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Author: Snow, Carole Lee
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Snow, Carole Lee
Marital Homogamy: Conditions, Contingencies and Consequences
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1984
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Assortative Mating; Earnings; Education; Marital Disruption; Marriage; Occupations; Simultaneity

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This dissertation reviews the extent of assortative mating with respect to a number of social characteristics that have been studied by other investigators: age, race, nativity, education, occupation, earnings, and socioeconomic status. Researchers have speculated that these traits are organized in a hierarchical fashion, where selectivity on one implies selectivity on another. That hypothesis was explored and refuted. There are, however, statistical contingencies and these traits are ordered according to the extent to which assortative mating occurs with respect to them. This work examined assortative mating as it may be operating through three different characteristics of spouses: education, occupation and earnings. By considering these variables simultaneously, education is seen as the major characteristic by which mate selection takes place. Assortative mating with respect to education accounted for a significant fraction of assortative mating with regards to occupation and earning. Using a large national sample (NLS data), the conditions under which the contingencies of assortative mating operate were explored for first, second and third or higher parity marriages. Gary Becker's hypothesis of increased marital homogamy with increased marital parity was tested, and the results were ambiguous, lending only minimal support. Finally, a comparison of homogamy in stable and unstable marriages reveals that the latter are characterized by a considerable degree of occupational competition between spouses.
Bibliography Citation
Snow, Carole Lee. Marital Homogamy: Conditions, Contingencies and Consequences. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1984.