Characteristics of the Negro-White Intermarried in Philadelphia

Abstract

when age at time of marriage is taken into account, this ranking holds only up to age 30 for brides and 35 for grooms. After these ages, the assortative ratio is highest for single persons, and, after age 50 for brides and 60 for grooms, the widowed-widowed combination has the lowest ratio of the three combinations. In other words, there is a tendency for the marital status group in the smallest minority at any age to make in-group selections much more than by chance, while the group having the largest majority departs least from chance in making selections. (3) At all ages, single and previously married persons are less likely to marry each other than they would with random selection. However, widowed and divorced persons marry each other in greater than chance proportions only up to ages 30 or 40. During the later years the frequency of this combination is below chance expectation, and similar to that of the single-previously married combination. In other words, as age increases people apparently distinguish increasingly between the divorced and the widowed in making mate selections. During the earlier years the selection pattern between divorced and widowed is more similar to that of the divorced-divorced and widowed-widowed combinations than to the single-previously married combination, but in the later years the reverse is true. (4) The general trends are similar whether analyzed by age of groom or by age of bride. There are a few differences, as noted in the summary above, but the pattern is not such as to lead to the conclusion that women as a group are more assortative than men. (5) In those marriages involving single persons, there is an increase in assortativeness with increase in age at marriage, but in marriages between individuals previously married assortativeness decreases as age increases.