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His and Her Education and Marital Dissolution: Adding a Contextual Dimension

Author

Listed:
  • Lindsay Theunis

    (University of Leuven)

  • Christine Schnor

    (University of Leuven)

  • Didier Willaert

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Jan Van Bavel

    (University of Leuven)

Abstract

Educationally hypogamous marriages, where the wife is more educated than the husband, have been expected to be less stable than other educational pairings, in part because they do not conform to social norms. With the reversal of the gender gap in education, such marriages have become more common than in the past. Recent research suggests that this new context might be beneficial for the stability of hypogamous unions compared to other educational pairings. Here, we investigate how educational matches in married couples are associated with divorce risks taking into account the local prevalence of hypogamy. Using Belgian census and register data for 458,499 marriages contracted between 1986 and 2001, we show that hypogamy was not associated with higher divorce rates than homogamy in communities where hypogamy was common. Against expectations, marriages in which the husband was more educated than the wife tend to exhibit the highest divorce rates. More detailed analysis of the different types of educational matches revealed that marriages with at least one highly educated partner, male or female, were less divorce prone compared to otherwise similar couple types.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindsay Theunis & Christine Schnor & Didier Willaert & Jan Van Bavel, 2018. "His and Her Education and Marital Dissolution: Adding a Contextual Dimension," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 34(4), pages 663-687, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:34:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10680-017-9448-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-017-9448-y
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    2. Alessandra Trimarchi & Jan Bavel, 2020. "Partners’ Educational Characteristics and Fertility: Disentangling the Effects of Earning Potential and Unemployment Risk on Second Births," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(3), pages 439-464, July.
    3. Bruno Arpino & Alessandro Di Nallo, 2022. "Sleeping with the enemy. Partners’ political attitudes and risk of separation," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2022_06, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    4. Alessandra Trimarchi, 2022. "Gender-Egalitarian Attitudes and Assortative Mating by Age and Education," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 429-456, August.
    5. Haoming Song, 2022. "Women’s Divergent Union Transitions After Marital Dissolution in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(3), pages 953-980, June.
    6. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Shunsuke Managi, 2021. "Impact of the Intra-household Education Gap on Wives’ and Husbands’ Well-Being: Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 111-136, July.
    7. Giulia Corti & Stefani Scherer, 2021. "Mating Market and Dynamics of Union Formation," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(4), pages 851-876, November.

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