Delayed Marriage, Marital Homogamy, and the Mate Selection Process among White Women

In: Social science quarterly, Band 71, Heft 4, S. 802-811

Abstract

A preliminary analysis of the hypothesis that a shrinking pool of eligible males magnifies the competition for spouses among older, never-married women & contributes to a shift toward atypical marriages. Testing the hypothesis with data from the Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1980 US Census (N = 48,808 married-couple household records) reveals that delayed marriage is associated with age hypergamy, entry into the marriage market of previously married men, & educational status hypogamy. Although nonmarriage is an option increasingly chosen by older women, another alternative is to expand the field of potential marital partners through increased marital heterogamy. 2 Tables, 23 References. Adapted from the source document.