Marital Homogamy the Second Time around

Abstract

Recent declines in the marriage rate and increases in the prevalence of remarriage point to the need for more careful analysis of the nature of second marriage. Very few sound empirical data are available concerning the mate selection or adjustment processes of second marriages, and this hampers the development of useful, generalized knowledge about remarriage. Utilizing data from the 1970 National Fertility Survey, this paper compares the levels of marital homogamy-in age, education and religious identification-of women in their first marriages and women in their second marriages, as well as in the previous marriages of the twice-wed women. The analysis shows that twice-wed women experience low homogamy in both their current and first marriages. The persistence of this pattern through the application of controls for status, age, and religiosity indicates that the differences do not result primarily from marriage market constraints. Though several caveats are noted, the results support the perspective that some women, either because of their conception of marriage, or because of their mate selection pattern, are disproportionately prone to divorce and remarry. The implications of these findings for divorce trends are discussed.