Patterns of Interethnic Marriage Among American Catholics

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

In assessing the dynamics of ethnicity, it is important to examine the extent to which interethnic contact is selective, frequent between members of some groups, and rare between members of others. In this paper, we carry out such an examination through the use of quasi-independence models. Developing these models for interethnic marriage among American Catholic nationality groups, there appears to be little selective intermarriage, although what little does exist is consistent with Bogardus' research on social distance. Overall and taken together with Alba's (a) finding of sharply increasing intermarriage among Catholic nationality groups, our findings suggest an erosion of ethnic boundaries based on nationality among Catholics. Primary relationships are a crucial focus for the study of ethnicity among Americans of European ancestry. Debate over the persistence of ethnicity among American whites hinges to an important degree on the extent of social pluralism, or alternatively the frequency with which socially intimate relationships bridge ethnic boundaries (Alba, a; Gordon). Recently, evidence has again begun to accumulate that rates of interethnic marriage and friendship are already high for some groups and increasing for others (Alba, a; Cohen), echoing the half-forgotten findings of several decades ago (Kennedy, a, b). In assessing the persistence of ethnicity among whites, it is important to examine not only the frequency with which primary relationships cross ethnic boundaries but also the patterns of interethnic contact, the extent to which such contact is frequent between the members of some groups and rare between the members of others. The existence of a major