The Effects of Socioeconomic Heterogamy and Changes on Marital Dissolution for First Marriages

National Longitudinal Surveys are used to investigate the patterns and determinants of marital dissolution for first marriages in the United States. The focus of this paper is to examine the associations between socioeconomic status differences and changes within marriage of marital partners and marital instability. Based on a discrete hazard model the results indicate the risk of marital instability is highest among couples who have heterogamous education and who do not follow the most traditional working arrangement where only the husband is employed full-time in the labor market. Those couples who do equalize their original education and conventionalize employment status enjoy higher marital stability. However marriages in which couples change to educational heterogamy and unconventional employment statuses are less likely to survive. (EXCERPT)