Disentangling the Relationship Between Age and Marital History in Age-Assortative Mating

Many scholars have noted that divorcees have age-assortative mating patterns distinct from the never-married. Similarly, comparisons between older and younger individuals indicate that hypergamy becomes increasingly likely with age. Unfortunately, prior research has not been able to disentangle the effects of age from the effect of divorce. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (n = 12,231 for first marriage and 4,298 for remarriage) and heterogeneous choice models, this research predicted the likelihood of age homogamy and hypergamy as a function of age, marital history, and other factors. The results indicate that homogamy is largely an age-driven phenomena, where the never-married and previously married have similar patterns. However, the likelihood of hypergamy is higher for the previously married, even after accounting for the influence of age in the models.