Homogamy Among Couples the Title

Homogamy Among Couples

The title of the article to be analyzed is "Homogamy among Dating, Cohabiting, and Married Couples," by Debra L. Blackwell and Daniel T. Lighter.

Purpose, Goal, Objectives, and Hypothesis

The purpose of the research described in the article is to investigate the phenomenon of homogamy among dating, cohabiting, and married couples. Specifically, the focus is upon the winnowing hypothesis, which posits an increasing mate selctivity as couples move from dating to cohabitation and finally marriage. The assumption of this hypothesis is that increasing homogamy takes place.

However, one of the goals of the research described in the article is to provide empirical data that might substantiate or refute the winnowing hypothesis. Indeed, the introduction states that very few research attention has been paid to relationships leading up to marriage. Indeed, the hypothesis is based only upon what has been observed from marriage data. The focus of the study is therefore on mate selection prior to marriage, and how homogamy among premarital couples -- or lack thereof -- might affect the quality and duration of subsequent marriages.

In order to investigate these issues, the authors mention several hypotheses. As an alternative for the winnowing hypothesis, they for example name the "lesser bond" hypothesis, according to which cohabiting couples are less homogamous in terms of ascribed characteristics, but more so on achieved traits. The hypothesis is that the match between the partners would be closer in such a case than between partners in a marital relationship, with a lower occurrence of upward mobility in these unions. The goal of the research is then to create an empirical test of the winnowing hypothesis by means of examining three specific partner traits; race and ethnicity, education, and religion.

3) Methods

To obtain initial data, cycle 5 of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG95) was used. The survey revealed the number of differentiated female groups aged between 15 and 44. This was followed by collecting couple-level data from respondents to generate cross -- classification of current spouses, cohabiting partners, and dating partners. By means of race/ethnicity and religion. Educational attainment was divided into five categories or levels of education in order to cross reference partners. Racial/ethnic groups were divided into non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white. Asians, American Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts were omitted from the study because of small population sizes. Religion was divided into Catholic, Protestant, Other, and None. Quasi-independence and quasi-crossing parameter models were used to cross-classify partner types.

4) Finding