Marriage‐Market Constraints and Mate‐Selection Behavior: Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Intermarriage

Abstract

Despite theoretical consensus that marriage markets constrain mate selection behavior, few studies directly evaluate how local marriage market conditions influence intermarriage patterns. Using data from the American Community Survey, we examine what aspects of marriage markets influence mate selection; assess whether the associations between marriage market conditions and intermarriage are uniform by gender and across pan-ethnic groups; and investigate the extent to which marriage market conditions account for group differences in intermarriage patterns. Relative group size is the most salient and consistent determinant of intermarriage patterns across pan-ethnic groups and by gender. Marriage market constraints typically explain a larger share of pan-ethnic differences in intermarriage rates than individual traits, suggesting that scarcity of co-ethnic partners is a key reason behind decisions to intermarry. When faced with market constraints, men are more willing or more successful than women in crossing racial and ethnic boundaries in marriage.

Fertility Behavior of Interracial Couples

“…We focus on marital pregnancies (instead of pregnancies conceived while cohabiting) for substantive reasons and sample size constraints. Substantively, interracial marriage is a stronger barometer of social distance between groups than interracial cohabitation because of the greater permanence of social ties and legal boundaries of marriages (Choi & Tienda, ; Qian & Lichter, ). Moreover, sample size constraints precluded us from disaggregating cohabiting couples according to the male and female partners' joint race or ethnicity.…”

The Home as a Political Fortress: Family Agreement in an Era of Polarization

“…Children of professionals do not frequently interact with children from the working class -even more so today than in the 1950s (Mare 2016). Marital correspondence could be boosted in contexts where there is little variation in the social background of potential spouses (Choi and Tienda 2016). Finally, there is the possibility of attitude convergence.…”

Assimilation and ethnic marriage-squeeze in early 20th century America: A gender perspective

“…Thus, the exogamy rate of German females in this case depends on the OSR as well on the ESR. The OSR is calculated as the percentage of males in ethnic groups other than the focal individual's ethnic group (including natives) by age group and county: Our models include the proportion of one's ethnic group in the county (Blau, Blum, and Schwartz 1982;Choi and Tienda 2017), age, age at marriage, literacy as a proxy for education, urban residence, ethnicity, and immigrant generation. Table 2 shows summary statistics for the variables used in our analysis.…”