Work

Longitudinal Patterns of Women's Marital Quality: The Case of Divorce, Cohabitation, and Race-Ethnicity

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Previous work on marital quality has compared average levels of marital quality by demographic characteristics, such as cohabitation, divorce, or race-ethnicity. Less work has examined whether such differences persist over time. To begin to answer this question, this paper uses multigroup latent growth curves to examine changes in marital quality over time in addition to measuring differences in levels of reported marital quality among cohabitors vs. non-cohabitors, divorced vs. stably married women, and members of different racial-ethnic groups. Although many of the differences are small and statistically insignificant, the results show that non-normative and traditionally disadvantaged groups experience not only lower levels of marital quality but that these differences also persist throughout the life course. I also show that using marital instead of relationship duration for cohabitors has substantive implications when interpreting the results.

Source: Marriage & Family Review

DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2014.938797

Author: Spencer James

Institution: Brigham Young University

Language: English

Topic: Family Dynamics and Relationships

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Gender equality

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development