Survival Rates Among Religiously Homogamous and Interreligious Marriages

Abstract

Cohort-linked Iowa marriage and divorce records from 1953 through 1959 were used to determine marital survival rates for several types of religiously homogamous and interreligious marriages. Data were restricted to white, first-married couples. Marital survival rates were greater as predicted among homogamous Catholic marriages or homogamous Protestant marriages than among marriages of Catholics and non-Catholics. Also, the marital survival rates of the homogamous Catholic marriages exceeded those of the homogamous Protestant marriages. Contrary to expectations, however, there were only small and inconsistent differences in the survival rates between the marriage of Catholic wives and non-Catholic husbands and marriages of non-Catholic wives and Catholic husbands. Marital survival rates were llot substantially different between denominationally homogamous Protestant marriages and marriages between Protestants with different denominational affiliations. Small differences, between two and six percent, were observed between the survival rates of the homogamous Catholic marriages and four types of denominationally homogamnous Protestant marriages. Ages of brides and the status levels of husbands were used as control variables. Application of these control variables failed to alter the general patterns between the religious affiliations of the spouses and marital survival rates. The two control variables, however, appeared to influence the marital survival rates more than the religious affiliation types. Marital survival rates were lower among couples with younger brides and were directly related to the occupational status of the husbands.