Friendship Patterns and Social Inequality

Domański, Henryk; Przybysz, Dariusz

doi:10.2753/ijs0020-7659420102

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…An extensive body of literature in the social sciences focuses on the tendency towards socio-economic homogamy (for reviews see and Schwartz 2013. Previous studies provide clear evidence of homogamy with respect to various dimensions of socio-economic status such as income level (Henz & Sundström 2001;Haandrikman & Van Wissen 2012), labour-market position (Ultee et al 1988;Henkens et al 1993;Verbakel et al 2008;de Lange et al 2013), occupational class (Pöntinen 1980;Kalmijn 1994;Smits et al 1999;Verbakel et al 2008;Domański & Przybysz 2012) and educational attainment Ultee & Luijkx 1990;Uunk et al 1996;Smits et al 1998;Pullum & Peri 1999;Smits 2003;Schwartz & Mare 2005Esteve & Cortina 2006;Katrňák et al 2006Solís et al 2007;Hamplova & Le Bourdais 2008;Smits & Park 2009;Han 2010;Schwartz 2010;Torche 2010;Haandrikman & Van Wissen 2012;Verbakel & Kalmijn 2014).…”

Section: The Various Forms Of Socio-economic Homogamymentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic homogamy and its effects on the stability of cohabiting unions

Mäenpää¹

2015

Finnish Yearb Popul Res

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The tendency towards socio-economic homogamy – partner similarity in terms of socio-economic status – is of great interest to social scientists, for two reasons. First, socio-economic homogamy is an indicator of social closure between status groups in a society. Second, given that homogamy leads to the accumulation of advantageous and disadvantageous socio-economic conditions within couples, it also intensifies social and economic inequalities between families. The objective of this thesis is to enhance knowledge of socio-economic homogamy and its consequences for union stability in Finland. The first aim was to analyse the strength and patterns of socio-economic homogamy in partner choice. The second aim was to determine whether and, if so, how homogamy is associated with the likelihood of ending non-marital cohabitation – through separation on the one hand, or marriage on the other. In addition, two dimensions of socio-economic status, individual educational attainment and social class of the family of origin, were analysed to find out whether matching on individually achieved status or on the status of the parental family had a bigger effect on union dynamics.The analyses were based on sets of register data compiled at Statistics Finland. Log-linear models were applied to study homogamy tendencies and their changes in marriages and cohabitations of women born in 1957–1979 at the age of 30. The effects of homogamy and heterogamy on the likelihood of separation and marriage were analysed with Cox proportional hazards model in cohabitations formed in the period 1995–2002 by women born in 1960–1977. An elaborate approach was adopted: marriage and separation rates were examined in each possible combination of partner status.The results imply that people tend to choose partners who are similar to them in terms of educational attainment and class background. However, homogamy was stronger with regard to education than to social-class origins. This is line with the view that boundaries based on achieved status are more difficult to cross in modern, individualized societies than boundaries based on social origins. The most highly educated – those with a higher university degree – were particularly strongly inclined towards homogamy. The general strength of homogamy did not change much across the birth cohorts from the late 1950s to the 1970s, but the trends differed depending on the level of education: homogamy strengthened among those with a low level of education, and weakened among the highly educated. The results also indicate that in the absence of homogamy, women increasingly tend to have partners whose level of education is lower than theirs.Homogamy in class background had a relatively weak influence on the stability of cohabiting unions. Homogamy increased the marriage rate among the children of farmers, whereas heterogamy was associated with an increased separation risk when one partner came from a farmer family and the other from an upper-white-collar family. Educational differences played a somewhat more significant role in these transitions. Homogamy was associated with a reduced risk of separation among the most highly educated cohabitors in particular. The effects of educational homogamy on the marriage rate were less consistent: homogamy increased the marriage rate among cohabitors with a basic-level education, but reduced it among the most highly educated.The findings reveal that status barriers and cultural differences are of significance in partner choice and the stability of cohabiting unions in Finland, and that group boundaries based on achieved status are stronger than those based on ascribed status in terms of union dynamics.

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Section: The Various Forms Of Socio-economic Homogamymentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic homogamy and its effects on the stability of cohabiting unions

Mäenpää¹

2015

Finnish Yearb Popul Res

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“…belonging to the same socioprofessional category) than in a hypothetical situation, if the relationships were concluded randomly (Blau 1977;Marsden 1988;Skvoretz 1991). Homophily is considered in reference to social relations of various types, relatively most often while referring to getting married (Smits et al 1998;Mare 1991;Raymo and Xie 2000) and patterns of making friends (Lazarsfeld and Merton 1954;Chan and Goldthorpe 2004;Smith et al 2014;Domański and Przybysz 2012, Leszczensky and Pink 2019. In recent years, this topic has also been raised in the context of online contacts, relationships between social media users (Wiemer and Lewis 2010; Bisgin et al 2012;Boutyline and Willer 2017;De Salve et al 2018;Ladhari et al 2020;Khanam et al 2020), and even from the perspective of the spread of COVID-19 (Kadelka and McCombs 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the source of information on homophily assessment: data provided by subjects vs data provided by their confidants

Kęska¹,

Przybysz²,

Mach³

2021

Ask: Research and Methods

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The present article analyses data on ego-centred networks from a nationally representative sample of Polish citizens (egos) and their regular conversation partners (alters). In the study being used, apart from obtaining information from the respondent (the ego) about characteristics of their friends (alters), the respondent was additionally asked to provide contact details for his/her alters and the interviewers traced them. This allows to compare data concerning alters obtained from ego and from alters themselves. In the first part of the article, a comparison for three characteristics -age, education and occupational status -is provided as well as patterned differences are presented. In the second part, the issue whether the assessment of the strength of homophily depends on the source of

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References

2018

Handbook of Social Status Correlates

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Friendship Patterns and Social Inequality

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

Socio-economic homogamy and its effects on the stability of cohabiting unions

Socio-economic homogamy and its effects on the stability of cohabiting unions

Influence of the source of information on homophily assessment: data provided by subjects vs data provided by their confidants

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