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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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). …

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 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 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.

Social and behavioural scientists have been concerned with relations between the work and family as the rate of female employment continues to rise affecting an ever increasing proportion of married women. A link between employment outside the home and marital happiness of married working women has long been suspected. Since two decades research has focussed on the relation between work and family experiences. Research focussing on the heterogamy hypotheses which links spouse difference to marital happiness is limited particularly in a developing country like India. Studies conducted elsewhere suggest that marriages in which couples differ in age religion education or occupation are more likely to have conflict and experience marital disruption because such heterogamous marriages have less consensus than homogamous marriages. Some find no significant relationship between age difference or social class dissimilarity and satisfaction in their marriages. (excerpt)

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 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.

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.

A partir de una amplia revisión bibliográfica y basándose en los datos de un estudio realizado sobre una muestra representativa de la provincia de Lérida (N=1.219) se analiza en este artículo la persistencia de la homogamia educativa en un contexto de expansión de la escolarización, en especial, de las cohortes femeninas españolas nacidas con posterioridad a 1955. Más allá de la controversia de la homogamia frente a la heterogamia los autores interpretan los resultados como ejemplo de los límites al cambio de modelo de enlace matrimonial. This study presents a thorough review of the existing literature on social change and educational homogamy. Using data from a study, based upon a representative sample from Lleida province (N=1.219), this paper analyses the persistence of educational homogamy within a context of increasing school enrolment, particularly among cohorts of Spanish female students born since 1955. Beyond the controversy between homogamy and heterogamy, the authors have interpreted the results as an example of the limits to change associated with the marriage model.

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)

I assess whether intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics has increased over the course of the twentieth century and, if it has, whether the declining salience of religious boundaries has been accompanied by a rising importance of educational boundaries in spouse selection. By analyzing a set of national surveys that were conducted between 1955 and 1989 and using a research design that separates the effects of period and duration of marriage, I examine changes over a longer period of time than any previous study has done. Multivariate loglinear analyses show that intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics has increased dramatically since the 1920s, while intermarriage between different educational groups has decreased. Currently, the social boundaries that separate educational groups seem to be stronger than the boundaries that separate Protestants and Catholics. In addition, there is some evidence that interfaith marriages have become increasingly homogamous with respect to education, suggesting that education has replaced religion as afactor in spouse selection.

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.

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 ...

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.

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)

The literature on social stratification refers on occasion to inter-class marriage as the "acid test" of class mobility. This paper examines that proposition using Italian national-sample survey data on four socio-political perspectives: the respondent's perception of 1) the different distribution of rewards in society, 2) the degree to which class boundaries restrict social intercourse, 3) the character of inter-class relations, and 4) the interest representations of political parties. Evidence supports the proposition. In addition, rates of heterogamy are reported, and the relationship of heterogamy to career entries is examined.