same-church respondents. Interchurch respondents and their spouses were less likely to emphasize religion in raising children than same-church respondents, and were more likely to differ as a couple on their emphasis on religion in raising children. Interchurch parents predominantly raise their children exclusively in one parent's church, although 12 percent reported raising their children in both churches.

This paper focuses on husbands' and wives' party political identifications in combination. There is a high level of party political homogamy in Great Britain (i.e. spouses tend to share the same party political identification). Statistical analyses show that levels of homogamy vary according to strength of party political identification, parental homogamy, age, and marital status. Levels of party political similarity are also shown to differ between marriage and other social relationships, and between first marriages and remarriages. Attitudes towards homogamy are shown to vary with age. The implications of these findings for theories relating to the origins of homogamy and to the consequences of heterogamy are considered. Broadly speaking, the findings indicate that party political homogamy is a consequence of demographic constraints, utility-maximizing choices, and responses to cultural norms.

All cultures have rules regarding mate selection. Many societies encourage either homogamy or heterogamy. Homogamy refers to marriage between individuals with similar social and personal characteristics, whereas heterogamy refers to marriage between individuals with different social or personal characteristics. Although there is some freedom in mate selection in American society, the United States is still basically a society whose norms encourage homogamy. Some of the major factors that influence mate selection include socioeconomic status, race, age, and parental and peer pressures. The purpose of this article is to examine the attitudes and preferences of African American college students toward physical and social status related variables regarding dating and future mate selection. Several social status and attractiveness related variables, along with selected background variables (including gender), were analyzed to note relationship patterns. Of particular interest was the importance of skin color or skin tone and social status as mate selection preferences among African American college students. There may be vast differences between attitudes toward mate selection and actual behaviors when selecting mates for marriage. Attitudinal research on skin color and social status preferences as they relate to mate selection on African American populations is lacking.

Marriage is a social institution that integrates individuals to form families. Yet, the social embeddedness of married couples is surprisingly rarely examined, particularly for remarriage. Drawing from multiple datasets, this chapter shows that before marriage, remarried dyads are socially less embedded than their continuously married counterparts; after marriage, their social relations rely more on the spouse. First, with the attrition of close associates over the life course and the disruption in social network due to divorce, individuals tend to look outside their networks and at less conventional venues, and to adopt dating strategies involving fewer contacts from existing network, resulting in greater socio-demographic heterophily in remarriage. Second, such dating strategies and the greater socio-demographic heterogamy imply socially invisible wedding ceremonies for remarried couples. Third, remarried individuals’ social networks, in the absence of spousal ties, remain as fragmented as those of the divorced in terms of network characteristics such as density, volume of contacts, and emotional closeness. A remarried individual’s network is akin to that of the divorced plus a spouse. Compared to first marriage, the spouse is much more prominent in the social relations of remarried individuals.

This retrospective study compared reports of gay and heterosexual male college students about particular behaviors and feelings during childhood and adolescence. The results were interpreted as providing general support for Bell's heterogamy principle that regardless of a person's sexual orientation, his or her romantic attachments will be to people perceived different from themselves.

This is a challenging moment for the law of discrimination. The state’s role in discrimination has largely shifted from requiring discrimination - through official policies such as segregation - to prohibiting discrimination - through federal laws covering areas such as employment, housing, education, and public accommodations. Yet the problem of discrimination persists, often in forms that are hard to regulate or even to recognize. At this challenging moment, the intimate domain presents a vital terrain for study in two main ways. First, conceptually, studying the intimate domain permits new insights into discrimination and the law’s identity categories, because people are more willing to be explicit about identity-based preferences in this domain than in others (such as employment). Second, practically, examining the intimate domain reveals the ways that relationships in this sphere affect hierarchies and opportunities in more public domains, and the role the state plays in those relationships. This Article therefore examines intimate discrimination, focusing on race, sex, and disability, and identifies key norms for each category. For race, the norm is homogamy, or pairing with one’s own type; for sex, by contrast, the norm is heterogamy, pairing outside one’s type; and for disability, the norm is desexualization, rather than pairing with one group or another. The Article does not assume that intimate discrimination is necessarily bad. On the contrary, examining the nuanced landscape of discrimination in this realm is one of the Article’s main purposes. Ultimately, the Article concludes that, at the level of individual interaction, intimate differentiation based on these identity traits can be good, bad, or neutral, depending on context. For this and other reasons, legal regulation targeting individual differentiation on these bases would be woefully misguided. Nonetheless, the state plays important roles in intimate discrimination at a structural level. By creating the infrastructure of society, the state shapes the accidents of who meets whom and how. In addition, the state plays a role in the hierarchy of intimate opportunities by shaping social capital and relative advantages. The state therefore should reform its laws and policies to attend to its structural role in intimate discrimination. For sex, the most obvious next step is to cease to restrict marriage according to sex. For disability, the state should help to encourage opportunities for intimate affiliation by, among other things, attending to the architecture of intimacy, by which I mean the ways that structures of accommodation operate to help or hinder not only access, but also closeness. For race, the state’s goal should not be to encourage race mixing, but rather to lift burdens on existing relationships, such as residential segregation. Recognizing how intimate affiliations affect opportunities and status hierarchies, both in the intimate sphere and beyond, points us toward new ways to intervene in the persistent problem of discrimination.

According to classical works on social stratification, status homogamy can be regarded as an indicator of the "openness" of society. In contrast to previous approaches, this article treats marriage choice as a multidimensional phenomenon and makes a distinction between ascriptive- and achievement-oriented characteristics. Ascriptive status homogamy is measured by the similarity of spouses with respect to their fathers' occupational class, while the achieved dimension of status homogamy is measured by the similarity of spouses' educational attainment. Multivariate log-linear models are used to explore the relative importance of these factors for the choice of a spouse, and the article tests the hypothesis that there has been a transition from ascription to achievement in patterns of marriage selection. This study first demonstrates empirically that previously conducted synthetic cohort analyses of educational homogamy suffer from selection biases and then, using the Occupational Change in a Generation (OCG...

Contains fulltext : 73136.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This study investigates the relationship between characteristics of the living environment and antagonistic attitudes towards ethnic out-groups, with a focus on the explanation of opposition to ethnic intermarriage. Previous studies on the relationship between the living environment and prejudice-related attitudes used at most a limited set of contextual characteristics. We investigate to what extent relative group sizes, economic competition, cultural competition, safety threats, and social cohesion within Dutch municipalities and neighbourhoods affect antagonistic attitudes once social origin characteristics and other relevant individual-level characteristics are controlled for. To test hypotheses derived from Ethnic Competition Theory and Contact Theory, we used data from the Netherlands Kinship and Panel Survey supplemented with unique aggregate demographic statistics. The results show that proximity of ethnic out-group members in the municipality reduces opposition to ethnic heterogamy. However, an increase in the ethnic out-group proportion is positively related to opposition to ethnic intermarriage. Moreover, at the neighbourhood level, proximity of ethnic outgroups increases opposition among the lower educated, whereas it decreases opposition among the higher educated. These findings indicate that the threat mechanism, the contact mechanism, and selective migration operate at the same time. Economic competition is the only type of competition that evokes opposition to ethnic intermarriage. 16 p.

In choosing marriage partners, we generally look for someone with similar status characteristics to our own. This paper suggests that status inequalities may be hypothesized to make a difference in marital satisfaction. Using the couple as the unit of analysis, the effects of educational heterogamy on marital satisfaction were investigated. Using ordinary least-squares regression, we found that when husbands had more education than their wives, both partners reported less than happy marriages with more disagreement and less positive feedback. Conversely, when the wife had more education, both partners reported more satisfaction with the marriage. Using results from the ordinary least-squares regression, a two-stage least-squares model was estimated. In this more complete model, the strongest effect on each partner's marital satisfaction was the feedback regarding the other partner's happiness within the marriage. Possible explanations for these findings are presented. We argue that longitudinal studies, using the couple as the unit of analysis, are essential if we wish to study the processes of marital interaction between spouses.

Previous studies have indicated a relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction and stability. However, most have emphasized denominational affiliation only. Using loglinear analysis of national survey data, this study tested the effects of three types of religious homogamy - namely denominational affiliation, church attendance, and belief in the Bible - upon marital satisfaction and stability. Results indicated that denominational affiliation homogamy is the most critical, with church attendance homogamy contributing slightly to marital success. Similar beliefs about the Bible did not have a statistically significant association with either marital satisfaction or marital stability.

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.

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.

This study assesses the relationship between religious heterogamy and the marital happiness of Catholics, employing data from NORC General Social Surveys. A logistic regression analysis with interaction terms enables us to ascertain (a) whether any observed effect of heterogamy is attributable to correlated differences in religiosity; and (b) whether religiosity and heterogamy interact in affecting marital happiness. The findings show that heterogamy is not related to marital happiness for Catholics, either at the bivariate level or when religiosity and other variables are controlled. Religiosity, however, does have a positive effect on marital happiness, but only among homogamous Catholics.

“Functional” marriage textbooks usually state that differences between spouses in class background are, regardless of adult status, influences for marital maladjustment and instability; but a search of the literature revealed no empirical support for this generalization. Data from a sample of males in a high-status occupation reveal no marital instability which can be attributed to an interaction between the class backgrounds of the spouses.

In recent years, sociological research has been concerned increasingly with patterns of intergenerational and marital mobility of women, patterns of marital homogamy, and consequences of marital heterogamy. This research can make further substantial contributions only if it becomes integrated into a more adequate theoretical framework. In the first part of the paper, elements of such a framework are developed. Social stratification is conceived of as a process of differential association emerging as a complement to that of class formation in order to develop and preserve collective social identity within a world characterized by pervasive economic inequality. The outcome of this process is a long-term macrosocial reproduction of inequality when it penetrates two strategic forms of social relations, parent-child and husband-wife relationships. The second part of the paper applies this theoretical approach to the marital relationship by discussing traditional and alternative hypotheses about stratification ...

SynopsisHeterogamy — the marriage of partners with markedly different social characteristics — is considered as a potential source of pathology, such as marital breakdown or neurosis. This paper develops an argument that heterogamy per se is not the cause of problems. Rather, heterogamy may disrupt social networks surrounding the couple. Two possible results follow. Either the partners, being very different, form two independent and different sets of friends. This results in a ‘weak tie’ marriage likely to break. Or the partners remain close, have no friendship network and thus become isolated. Isolation may then lead to neurosis. Data from previous sources and from an Australian survey are used to test propositions derived from this argument, and receive support.

Data from a representative sample of 1,070 married Protestants and Catholics were used to examine the relationship between religious homogamy and marital happiness. Although couples may vary in the extent to which they share religious views (e.g., beliefs, values), previous research has treated religious homogamy as a dichotomy; a couple is either homogamous or it is not. A partial explanation for this is that few studies have gone beyond the broad divisions of Protestant, Catholic, and Jew. In the present study religious bodies were classified on the basis of doctrine and ritual, yielding six categories: Baptist, Calvinist, Catholic, fundamentalist, Lutheran, and Methodist. These categories were then used to develop a measure of estimated “religious distance” or degrees of heterogamy. This measure was used to test the hypothesis that the larger the religious distance or disparity, the greater the likelihood of unhappiness with the marriage. The hypothesis was supported by the data.

Hypotheses relating differences in husband-wife backgrounds, or sociocultural heterogamy, to marital disagreement over role expectations, marital values, and marital conflict are empirically tested...

We will here examine a few hypotheses or theories which have to do with mate-selection. With the assistance of parts of these we will, in addition, treat some aspects of marital adjustment. Among the old ways of thinking about mate-selection, we find the conceptions homogamy and heterogamy. The hypothesis of homogamy commonly says that the choice of a spouse will be (unconsciously or consciously) done so that the spouses are alike as much as possible. The assumption that one tends (unconsciously or consciously) to choose a spouse who is as different from oneself as possible is consequently called the hypothesis of heterogamy. Thus generally drawn up, the two hypotheses contradict each other. Much research has been undertaken to test the two hypotheses. There is no lack of support for the former one. It has been found that according to many social characteristics, e.g. religious confession, social class, education, and intelligence, the spouses tend to be equal. Moreover, with regard to what we prefer to call social psychological characteristics, interests, attitudes etc., the hypothesis of homogamy seems to be adequate. The hypothesis of heterogamy, on the other hand, has been confirmed at the investigation of the spouses' psychological characteristics, i.e. personality traits and some secondary needs. After some reformulations and specifications, the two hypotheses can be said to complement each other. Both are merely descriptive hypotheses. Since such hypotheses seldom are especially productive, it has been necessary to go further into them and transform them into explanatory hypotheses. A first step in that direction is the principle of propinquity in geographical and social space. It says that we tend to marry persons in spatial nearness to ourselves 1), i.e. persons who live in our neighbourhood, who are our work comrades, who were our schoolfellows etc. In our western culture we almost never marry a person that we have never met, and the probability of meeting persons who are neighbours, schoolfellows, work comrades, etc., is much greater than the prob

Are there any criteria which allow marriages to be definitively classified as mixed ? Simply counting every possible variable would be interminable and fallacious and would lead to the definition of all marriages as mixed, confounding heterogamy and mixedness. It is not the existence of a difference — whatever that difference may be — that defines mixedness but the existence of an endogamous social group which operates according to a social definition of 'difference' and accepts the notion of interdict. Mixed marriage is then the union between two people who should not have married. Their marriage infringes upon principles considered as important for the survival and cohesion of the group. The authors consider problems arising in the study of mixed couples in the light of the following : — Under what conditions may mixed marriage be considered pathological ; — to what extent are the effects of the social definition of difference subject to varia¬ tions according to feelings of membership ; — at what level does the notion of social status come in ; — what are the problems which cultural duality entails for the socialization of the couples and their children., Bensimon Doris, Lautman Françoise. Quelques aspects théoriques des recherches concernant les mariages mixtes [Some theorical aspects of research about mixed marriages]. In: Ethnies, volume 4, 1974. Les mariages mixtes. pp. 17-39.

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.

A literature search by Glenn et al. (1974) revealed highly inconsistent findings regarding the hypothesis that social class heterogamy, or marrying someone of a higher or lower social class background, leads to marital incompatibility and divorce. Their report is noteworthy because this hypothesis was shown to be a "textbook generalization" in functional marriage textbooks. Pearlin (1975) attempted to explain the inconsistency by showing that one type of social class heterogamy-marrying downleads to perceptions of stress, incompatibility, and lack of reciprocity in marriage only for spouses who value status advancement (status strivers). The present investigation attempted to replicate Pearlin's findings regarding this contingency relationship by employing marital conflict as the dependent variable. The contingency hypothesis was supported when reported frequency of marital conflict was the dependent variable, but not when reported conflict intensity was the dependent variable. However, the relationship held only for the wives in the sample. The findings are discussed and a revised contingency hypothesis is presented which incorporates the new findings.

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.

The relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction is examined utilizing log-linear models. Inclusion of the separate effects of husband's and wife's religion on marital satisfaction allows us to control for the potentially spurious relationship between religious affiliation and marital satisfaction. Results indicate that homogamous marriages are more satisfying. In order to test the hypothesis that dissatisfaction in heterogeneous marriages arises over conflict regarding socialization of children, the presence of children is included. The hypothesis is discounted, since the homogamy effect remains significant. When frequency of religious attendance is included, however, the homogamy effect becomes nonsignificant, suggesting that patterns of religious involvement underlie higher satisfaction within homogamous marriages. In this report the relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction is examined, and possible explanations for that relationship are explored. In one of the most recent analyses of interreligious marriage, Glenn (1982) finds evidence that religiously homogamous marriages are characterized by greater marital happiness than are heterogamous marriages. Males, in particular, reported greater marital satisfaction in homogamous marriages, and the difference in the percentage reporting a high level of marital status between homogamous and heterogamous marriages was statistically significant at the .10 level, even after controlling other factors. The difference for females, however, was not significant. Glenn suggested that the homogamy effect is more salient among men because children generally adopt religious values of their mothers, so that heterogamous marriages are more apt to create conflict between fathers and children than between mothers and children. Implicit in this explanation is the notion that the religious identification of children is a major source of strain in heterogamous marriages.

This research examines the relationship between religious and age heterogamy on the one hand and the choice of voluntary contraceptive sterilization and the decision for a male or female procedure on the other. 2 perspectives are set forth that provide bases for expecting heterogamy effects. One is a "selectivity" perspective which predicts that heterogamous couples would be more likely than others to obtain a sterilization procedure and to choose a male procedure. The other is a "strain" perspective which under certain conditions predicts that heterogamous couples would be less likely than homogamous couples to elect sterilization and to elect male sterilization. In the case of selecting sterilization over other contraceptive methods the results support the former perspective with couples of disparate ages and mixed-faith marriages exhibiting a greater tendency to elect sterilization than other couples. No relationship emerges however between the measures of heterogamy and the tendency to choose male over female sterilization. The results also reveal regional differences in sterilization patterns. The implications of the findings for the theoretical perspectives are discussed. (authors)

and marital satisfaction. In many studies concerned with mate selection, the major hypotheses come down to two, namely, homrogamy and heterogamy. In general, socioeconomic or demographic variables seem to uphold the homogamy hypothesis. On the other hand, for at least one investigator and the sources he cites, psychological variables support a heterogamy hypothesis.1 Employing the same frame of reference, it is a logical step from studies of mate selection to studies of differences in marital satisfaction be