Explanations for the positive association between education and marriage in the United States emphasize the economic and cultural attractiveness of having a college degree in the marriage market. However, educational attainment may also shape the opportunities that men and women have to meet other college-educated partners, particularly in contexts with significant educational stratification. We focus on work—and the social ties that it supports—and consider whether the educational composition of occupations is important for marriage formation during young adulthood. Employing discrete-time event-history methods using the NLSY-97, we find that occupational education is positively associated with transitioning to first marriage and with marrying a college-educated partner for women but not for men. Moreover, occupational education is positively associated with marriage over cohabitation as a first union for women. Our findings call attention to an unexplored, indirect link between education and marriage that, we argue, offers insight into why college-educated women in the United States enjoy better marriage prospects.

Past research, typically focused on Christians in Christian nations, has found that women tend to be more religious than men. This study uses original nationally representative data (N = 5,601) INTRODUCTIONWomen tend to be more religious than men in the United States and in many places around the world (Baker and Whitehead 2016;Collett and Lizardo 2009;Freese and Montgomery 2007;Roth and Kroll 2007; Schnabel 2016;Sullins 2006). For example, they tend to say religion is more important in their lives, pray more often, and attend religious services more frequently. This gender gap in religion is so widespread that some religion scholars have argued it is a universal social fact and suggested that women may be biologically predisposed to be more religious (BeitHallahmi 2014;Miller and Stark 2002;Stark 2002). Even scholars who question the biological argument suggest that the gender gap in religion has more empirical support than other commonly accepted "social facts" (Hoffmann 2009). But recent research has begun to suggest religion is a part of our intersectional selves, that it is experienced differently by people in different groups (Edgell 2017;Frost and Edgell 2017; Schnabel 2016;Wilde and Glassman 2016). Therefore, rather than women being universally more religious than men, this common pattern may be the result of particular social processes present among some groups but not others. Acknowledgments:We are grateful to Orit Avishai, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Steven Cohen, Alan Cooperman, Sergio DellaPergola, Sylvia Fishman, Ariela Keysar, Pamela Nadell, Brian Powell, Neha Sahgal, Alex Weinreb, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. All errors and omissions remain our own.

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As interfaith marriage has become more common, religion is thought to be less important for sorting partners. However, prior studies on religious assortative mating use samples of prevailing marriages, which miss how local marriage markets shape both partner selection and marriage timing. Drawing on search theory and data from 8,699 young adults (ages 18–31) in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, the author examined the association between the concentration of co-religionists in local marriage markets and marriage timing and partner selection using event history methods. Religious concentration is associated with higher odds of transitioning to marriage and religious homogamy (conditional on marriage) for women and men at older ages (24–31) but not at younger ages (18–23). The association was also stronger for non-Hispanic Whites compared to other race-ethnic groups. The findings indicate that religion remains relevant in sorting partners for many young adults in today’s marriage market.

BACKGROUNDDisaffiliation from religion is an important factor behind the rapid rise in persons claiming no religious affiliation in many advanced industrial countries. Scholars typically think of disaffiliation as a life course process that is confined to young adults, with little change occurring among older adults, yet few studies have examined this assumption outside the United States and Great Britain.OBJECTIVEWe evaluate whether the young-adult model of disaffiliation from religion applies in Ireland and Austria, two historically Catholic-majority countries with different levels of non-affiliation growth.METHODSWe use census data on religious affiliation in Ireland (1971–2011) and Austria (1971–2001) to track aggregate changes in the percentage reporting no religious affiliation over the life course for successive birth cohorts.RESULTSWe find support for the young-adult model in Ireland. However, recent cohorts in Austria exhibit a distinct pattern of disaffiliation that continues into middle adulthood. Our analysis suggests that mid-life disaffiliation in Austria is connected to a religious tax, which we argue spurs nominally affiliated adults to disaffiliate themselves, as their income rises and the costs of religious affiliation increase.CONCLUSIONOur findings offer insight into some of the social factors behind recent religious change across Europe and highlight the need for more cross-national research on the age and cohort dimensions of this change.

As more Americans delay marriage and meet partners online, schools may be less important for educational assortative mating. At the same time, social ties formed during college may continue to shape partner choice later in adulthood. This study focuses on young adults with “some college, no degree” to see what, if any, marriage‐market benefit is gained from exposure to highly educated social networks in college. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, including newly collected postsecondary transcripts, the author finds young adults with “some college” are more likely than their less‐educated peers to marry a college graduate, especially if they attended a 4‐year school, but young adults with bachelor's degrees still hold an advantage, even after controlling for duration of schooling. The results support the role of schools in shaping opportunities to meet partners but highlight the value of college degrees on the marriage market.

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