Search

The worldwide expansion of female educational opportunities in recent decades has prompted demographers to assess the frequency with which women marry up (hypergamy) or down (hypogamy) with regard to education. A series of articles documented dramatic and nearly universal declines in hypergamy over time and across female educational advantage. However, this previous work investigated hypergamy only in the context of unequal educational pairings, excluding couples with equal levels of education (homogamy) from their analyses. Here, we argue that the prevalence of hypergamy should instead be assessed in relation to all marriages. We apply this approach to the case of Latin America, where women have made important gains in schooling relative to men. Using census microdata spanning 105 birth cohorts in 16 countries, we demonstrate that, rather than declining, hypergamy has increased in most countries over time and remains relatively stable across female educational advantage. Meanwhile, the prevalence of educational homogamy has declined considerably in most countries and across the axis of female educational advantage, an important trend that emerges only when homogamy is incorporated into the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines within- and cross-country trends and differences in marital sorting by education in Europe. Unlike previous research on assortative mating, our study focuses on the outcomes of the partner search process. We investigate how variations in (a) structural opportunities (educational composition of potential partners) and (b) assortative mating (non-random matching by education) have shaped trends and differences in educational sorting outcomes. Using vital statistics data on all marriages contracted from 2000 to 2020 in Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Italy, we decompose trends and differences in educational sorting outcomes into these two components. Within countries, trends in educational homogamy and hypogamy have been stable or increasing while hypergamy has declined. However, the drivers of these trends varied across countries. For example, in Sweden, shifts in assortative mating and structural opportunities led to more marriages between equally educated spouses, while in Italy, the rise in homogamy stems solely from changes in assortative mating. Within each year, homogamy and heterogamy levels varied between countries. Our findings demonstrate that these cross-country differences can be primarily attributed to variations in assortative mating rather than in opportunity structures. This study adds to recent research studying the structural causes of trends in sorting outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of unilateral divorce legislation (UDL) starting in the late 1960s led to spikes in U.S. divorce rates. We ask whether making divorce easier affected the educational structure of marriage. Using marriage and divorce certificate data covering 1970–1988, we provide new evidence on the evolution of the educational structure of marriage inflows (newlyweds) and outflows (divorces). Next, we leverage the timing of UDL introduction across states to estimate its effects on both flows. We find that UDL affected the educational structure of divorce but not of new marriages: it made generally unstable hypogamous couples (women married to less educated partners) less likely to divorce and made homogamous couples more stable than hypergamous ones (women married to more educated partners). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists have long been interested in marital homogamy and its relationship with inequality. However, measuring homogamy is not straightforward, particularly when one is interested in assessing marital sorting based on multiple traits. In this paper, we argue that Separate Extreme Value (SEV) models not only generate a matching function with several desirable theoretical properties, but they are also suited for the study of multidimensional sorting. Specifically, we use rich small‐scale survey data to examine sorting among parents of school‐age children in Naples. We show that homogamy is pervasive; not only do men and women sort by age, education, and physical characteristics, but they also look for partners that share similar health‐related behavior and risk attitude. However, we also show that these marital patterns are well explained by a low number of dimensions, the most important being age cohort and human capital. In particular, human capital relates to various "outcomes" of the post‐matching relationship. Children of parents with a high human capital endowment perform better at school, although they report lower levels of subjective well‐being and of perceived quality of relationship with their mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use longitudinal data on religious affiliation in Finland to examine childbearing behavior. All analyses are based on detailed fertility information from the Finnish national register of each person’s religious denomination for men and women born in 1956–1975. We identify higher fertility according to parity among members of the Evangelical Lutheran state church and other Protestant churches, and lower fertility among individuals with no religious affiliation. Most other religious groups—Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and adherents of Eastern religions—have intermediate levels of fertility. We also find that religious converts, that is, those observed with more than one religious denomination over their life course, typically are similar to the non-converts of the group they convert to, though with more distinct deviations from the Finnish population. Women show larger differences by religious affiliation than men. We find the largest differences across religions when we examine the proportion of childless men and women. Overall, differences between religious groups are rather modest, and childbearing patterns are quite similar. Our results provide, to our knowledge, the first examination of religion and fertility using national-level longitudinal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sammendrag Begrepet hypergami brukes i antropologien for å betegne hvordan kvinner tradisjonelt gifter seg opp i sosial status. Senere har begrepet også blitt brukt innen evolusjonspsykologi for å forklare asymmetriske og symmetriske partnervalg, seksuell tiltrekning og fysiske forskjeller mellom kjønnene. Med det romantiske ekteskapet, kvinners frigjøring, og i en tid hvor langt flere kvinner enn menn tar høyere utdanning, er det forventet at partnervalg vil baseres på likhet mellom partene fremfor hypergamiprinsippet. Vi ønsket å undersøke dette ved å intervjue kvinner og menn i etableringsfasen om hva de ønsker i en langsiktig partnerrelasjon. Noen hovedfunn er at kvinner ønsker en mann som er sterkere med mer sosioøkonomiske ressurser enn dem selv. Et overraskende funn er at også menn vil ha en partner med høyere utdanning, med jobb, og som kan utfordre dem intellektuelt. Et annet overraskende funn er sammenhengen mellom en manns mangel på ressurser som jobb, inntekt, høyde, samt personlige egenskaper som initiativ og ambisjoner, og fravær av seksuell tiltrekning hos kvinnen. Hypotesen om at når menn og kvinner blir like utdannelsesmessig og økonomisk, vil hypergami forsvinne, gjenspeiles ikke i vår forskning.

This paper unravels the effect of assortative mating on wealth inequality. In light of the reviewed literature, it is concluded that there is a significant effect of assortative mating on wealth inequality, it is mainly driven by similarity in background and similar views on lifestyle, including saving habits. These findings are in line with the matching hypothesis. However, the competition hypothesis of having an inherent interest in a partner with a high socio-economic status cannot be ruled out. Another relevant finding highlights how redistributive policies might enable individuals to cross social boundaries when partnering up and foster social cohesion.

This paper unravels the effect of assortative mating on wealth inequality. In light of the reviewed literature, it is concluded that there is a significant effect of assortative mating on wealth inequality, it is mainly driven by similarity in background and similar views on lifestyle, including saving habits. These findings are in line with the matching hypothesis. However, the competition hypothesis of having an inherent interest in a partner with a high socio-economic status cannot be ruled out. Another relevant finding highlights how redistributive policies might enable individuals to cross social boundaries when partnering up and foster social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a method which assumes that marital preferences are characterized either by the scalar-valued measure proposed by Liu and Lu, or by the matrix-valued generalized Liu–Lu measure. The new method transforms an observed contingency table into a counterfactual table while preserving its (generalized) Liu–Lu value. After exploring some analytical properties of the new method, we illustrate its application by decomposing changes in the prevalence of homogamy in the US between 1980 and 2010. We perform this decomposition with two alternative transformation methods as well where both methods capture preferences differently from Liu and Lu. Finally, we use survey evidence to support our claim that out of the three considered methods, the new transformation method is the most suitable for identifying the role of marital preferences at shaping marriage patterns. These data are also in favor of measuring assortativity in preferences à la Liu and Lu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficulties faced in life can affect marital relationships and such troubles may be dealt with in a multitude of ways, including coping religiously. The present study examined how religious coping, either in a positive or negative manner, may have an impact on marital satisfaction. Importantly, this association was studied dyadically in a sample of religiously diverse (Buddhists, 32.3%; Taoists, 17.6%; protestant Christians, 14.1%; and others who did not identify with a specific religion, 19.1%), married older Singaporean adults (N = 1928; 964 couples). Using actor-partner interdependence modeling, we found significant actor, partner, and combined actor-partner effects for positive and negative religious coping on marital satisfaction. Specifically, marital satisfaction was highest when both spouses reported high levels of positive religious coping and low levels of negative religious coping. Taken together, these findings suggest that it is the simultaneous act of either greater positive or lower negative religious coping by both spouses that is related to higher marital satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the patterns of assortative mating among college-educated women who graduated from typically female, typically male, or mixed disciplines. Using a set of cross-sectional observations of a single cohort of female graduates (2010) from European Union Labour Force Survey data and applying multilevel multinomial logit models, we estimated the relative risk of living with a college-educated partner (homogamy), living with less educated partner (hypogamy), or being single. Focusing on the first five years after graduation, the analysis demonstrated that field of study is a significant predictor of mating behaviour. Women with degrees in male-dominated fields are less likely to partner down with less educated men. The mating advantage of women from male-dominated fields is stronger in countries with a higher female employment rate. Furthermore, more liberal gender roles seem to increase the level of singlehood among women from male-dominated fields. Finally, women from female-dominated and mixed disciplines are more likely to partner down if the man graduated from a male-typical discipline. However, among women from male-dominated disciplines, such a trade-off was not observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using pooled data from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015, this study investigated the relationship between partners' educational pairings and subjective well-being among Chinese. Diagonal mobility models were employed to avoid conflating the effect of each partner's education and the effect of the difference in education between partners. The findings reveal that regarding the well-being consequences of partners' educational pairings, the hypothesis of satisfaction with marrying up outweighs the hypothesis of educational homogamy advantages and the hypothesis of sex roles. Specifically, for both women and men, persons marrying up in education are more likely to feel happy than their educationally homogamous counterparts. Moreover, educational hypergamy confers more psychological benefits to women in high-income communities than those in low-income communities. In addition, the earnings difference between partners plays a part in men's SWB. Husbands who earn less than their wives are more likely to be unhappy than those whose earnings are 1–1.5 times those of their wives, suggesting that sex-role norms are at work. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the well-being consequences of educational heterogamy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuestiones de Sociologia: Revista de Estudios Sociales is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines how similarity in work-family related attitudes matter for relationship satisfaction and union dissolution among Swedish couples. It utilizes a data set from 2009 (the Young Adult Panel Study) containing information on 1055 opposite-sex couples (married or co-residential), and registered union dissolutions up to 2014. Results indicate that couples who have similar notions on the importance of being successful at work; on the importance of having children; or on the importance of having enough time for leisure activities are more likely to be satisfied with their partner relationship than couples who have dissimilar attitudes. However, there are no effects of similarity in attitudes regarding the importance of living in a good partner relationship or doing well economically on relationship satisfaction, and we do not find any impact of similarity in attitudes of any kind on actual breakups. We find no support for specialization theory, which would predict that dissimilarity in work orientation would increase relationship quality. The study concludes that having similar priorities regarding work, career, and family does seem to matter for relationship quality, at least when it comes to the partners' satisfaction with the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of considering gender aspects in studies on residential energy consumption has been acknowledged. However, an important topic is still ignored in gender and energy transitions research: domestic power for men and women differs depending on the type of couple to which they belong. According to Pierre Bourdieu, the chances of each spouse to exercise legitimate power in domestic affairs depend on their respective economic and symbolic capital. In other words, spouses-matching matters, and practices, gender domestic roles and social representations on energy-saving home improvements are influenced to a great extent by the type of union that matches both spouses’ respective socio-economic characteristics into homo- or heterogamic unions. This mixed-method research is based on extensive data collected in multiple efforts over 18 years, comprising: (1) several sets of in-depth interviews with adults married or in union realised between 2006 and 2021; and (2) three large quantitative surveys realised in 2004, 2014 and 2016. Results indicate that traditional gender roles and male domestic power are mostly challenged in hypogamous unions both in considering and in carrying energy-saving home improvements. 'Practice relevance' A one-size-fits-all retrofit framing and energy policy does not work. In this case, it is not the technical conditions but rather a couple’s power relationships in the home. The male territory of energy-saving home improvements is being eroded, especially by wives who are more educated than their husband. Domestic power is key to apprehend the marital dynamics around retrofit. Recognising these marital dynamics, a variety of values can be mobilised to support the execution of energy retrofits, including, for example, more feminine values such as equality, and care for children. Policy instruments and media messages should be designed accordingly, and not mainly as financial benefits. Practitioners would be well-advised to take a more gender-neutral attitude with less stereotyping of male and female potentials. This also means treating homeowners in couples as a team rather than interacting only with the male partner: gender-neutral interactions would better avoid causing or reinforcing embarrassing situations for one partner or for the couple itself in their marital struggle for domestic power in deciding on or executing energy-saving home improvements.

To understand marriage patterns, homogamy, and fertility of women of European ancestry in the United States from an evolutionary perspective, we investigated if a prevalence of ancestral homogamy exists, the factors influencing a female preference for an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, and if ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriages have an impact on fertility. Furthermore, we aim to determine the heritability of homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage behavior. We used the census data of 369,121 women in the United States married only once and aged between 46 and 60 years, provided by IPUMS USA (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/). We used linear mixed models to determine the association between the probability of a homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage and the individual fertility of women. We aimed to estimate the heritability (genetics and parental environment) of marriage behavior using a linear mixed model. We found that ancestral heterogamous marriages are more frequent compared to homogamous marriages, but only if all ancestry groups are included. If ancestry is aggregated, homogamous marriages are more frequent compared to heterogamous marriages. Most of the variance (up to 27%) in interancestry marriage and fertility (up to 12%) is explained by ancestry per se, followed by the ratio of individuals of a certain ancestral background in a county (~6%), indicating a frequency depending selection into marriage: the more individuals of a certain ancestry live in a county, the lower is the tendency to marry someone of a different ancestral background. Furthermore, we found that about 12% (depending to some extent on the clustering) of the marriage behavior is heritable. Being in a homogamous marriage and the income of the spouse are both significantly positively associated with the number of children women have and the probability that women have at least one child, albeit explaining only a very low proportion of the overall variance. The most important factor (in terms of variance explained) for being in an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, for the number of children, and for childlessness is the ancestry of the women. Most children are born to women of Irish, French, and Norwegian ancestry (Irish X̅: 3.24, French X̅: 3.21, and Norwegian X̅: 3.18), the lowest number of children is to women of Latvian, Rumanian, and Russian ancestry (Latvian X̅: 2.26, Rumanian X̅: 2.19, and Russian X̅: 2.35). Albeit, we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on the basis of our data, only a small heritability for in-group vs. out-group marriage behavior is indicated (~12% of variance explained). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand marriage patterns, homogamy, and fertility of women of European ancestry in the United States from an evolutionary perspective, we investigated if a prevalence of ancestral homogamy exists, the factors influencing a female preference for an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, and if ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriages have an impact on fertility. Furthermore, we aim to determine the heritability of homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage behavior. We used the census data of 369,121 women in the United States married only once and aged between 46 and 60 years, provided by IPUMS USA (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/). We used linear mixed models to determine the association between the probability of a homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage and the individual fertility of women. We aimed to estimate the heritability (genetics and parental environment) of marriage behavior using a linear mixed model. We found that ancestral heterogamous marriages are more frequent compared to homogamous marriages, but only if all ancestry groups are included. If ancestry is aggregated, homogamous marriages are more frequent compared to heterogamous marriages. Most of the variance (up to 27%) in inter-ancestry marriage and fertility (up to 12%) is explained by ancestry per se, followed by the ratio of individuals of a certain ancestral background in a county (∼6%), indicating a frequency depending selection into marriage: the more individuals of a certain ancestry live in a county, the lower is the tendency to marry someone of a different ancestral background. Furthermore, we found that about 12% (depending to some extent on the clustering) of the marriage behavior is heritable. Being in a homogamous marriage and the income of the spouse are both significantly positively associated with the number of children women have and the probability that women have at least one child, albeit explaining only a very low proportion of the overall variance. The most important factor (in terms of variance explained) for being in an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, for the number of children, and for childlessness is the ancestry of the women. Most children are born to women of Irish, French, and Norwegian ancestry (Irish X̄: 3.24, French X̄: 3.21, and Norwegian X̄: 3.18), the lowest number of children is to women of Latvian, Rumanian, and Russian ancestry (Latvian X̄: 2.26, Rumanian X̄: 2.19, and Russian X̄: 2.35). Albeit, we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on the basis of our data, only a small heritability for in-group vs. out-group marriage behavior is indicated (∼12% of variance explained).

• Biases in parental behavior are discussed. • Some of these biases reflect favouring a similar child. • Assortative parenting may be one such influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the age and educational homogamy of same-sex couples in Germany over a 20-year period from 1996 to 2015. Data of the Microcensus show that cohabiting same-sex couples are less likely to be homogamous than cohabiting different-sex couples, both in terms of age and education. For same-sex couples, gender matters, male same-sex couples being the most diverse. The analyses thus confirm previous results for other European countries. Hitherto, changes in the homogamy of same-sex couples over time had not been studied in Europe, mainly due to data constraints. However, major changes in the visibility and legal acceptance of same-sex couples suggest that their patterns of partner choice are becoming more similar to those of different-sex couples. Our analyses show that the age difference among female same-sex couples has indeed narrowed over time, converging with the age difference among different-sex couples. For male same-sex couples though, there is no clear trend. In terms of educational homogamy, contrary to our assumption, we find a clear decline among same-sex couples of both genders since the 2000s, making them even more dissimilar to different-sex couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Population (00324663) is the property of Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the trajectories of Norwegians who, in their late‐thirties, possessed financial assets, such as securities, company shares and stocks, qualifying them as the wealthiest one percent nationally. We describe the accumulation of financial wealth over a 25‐year period in adulthood and study how different wealth sequences are linked to family origins and kinship ties. Although some Norwegians manage to build up large fortunes from relatively modest starting points over their life courses, we find that the value of the assets possessed by self‐made individuals, and their ability to retain wealth over time, differ significantly to those based on dynastic lineage. Among the latter group, profound wealth early in adulthood and strategic positions in the economy add to propel exponential ownership of financial wealth from a young age and throughout adulthood. This chimes with C. Wright Mills' suggestion that the amassing of great fortunes is driven by two mechanisms of the big jump that enables initial asset build‐up, and the accumulation of advantages that flows from advantageous economic and social ties. Kinship seems of key importance to ensure the efficacy of both mechanisms. Differences in the relationship of wealth accumulation and class origin seem to have little to do with educational strategies. We draw attention to direct wealth transfers and the institution of marriage as two little explored dimensions involved in dynastic closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This article evaluates whether couples' religious similarity is consequential for the health of older married men and women. Alternatively, we examine whether women's religiosity alone is health-protective to their husbands. Methods: Using dyadic data from the US National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a representative sample of 913 individuals ages 62–91 plus their marital partners, we perform latent-class analysis to separate older couples into classes based on religious characteristics. Ordered logistic regression models are then used to assess whether different combinations of religious (dis)similarity are associated with married men and women's well-being. Results: We find that older women in highly religious, homogamous marriages report better mental and physical health relative to women in heterogamous and secular (non-religious) marriages. No significant associations were observed for men. Discussion: Our results emphasize that religiosity is not only an individual trait—dis/similarities within a couple have important implications for older women's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding a large body of literature on log-linear models and odds ratios, no general marginal-free index of the association in a contingency table has gained a wide acceptance. Building on a framework developed by L. A. Goodman, we put into light the direct links between odds ratios, the Altham index, the intrinsic association coefficient, and coefficients in log-multiplicative models including Unidiff and row-column association models. We devise a normalized version of the latter coefficient varying between 0 and 1, which offers a simpler interpretation than existing indices similar to the correlation coefficient. We illustrate with the case of educational and socioeconomic homogamy among 149 European regions how this index can be used either alone in a non- or semiparametric approach or combined with models, and how it can protect against incorrect conclusions based on models which rely on strong assumptions to summarize the strength of association as a single parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonrandom mating in human populations has important implications for genetics and medicine as well as for economics and sociology. In this study, we performed an integrative analysis of a large cohort of Mexican and Puerto Rican couples using detailed socioeconomic attributes and genotypes. We found that in ethnically homogeneous Latino communities, partners are significantly more similar in their genomic ancestries than expected by chance. Consistent with this, we also found that partners are more closely related--equivalent to between third and fourth cousins in Mexicans and Puerto Ricans--than matched random male-female pairs. Our analysis showed that this genomic ancestry similarity cannot be explained by the standard socioeconomic measurables alone. Strikingly, the assortment of genomic ancestry in couples was consistently stronger than even the assortment of education. We found enriched correlation of partners' genotypes at genes known to be involved in facial development. We replicated our results across multiple geographic locations. We discuss the implications of assortment and assortment-specific loci on disease dynamics and disease mapping methods in Latinos.

The importance of considering gender aspects in studies on residential energy consumption has been acknowledged. However, an important topic is still ignored in gender and energy transitions research: domestic power for men and women differs depending on the type of couple to which they belong. According to Pierre Bourdieu, the chances of each spouse to exercise legitimate power in domestic affairs depend on their respective economic and symbolic capital. In other words, spouses-matching matters, and practices, gender domestic roles and social representations on energy-saving home improvements are influenced to a great extent by the type of union that matches both spouses' respective socio-economic characteristics into homo- or heterogamic unions. This mixed-method research is based on extensive data collected in multiple efforts over 18 years, comprising: (1) several sets of in-depth interviews with adults married or in union realised between 2006 and 2021; and (2) three large quantitative surveys realised in 2004, 2014 and 2016. Results indicate that traditional gender roles and male domestic power are mostly challenged in hypogamous unions both in considering and in carrying energy-saving home improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of homogamy on the distribution of household income in New Zealand at the national level and across different sized cities. We focus on homogamy by age, education, hours worked, employment status, and migration status. We present a new index of homogamy that takes account of maximum potential homogamy. Our index is less sensitive to categories with small population shares than the commonly used concentration ratios. We compare the inequality impact of actual matching with that of randomized matching by means of the additional randomization method. Contrary to public perception, homogamy of the highly educated has declined relative to random matching. Nonetheless, homogamy has had an inequality‐increasing impact on the distribution of income and this effect has grown over time: from around 5% of the mean log deviation (MLD) measure of income inequality in 1986 to 16% in 2013. Allowing for simulated labor supply responses reduces this effect by less than 1%. Spatially, the effect of homogamy is larger and increases more in metropolitan areas than in other urban areas. In Auckland, New Zealand's largest city (around a third of the population), homogamy accounted for a fifth of MLD inequality by 2013, up from 6% in 1986. Educational homogamy plays the biggest role in this process, but the effects of hours worked, employment status and migration status are relatively important too. Homogamy by age has little effect on income inequality. Using the Gini index as an alternative inequality measure yields similar results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Higher Education is the property of Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Increasing female educational attainment across OECD countries is making hypogamy a widespread phenomenon. This trend provides an opportunity to re-examine the effects of educational assortative mating on children's educational outcomes. This research explores the effects of hypergamy, homogamy, and hypogamy on gender differences in children's expectation of university graduation and actual college graduation. For the first purpose, logistic regression with country fixed-effects is applied to individual-level data from PISA 2015; a similar analysis is carried out for the second purpose with data from the European Social Survey. Three characteristics make us expect higher female advantage among children of hypogamous couples: higher probability of mothers being the main family breadwinner; higher probability of gender value conflict, eventually leading to family breakup and the father's absence; and the possibility that the father's occupation discourages sons from pursuing higher education. A systematic female advantage is indeed found among children of hypogamous couples in terms of expectation of college graduation and actual college graduation. Among the possible mechanisms behind this female advantage, only the father's and the mother's occupation could be explored with the data at hand, but none of them explain this advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examines the extent to which homogamy and heterogamy in husband–wife religious denomination are associated with initial levels of marital satisfaction and slopes of marital satisfaction over 17 years examining whether those associations are moderated by husbands' and wives' religious intensity. Background: Longitudinal studies on religion and marital outcomes that incorporate a dyadic component are relatively rare, and few studies have examined couple‐level religiosity with respect to long‐term marital outcomes. Method: On the basis of six waves of the Longitudinal Study of Generations data between 1988 and 2005, we selected 173 married couples in the baby boom generation and analyzed their musing dyadic growth curve modeling. Results: Husbands' and wives' religious denomination homogamy was significantly associated with initial levels and slopes of both husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction. In addition, husbands with highly religious wives of the same denomination exhibited greater initial levels of marital satisfaction than those who had wives of weaker religious intensity with a different denomination. Conclusion: In this research, denominational similarity between spouses was not only beneficial to marital satisfaction but was also paired with the degree of religious intensity. Implication: Family researchers and practitioners are encouraged to acknowledge the characteristics of couples' religious contexts and their influences on marital outcomes over the family life course. Because the LSOG couples represent mostly White and underrepresented families from other ethnicities, there should be caution in generalizing these findings to the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine to what extent the opportunities and restrictions of the partner market influence educational assortative mating. It also analyzes the interplay between the opportunity structure and preferences. Matching district-based partner market indicators to heterosexual couples when they move in together based on the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find strong effects of the opportunity structure on educational homogamy. The results further imply that the density of the supply of potential partners is more important for educational assortative mating than imbalanced supply and competition. While the impact of partner market imbalances on assortative mating is a mere effect of the opportunity structure, the effects of the partner market density of relevant and available partners in space weakly imply that homophile and maximization preferences are simultaneously at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses matched couple data from the 1991, 2000, and 2010 population censuses to examine the changes in spousal differentials in age, education, and work status, as well as inter-ethnic and international marriages. The general trend is one of decreasing spousal age and educational gaps between 1991 and 2010. Although older-man younger-woman marriages still predominated, the spousal age gap decreased from 4.6 years to 3.9 years, and the proportion of marriages in which the husband was more than 6 years older than the wife declined from 30% to 24%. Educational homogamy (couples having the same educational level) rose from 53% to 64%, while the proportion of women marrying someone of higher education declined from 33% to 21%. Inter-ethnic marriage hovered around 4.2% throughout the study period, after rising from less than 1% in the 1980s. International marriages made up about 1.2% of all marriages in 2010, up from 0.8% in 1991. The labour force participation rate of married women had increased significantly, resulting in the rise of dual-income households. The changing spousal differentials in socio-demographic characteristics are bound to alter gender roles and relations that will impact Malaysia’s family institution and demographic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note discusses a class activity that was developed for first-year bachelor students in sociology to understand homogamy theory. Taught in a "classical" deductive way, this theory proved to be difficult to remember and describe on the examination. Starting from inductive learning, and more specifically, (structured) inquiry-guided learning, the aim of the exercise was to transcend passive learning, making students gradually discover the different components of the theory themselves, practicing their sociological imagination. Overall, students evaluated the exercise positively, and they performed much better on the examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power inequalities originating from capitalist patriarchy are having an impact on and even determining our personal relationships: gender, class and ethnic inequality are consistently present in our intimate ties as well (Ridgeway 2009). For socially mobile individuals from lower classes, one of the main costs of moving between social classes is to exist in the complex conflict that arises from distancing from the social class of origin in order to integrate into new social spaces (Bourdieu 2005, Friedman 2016). These internal conflicts that are caused by broadened social structures are also present not just in the difficulty of finding a desired romantic partner (Durst at al. 2014) but in the process of sustaining an intimate relationship with someone from a particular social background as well. Structural inequalities are also determinative factors in partner selection, education homogamy and ethnic homogamy are highly present in society (Kamijn 1993, 1998, 2010, Kang Fu 2001). In this paper, through analysing narratives of educationally upwardly mobile women in Hungary, regarding intimate partner selection and looking at intimate relationships themselves, I aim to discover how their narratives reflect upon the hidden costs of mobility. I show how gender, education and ethnic inequalities emerge through the personal accounts of their mobility experiences and to what extent these inequalities determine the process of finding a desired partner or sustaining an existing intimate relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Existing knowledge has established the connection between maternal education and child survival, but little is known about how educational assortative mating (EAM), relates to childhood mortality. We attempt to examine this association in the context of Nigeria.Methods: Data was obtained from the 2008, 2013, and 2018 waves of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, which is a cross-sectional study. The sample includes the analysis of 72,527 newborns within the 5 years preceding each survey. The dependent variables include the risk of a newborn dying before 12 months of age (infant mortality), or between the age of 12-59 months (child mortality). From the perspective of the mother, the independent variable, EAM, includes four categories (high-education homogamy, low-education homogamy, hypergamy, and hypogamy). The Cox proportional hazard regression was employed for multivariate analyses, while the estimation of mortality rates across the spectrum of EAM was obtained through the synthetic cohort technique.Results: The risk of childhood mortality varied across the spectrum of EAM and was particularly lowest among those with high-education homogamy. Compared to children of mothers in low-education homogamy, children of mothers in high-education homogamy had 25, 31 to 19% significantly less likelihood of infant mortality, and 34, 41, and 57% significantly less likelihood of child mortality in 2008, 2013 and 2018 survey data, respectively. Also, compared to children of mothers in hypergamy, children of mothers in hypogamous unions had 20, 12, and 11% less likelihood of infant mortality, and 27, 36, and 1% less likelihood of child mortality across 2008, 2013 and 2018 surveys, respectively, although not significant at p < 0.05. Both infant and child mortality rates were highest in low-education homogamy, as expected, lowest in high-education homogamy, and lower in hypogamy than in hypergamy. Furthermore, the trends in the rate declined between 2008 and 2018, and were higher in 2018 than in 2013.Conclusion: This indicates that, beyond the absolute level of education, the similarities or dissimilarities in partners' education may have consequences for child survival, alluding to the family system theory. Future studies could investigate how this association varies when marital status is put into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article identifies mechanisms through which social class background shapes the marital outcomes of college‐going white American women. Background: Scholars are interested in the relative influences of ascriptive and achieved characteristics on mate selection. Research indicates that social class background continues to influence the marriage patterns of college‐educated Americans but does not identify the mechanisms through which this occurs. Method: The study analyzes six waves of longitudinal interviews with 45 women from differing social class backgrounds. The first interview was conducted at age 18, when women started college at a Midwestern public university. The final interview was collected at age 30 and was supplemented by a survey collecting the income, education, occupation, and debt of women and their spouses. Results: Women from privileged backgrounds were more likely to marry and married men who earned substantially more than the partners of less privileged women. Differences resulted from lifelong variation in social networks, originating in childhood. College did not interrupt long‐standing exclusionary class networks. After graduation, social class background shaped where women moved, as well as with whom they worked and socialized. Conclusion: Higher education in the contemporary United States may reinforce rather than interrupt class homogamy in marriage, even when students attend the same schools. The role of higher education in shaping classed social networks is in need of further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across most Western societies, trends towards increased ethnic intermarriage have been observed across the second half of the twentieth century. Whether such trends hold across the multi-ethnic society of Russia is not known. We analyze Russian census data and describe levels and trends in ethnic intermarriage in four highly different Russian cities. We find no change in ethnic intermarriage in Moscow, but more intermarriage in younger cohorts in the other three cities where the populations are more ethnically heterogeneous. Levels and trends in ethnic intermarriage vary substantially throughout Russia by locality and ethnic group. Our study highlights how trends in intermarriage can vary within a society, and how the local, historical context may play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we ask the question to what extent 19th-century university professors were a closed occupational group in the sense that they had little intergenerational and marriage mobility. We do so in honor of Kees Mandemakers, who is about to retire as a professor, but whose younger family members may follow in his footsteps. We derive competing hypotheses from cultural capital theory and the meritocracy thesis and test them using civil marriage records for the period 1813–1922 in six Dutch provinces (N = 1,180,976 marriages). Although only 4.4% of all university professors had a father in the same occupation, the odds ratio of 331 shows that this is much more likely than to be expected under independence. Similarly, professors were much more likely to marry the daughter of a professor. Compared to other elite occupations the intergenerational immobility of professors was not especially high, but their marriage immobility was exceptional. Cultural capital theory receives more support than the meritocracy thesis. We hope that Mandemakers, Mandemakers and Mandemakers will accept the challenge and investigate whether these findings can be generalized to contemporary society.

Copyright of Population & Sociétés is the property of Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Seeking to overcome the heterosexual bias in marriage-migration scholarship and move beyond individualistic approaches to queer mobility, this article focuses on the lives of same-sex couples that hold unequal residence statuses. In a twofold context marked by the increasing legal recognition of same-sex families combined with heightened hurdles facing certain categories of immigrants, we examine what those simultaneous trends mean for these couples. Based on 42 interviews conducted in France, the Netherlands and the United States with people from a variety of class backgrounds, we show how higher resource levels moderate the impact of constraining legal frameworks without suppressing them. We distinguish between low-resource homogamous, heterogamous, and high-resource homogamous couples. The first configuration often results in forced immobility and separation. In heterogamous couples, conjugality becomes a major pathway to legal status for the migrant spouse – potentially feeding suspicions of instrumentality. In contrast, privileged migrants in a homogamous couple tend to relate to law in less of a binary way and experience regulations as more easily surmountable. Yet, for them, securing permanent residence represents but one objective among several (including their careers and studies), an investment often disconnected from their matrimonial relationship and at times in competition with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the emergence of a specific mating preference pattern called homogamy in a population. Individuals are characterized by their genotype at two haploid loci, and the population dynamics is modelled by a nonlinear birth-and-death process. The first locus codes for a phenotype, while the second locus codes for homogamy defined with respect to the first locus: two individuals are more (resp. less) likely to reproduce with each other if they carry the same (resp. a different) trait at the first locus. Initial resident individuals do not feature homogamy, and we are interested in the probability and time of invasion of a mutant presenting this characteristic under a large population assumption. To this aim, we study the trajectory of the birth-and-death process during three phases: growth of the mutant, coexistence of the two types, and extinction of the resident. We couple the birth-and-death process with simpler processes, like multidimensional branching processes or dynamical systems, and study the latter ones in order to control the trajectory and duration of each phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choosing a spouse is a very important process in the life of the individual. This choice influences marital harmony or disharmony and for this reason, the decision should be made after a sufficient period of knowing the partner. Moreover, the decision to marry should be the synthesis of concrete experiences that show how the partner reacts in the concrete situations of life, how the partner reacts to the needs of the other, what is the level of participation in the joint actions of the couple and, of course, how they react in situations of stress. But, beyond the "theories", the elections are often the effect of the emotion of the moment, an effect of the immediate need for fusion or an effect of the culture of the reference community. Thus, although the choices seem to be free, they receive influences from the families of origin, from the reference group or from the culture of the community of which an individual is a part. The study aims to investigate the situation of culturally imposed marriages due to the woman's condition of being pregnant before marriage. With cultural imperatives like "get married because you're embarrassing us!" or "get married because there is a risk that the man will leave you!", some of the pregnant women accept the haste of marriage. The study is based on the analysis of official documents, which are divorce files from the period when the Family Code was into force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social characteristics are prominent factors in mate selection, but they are also important for the quality and functioning of intimate relationships. Researchers have shown that the intimate relationships that are considered the most successful often have high levels of partner similarity. Yet this prior work is limited, as it largely focuses on demographic differences (or asymmetries) between intimate partners. In addition to demographic asymmetries, we explored how differences in relational and risk behaviors were associated with intimate partner violence (IPV). Examining data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 828), we found that young adults in relationships with demographic, relational, and risk asymmetries reported greater frequency of violence. Furthermore, we found that asymmetries in risk behavior had the strongest association with IPV. These findings highlighted the importance of considering different types of asymmetries and provided new insight into the functioning of young adult relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper examines the role of occupational resources (field of occupation, socio-economic status, and income) in the odds of having a highly educated partner, having a partner with lower education, and staying single. The analysis of the EUSILC 2013 data demonstrate that women with better jobs and higher incomes have higher odds of living in a homogamous union with a highly educated partner. The data also show that if high resource women do not live with highly educated men, they are less likely to marry down compared to women with fewer resources and are more likely to stay single. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that women working in female-dominated professions are more likely to marry down and that the effect of the field cannot be explained by fewer personal resources. We also tested the idea that the link between individual resources and living arrangements is moderated by the female employment rate. We demonstrate that women are more likely to partner down in countries with higher female labor force participation. However, this tendency does not hold for high-income women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marriage, divorce, and remarriage have undergone significant changes in the past two decades in Hong Kong. Types of marriages have become more diverse, with increasing number of cross-border marriages between Hongkongers and Mainland Chinese as well as cross-national marriages with non-local-and-non-Chinese ethnic groups. Meanwhile, divorces and remarriages are surging, with disproportionate increase of remarriages among those in transnational marriages. Particularly, the proportion of remarriages among marriages between Hong Kong men and Mainland women, and Hong Kong women and Mainland men increased to 40% and 27%, respectively in 2012. This study investigates assortative mating in marriages by separating remarriages from first marriages, to uncover the real patterns and uniqueness in Hong Kong. The results show that assortative mating in first marriages and remarriages appear across local marriages and six types of transnational marriages. And it also shows that remarriages between Hong Kong men and Mainland women have become more hypergamous, and more welfare support is needed to assist socially deprived cross-border couples to reside in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between birth order and marriage was explored by surveying 1,595 individuals about the birth-order status of themselves and their spouse(s). Homogamy was detected only when birth order was a categorical variable that included onlyborn individuals. Women were more likely to have married oldest- and middle-born men, and less likely to have married only-born men. Men marrying women had the inverse pattern. People were likely to have remarried individuals of the same birth order repeatedly, especially only-borns. Small effect sizes indicated that, with the exception of only-born individuals, birth order was not a very good predictor of romantic affliation. Future research on birth order and romantic affliation might bene?t from exploring the romantic qualities of only-born individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article documents trends in the educational gradient in marriage in Japan and evaluates the mechanisms underlying those trends by drawing on two broad theoretical frameworks emphasizing gender revolution and labor market bifurcation. Background: Efforts to explain reversal of the negative educational gradient in women's marriage have been limited in both theoretical scope and geographical focus. Distinctive features of the Japanese context allow us to shed new light on multiple sources of change in marriage behavior. Method: The authors apply the harmonic‐mean two‐sex marriage model to person‐period data for men and women to investigate the changes in marriage rates by educational attainment and by specific educational pairings during the period 1988 to 2015. Our focus on changes in patterns of educational pairing facilitates the evaluation of predictions from the two broad theoretical frameworks. Results: The analyses showed that the negative educational gradient in women's first marriage disappeared by 2005 and that a positive gradient emerged after 2009. This change was brought about by a combination of decline in the marriage rates of less‐educated women and an increase in the marriage rates of highly educated women. The former was the result of declining educational homogamy, whereas the latter was due to a rise in female educational hypogamy. In contrast, the educational gradient for men remained positive throughout the time period examined. Conclusion: Our study provides the first evidence of a positive educational gradient in women's marriage in Japan and provides empirical evidence consistent with expectations derived from two different, but interrelated and potentially reinforcing, theoretical frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]