The educational gradient in marital disruption: A meta-analysis of European research findings

Abstract

A large number of empirical studies have investigated the effects of women's education on union dissolution in Europe, but results have varied substantially. This paper seeks to assess the relationship between educational attainment and the incidence of marital disruption by systematizing the existing empirical evidence. A quantitative literature review (a meta-analysis) was conducted to investigate the temporal change in the relationship, net of inter-study differences. The results point to a weakening of the positive educational gradient in marital disruption over time and even to a reversal in the direction of this gradient in some countries. The findings also show that the change in the educational gradient can be linked to an increase in access to divorce. Finally, the results suggest that women's empowerment has played an important role in changing the educational gradient, while the liberalization of divorce laws has not.

The change in single mothers’ educational gradient over time in Spain

“…There has been substantial empirical evidence for Goode's model of the diffusion of divorce (Matysiak, Styrc, and Vignoli 2014;Chan and Halpin 2005;Härkönen and Dronkers 2006). In the Spanish case, previous evidence supplied by Martínez-Pastor (2010, 2011), using data from the Fertility, Family and Values Survey (2006), has also shown the declining importance for women of socioeconomic variables such as education and the labour market situation.…”

Economic Determinants of Divorce Among Dual-Earner Couples: Jews in Israel

“…It is derived from this assertion that controlling for economic characteristics, the educational gradient of divorce should be negative. As is discussed in Matysiak et al (2011), highly educated women might have lower divorce risks because they have better social, communication and cognitive skills; and they also experience less marital strain, as they enjoy higher standards of living. For a more thorough discussion on the educational gradient of divorce, see Härkönen and Dronkers (2006) and Matysiak et al (2011).…”

Unequal Family Lives

“…However, the association differed by gender attitudes within countries -a higher education was associated with a lower likelihood of divorce in gender-egalitarian societies, but with a higher likelihood of divorce in more gender-traditional countries. In a meta-analysis of fifty-three studies of education and divorce across Europe, Matysiak, Styrc, and Vignoli (2014) found a generally positive socioeconomic gradient in divorce -but with variation across countries -and they note that the relationship between education and divorce has weakened over time as divorce has become more common and as women have increasingly entered the labor force. In a recent paper that conjointly considers union formation and dissolution patterns as linked to socioeconomic status, Perelli-Harris and LyonsAmos (2016) used data across fifteen countries with latent-class analysis to examine partnership trajectories.…”

“…Future research should also analyze contextual mechanisms that may explain why maternal education seems to condition family structure effects differently across outcomes and countries, such as the cross-national variations on the percentage of children in joint physical custody. The two premises underlying the diverging destinies thesis -namely that growing up in a nontraditional family is negatively related to child outcomes and that it is a more common experience for socioeconomically disadvantaged children -have been widely documented across a large body of studies (Amato 2000;Matysiak, Styrc, and Vignoli 2014). A recent update of these trends has shown that the "diverging destinies" thesis remains relevant today (McLanahan and Jacobsen 2015).…”

“…The negative associations of nontraditional family forms with child outcomes, the stratification of family dynamics, and issues of causality have been subject to extensive earlier reviews (Amato 2000(Amato , 2010Härkö nen, Bernardi, and Boertien 2017;Matysiak, Styrc, and Vignoli 2014;McLanahan, Tach, and Schneider 2013). We therefore will be relatively succinct on those topics.…”