Factors Contributing to Increasing Marital Stability in the United States

Abstract

Results from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth indicate that marriages contracted after 1980 are becoming more stable. This article examines several individual characteristics in search of an explanation for increasing stability. A person-year file is created and logistic regression is used to determine which covariates account for the negative effect of year in a model predicting the likelihood of marital dissolution. Increasing experience of premarital sex, premarital birth, cohabitation, and racial and religious heterogamy are detracting from marital stability. However, rising age at marriage and, to a lesser degree, increased education are associated with increasing marital stability. These latter effects more than counterbalance the factors associated with instability leading to an overall decline in the rate of marital dissolution.

Les unions mixtes sont-elles plus fragiles que les unions entre partenaires de même origine ethnique? Nouveaux résultats pour la Grande-Bretagne

“…Schwertfeger did not find clear patterns in divorce rates for mixed ethnic couples apart from a high level of stability for Chinese co-ethnic unions. On the other hand, Heaton's (2002) US study of mixed marriages between Blacks and Whites reported that marital dissolution was more likely for mixed ethnic couples. Kalmijn et al (2005), using linked marriage and divorce registration data from 1974 to1994 in the Netherlands, found a high risk of dissolution for couples including a Dutch person and someone from another nationality.…”

The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children: An Update

“…The rate dropped after the early 1980s to 3.5 in 2008 -a one third decline (United States Census Bureau, 2012). The rise in age at first marriage since the 1980s appears to be an important factor in accounting for this decline (Heaton, 2002), because people who marry at older ages have a lower risk of divorce. In addition, delaying marriage decreases the percentage of married couples in the population, thus lowering the number of individuals at risk of divorce.…”

Trends in Marital Dissolution by Women's Education in the United States

“…One of these is later age at marriage, which is a powerful predictor of low marital dissolution rates (Booth and Edwards 1985;Moore and Waite 1981) and has been cited as a primary reason for the overall decline in marital dissolution rates since 1980 (Heaton 2002). If highly educated women are delaying marriage more than other women, this trend might explain why highly educated women's marital dissolution rates are declining while rates for less-educated women are not.…”