가구 소득 분위에 따른 한국 초혼 커플의 파트너 선택

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the patterns of partner selection by household income levels in Korean newlywed couples. This study undertook a quantitative analysis of 626 newlywed couples who participated in the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study from 2009 to 2017. Seven domains which are related to the process of partner selection were utilized as major variables: Educational assortative mating, occupational assortative mating, religious assortative mating, age assortative mating, father’s & mother’s educational assortative mating, and father’s or mother’s occupational assortative mating. In order to analyze the data, Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was utilized. The results of this study were as follows. First, the similarity of age, educational levels and occupation among couples showed in lower and upper-income households. There were close relations between parents’ socioeconomic status and couples’ socioeconomic status, in particular. Interestingly, the numbers of well-educated assortative mating increased through the rise of household income. Second, the patterns of partner selection were categorized according to household income: ‘parents’ educational assortative mating’ and ‘parents’ educational non-assortative mating’ in lower-income households, ‘well-educated male breadwinner’ and ‘well-educated dual-earner’ in median-income households, and ‘female hypergamy’ and ‘well-educated profession’ in upper-income households.