Husbands' Marriage Order and the Stability of First and Second Marriages of White and Black Women

The effect of previous marital history-particularly the husband's marriage order -on the stability offirst and second marriages of white and black women is evaluated. Data for analysis are a subset of the National Survey of Family Growth, a stratified probability sample of9797 civilian noninstitutionalized women. Multiple linear regressions relate a marital-stability scale to a set of independent variables. The most important predictor of the instability of first marriages of women are the previous divorces of husbands. In comparison, all other predictors of marital instability are unimportant. The stability of second marriages of women presents different patterns. Husbands' marriage order is not an important predictor of marital stability. Instead, stability is positively associated with religious endogamy, and it is affected by the fertility experiences of the respondents. The probability of stability in remarriages of black respondents increases if husbands lived on a farm between the ages of six and sixteen. For white women the stability of their remarriages is inversely associated with the number of unwanted pregnancies; it also diminishes if the women did not work for pay before their first marriage. The effects ofwives' marriage order on the stability offirst marriages and remarriages of men is briefly considered. The paper concludes with a consideration of implications of these findings for theories of marital stability.