Marriage Squeeze Research Articles

Fifty Years of Family Demography: A Record of Social Change

Written in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Marriage and the Family this essay tells how family demography developed in the United States and then summarizes findings from selected research projects on the subject since 1940. Early studies examined the family life cycle historical family trends religious and racial intermarriage socioeconomic status and family stability and the marriage squeeze. Later analyses dealt with international trends in marriage health of the married and unmarried cohabitation outside marriage one-parent families and living alone. Still more recent investigations included gender preferences in children marital stability and sex of children no-fault divorce divorce among children of divorce projections of marital status remarriage marital homogamy stepfamilies and some consequences of recent changes in American family demographics. (EXCERPT)

The “Real” Marriage Squeeze

The nature and magnitude of the marriage squeeze in Canada is examined using vital statistics and census data. "Age differentials of brides and grooms in all marriages registered in 1981 are used to create 'availability indices' that estimate the number of unmarried persons of the opposite sex that are potentially available for every 100 unmarried persons. For men, availability indices are low in the 20s, and they increase with advancing age to about one-to-one in the 50s. For women, access to potential grooms is highest in the 20s and decreases with advancing age until, in the 50s, there are only 50 potential grooms per 100 unmarried women." The implications of unbalanced sex ratios are discussed with reference to changes in marriage and the family.

Age differences between spouses in first marriages.

Absract Vital statistics data indicate that the age difference between spouses in first marriages has narrowed for those born between 1931 and 1951 and married by age 25. It appears that the largest declines have occurred at the older ages of marriage, although there have been reductions at all ages. The possibility that the narrowing of the age gap can be attributed to the recent “marriage squeeze” is examined using data from the 1976 National Survey of Family Growth. Insofar as it is adequately measured, the squeeze is found to be insignificant. It seems that age at marriage of the wife is inversely related to a couple's age difference. That this might simply be due to the age distribution of available men is considered and rejected. It is speculated that the relation between age difference and age at marriage is a consequence of changing preferences, not of the supposed shortage of suitable single men.

12. Marriage Squeeze and Nuptiality : Japan, 1950-1980(General Session,The Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting,Meetings of the Population Association of Japan)

12. Marriage Squeeze and Nuptiality : Japan, 1950-1980(General Session,The Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting,Meetings of the Population Association of Japan)

16. Fertility Change and Marriage Squeeze(General Session,The Annual Meeting,1983 Meetings of the Population Association of Japan,Academic Meetings)

16. Fertility Change and Marriage Squeeze(General Session,The Annual Meeting,1983 Meetings of the Population Association of Japan,Academic Meetings)

The causes of marriage change in South India

Abstract The average age at marriage of women has been rising in most developing countries including India. In this paper we report on the use of case studies, surveys and anthropological methods in a rural area of South India to investigate the mechanisms involved in this change. In an area where all marriages are still arranged it was found that there had been a recent shift from bridewealth to dowry and a diminution in the proportion of all marriages occurring between relatives. The rise in the age at marriage of women was explained by a marriage squeeze resulting from changes in the age structure of the population with mortality decline, an increasing concern of parents of daughters to secure sons-in-law with education and urban occupations, and a growing concept of child dependency. There was no evidence of the rise being a conscious effort to control family size. In the immediate future some women will probably remain unmarried, but the squeeze is already being reduced by a reduction in the age gap between spouses and may be modified considerably by the end of the century as the post-1975 fertility decline affects the age structure of those of marriageable age.

Measuring the tightness of a marriage squeeze

The "marriage squeeze," or the effect on marriage of an imbalance between the numbers of males and females, has been seen as having a great influence on contemporary marriage behavior. Nonetheless, the literature does not contain a clear definition of exactly what a marriage squeeze is and contains few quantitative estimates of its impact on marriage. The present article provides a precise definition of the marriage squeeze in equation (2), and applies it to measure both artificially produced marriage squeezes in two-sex nuptiality stable populations and the experience of the United States during the period 1950-1990. The marriage squeeze is shown to be capable of producing significant changes in both the level and distribution of marriage, and it appears to be having such an impact in some contemporary Third World societies. For developed countries in general and for the United States in particular, the marriage squeeze exerts little influence on the level of marriage but has a considerable effect on the distribution of marriages. The U.S. age-sex composition of the year 1978, compared to that of the year 1951, is shown to imply a 0.54 year decrease in the male mean age at marriage and a 0.53 year increase in the female mean age at marriage, as well as an 18 percent reduction in the variance of the male ages at marriage and a 33 percent increase in the variance of the female ages. The social and economic implications of such changes have yet to be fully explored.

Economic Opportunities, Marriage Squeezes and the Propensity to Marry: An Economic Analysis of Period Marriage Rates in England and Wales

Economic Opportunities, Marriage Squeezes and the Propensity to Marry: An Economic Analysis of Period Marriage Rates in England and Wales

The Impact of the Female Marriage Squeeze and the Contraceptive Revolution on Sex Roles and the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States, 1960 to 1975

This paper argues that the advent of the Womens Liberation Movement was very much interconnected to the revolution in contraceptive technology which began in 1960 and a marked shift in the ratio of males to females at marriageable age a change which took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The former change reduced the number of women in the traditional role of wife and mother; the latter not only had the same effect but also reduced the benefits or compensation to be obtained from following that role. These 2 changes not only helped spawn the Womens Liberation Movement but also influenced the proportion of women who married the divorce rate the marital fertility rate the illegitimacy ratio and male-female differences both in education and in labor force participation. (Authors)

Mate Selection Differentials Between Whites and Blacks in the United States

The greater excess of women among blacks than among whites during the years in which mate selection and first typically occur is documented. The extent to which this imbalance has implications for differential patterns of mate selection and marital history is explored through the use of data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census Current Population Survey for June 1975. The data are weighted to reflect estimates of the resident civilian noninstitutional population of the United States age 14 and over. Findings establish that demographic necessity requires black females to have a more restricted field of eligibles than white females. It is demonstrated that black women enlarge their field of eligibles by marrying males who tend to be older who have lower educational attainment and who have previously been married. The findings suggest that the marriage squeeze young marriageable black women experience may have important consequences for courtship during adolescence entrance into and marital dissolution. (authors)

Structural and cyclical causes of marriage squeeze under conditions of high mortality

Muhsam Helmut V. Structural and cyclical causes of marriage squeeze under conditions of high mortality. In: Annales de demographie historique, 1978. La mortalite du passe. pp. 295-303.

Changing nuptiality patterns in Sri Lanka 1901–1971

Summary The changing nuptiality patterns of developing countries are of great importance in view of the tremendous impact such changes may have on fertility change. In this article the changing nuptiality patterns during the period 1901–71 in Sri Lanka are discussed in detail. The nuptiality transition during the period 1901–71 manifests itself by steady changes in the female proportions ever married in the younger age-segments 15–19, 20–24, 25–29 from the levels of 51·9, 79·0, 84·9 in 1901 to 10·5, 46·9, 75·4 in 1971. In view of the serious ‘marriage squeeze’ in 1971 and its continuance till 1981 with only some improvement, the female proportions married may fall still further from the levels of 1971 for the younger age segments of the childbearing span. Besides this, the level of spinsterhood may attain higher levels in the coming years.

The Marriage Squeeze

If the sex-age structure of the population is equilibrated, observed marriage patterns are assumed to reflect preferred mate selections. With regard to age, these preferences can be expressed in terms of the probabilities of unmarried persons of given ages marrying persons of various ages. To study the situation of unequilibrated sexes, these probabilities can be used to compute, for each combination of ages of groom and bride, the expected number of grooms and the expected number of brides. If either of these numbers exceeds the other, the corresponding sex is in a "marriage squeeze." The comparison among the expected number of grooms, that of brides, and the observed number of marriages supplies information on the effects of the squeeze.In Australia, marriage statistics of 1949 were considered to reflect preferred selections. In 1958, men of most ages were in a squeeze. As a consequence, some relatively younger and older men did not get married, and some relatively younger and older women improved their chances of marriage in the year under consideration. 291-299.

A new look at the marriage market and nuptiality rates, 1915–1958

Abstract The system of nuptiality probabilities for never married males and females, the “marriage regime,” is viewed as a population transformation, which operates on a population thereby changing the composition. The marriage regime has many properties common to other population transformations, but embodies a constraint such that, in general, the marriage regime cannot be strictly stable over time. The approach is applied to study the “marriage squeeze,” the alteration in marriage patterns that results from an imbalance in the “marriage market” or numbers of never married males and females at the usual marriage ages. Using data on age at first marriage for the 1960 American white population, nuptiality probabilities by single year of age and sex are estimated for the years 1915–58. Annual estimates also are made of the relative number of eligible mates (never married of the usual marriage ages) for never married persons of a given age and sex. No close correspondence is found between annual fluctuations in the marriage market and in the nuptiality probability, possibly because of the crudeness of the estimates. Alternatively, response to the imbalance may take another form such as marriage postponement or a redefinition of eligibility.

On Measuring the Marriage Squeeze

During the 1960's, single men have been marrying at an increasing rate, and single women at a decreasing rate. These trends can be explained almost entirely by disproportions between the sexes at the prime ages of marriage-that is, by what is commonly called the "marriage squeeze." The disproportions arose from the increase in births during the period 1939-47, coupled with the fact that women marry earlier than men.These changes in marriage patterns must certainly have some effect on the birth rate and on household formation, although perhaps a secondary one. The consequences of these changes are a project for further inquiry.

New household projections for the united states

This paper reviews the methods used to prepare the new household projections for the United States that were recently issued by the Bureau of the Census and examines the effect on the resulting number of households of the assumptions made about future marriages and future proportions of household heads in the population.One population projection series was used, since all series are identical for the adult population. Marriage assumptions were generated by assuming various outcomes of the marriage squeeze (defined as the excess of females relative to the number of males in the main ages at marriage in the next few years). Assumptions about proportions of household heads were generated by assuming, in varying degrees, continuation of recent trends in these proportions.Projected changes in marriage and in the proportions of household heads in the population account for one-fourth to one-third of the projected increase in the number of households; the remaining increase is attributable to projected changes in the size and structure of the adult population. Varying the assumed proportions of household heads produces greater differences in the projected total number of households than does varying the marriage assumptions used here. Nevertheless, the various possible outcomes of the marriage squeeze, as represented by the assumptions used, produce significantly different projections of increases in the number of young husband-wife households.The most striking finding is that by 1985, proportions of household heads among the population not "married, spouse present" may well rise to such a level that over the long term, the smaller the number of persons who marry, the larger will be the number of households.