Gender and Educational Differentials in Marital Sorting of Hispanic Young Adults

Abstract

Over the past few decades, Hispanic young adults have made impressive gains in educational attainment, but improvements have not been even by gender, with Latinas now averaging more schooling than Latinos. These developments in education have implications for Latinx marital sorting behavior and the marriage conditions that they face. Using data from the American Community Survey, we examine intermarriage patterns of Hispanics ages 25 to 34, focusing on gender differences in assortative mating along ethnic and educational lines. We show that college-educated Latinos are less likely than both their lesser-educated peers and college-educated Latinas to marry partners who are less educated than themselves. We also reveal that highly educated Latinas are more likely than Latinos with comparable levels of education to intermarry. We discuss implications for the intergenerational maintenance of Hispanicity as an ethno-race, and for their ability to transmit the socioeconomic gains obtained via educational improvements to future generations of Hispanics.