“But Will It Last?”: Marital Instability Among Interracial and Same‐Race Couples*

Abstract

The literature on interracial families has examined social stigmas attached to interracial relationships but has not thoroughly documented whether crossing racial boundaries increases the risk of divorce. Using the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (Cycle VI), we compare the likelihood of divorce for interracial couples to that of same-race couples. Comparisons across marriage cohorts reveal that, overall, interracial couples have higher rates of divorce, particularly for those marrying during the late-1980s. We also find race and gender variation. Compared to White/White couples, White female/Black male, and White female/Asian male marriages were more prone to divorce; meanwhile, those involving non-White females and White males and Hispanics and non-Hispanic persons had similar or lower risks of divorce.

Les unions mixtes sont-elles plus fragiles que les unions entre partenaires de même origine ethnique? Nouveaux résultats pour la Grande-Bretagne

“…In contrast, studies on the stability of mixed ethnic unions are scarce, and were mainly conducted in the U.S (Bratter and King 2008;Zhang and van Hook 2009). This research has filled a gap in our knowledge of mixed ethnic marriages in Britain by examining the risk of divorce for mixed ethnic couples; this has not been studied to date.…”

“…Mixed ethnic unions, particularly between Whites and non-Whites, are generally regarded as an important indicator of minority integration in their host societies. The growth of mixed ethnic partnerships illustrates increasing mutual acceptance of ethnic groups; indeed, it can be argued that mixed partnerships represent the ultimate in social acceptability and assimilation (Bratter and King 2008;Schoen and Cohen 1980;Tolsma et al 2008;van Ham and Tammaru, 2011). It is therefore a positive sign that there has been a considerable rise in mixed ethnic unions, both in their absolute numbers and their proportion of all unions in Britain, over the last few decades (Berrington 1996;Coleman 2004;Feng et al 2010;Muttarak 2004).…”

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side: Enacting femininity to avoid dying alone

“…For instance, interracial marriages that involve an Asian husband and a Caucasian wife have a 59% chance of ending in divorce, while of marriages between an Asian wife and a Caucasian husband only 4% tend to end in divorce. While the percentages differ somewhat between cultures, this trend pertains whether the host culture is Asian or Caucasian (Bratter and King 2008). There can be little doubt that such a stark difference in interracial marriage outcomes is largely due to the effects of differing values in relation to gender roles and the expectations of women, and of men, in different cultures.…”

Indovina chi viene a cena? Questioni psico-socio-giuridiche nel ciclo di vita della coppia mista

“…Alcuni autori si sono interrogati sugli elementi di stabilità o di fragilità presenti in queste unioni (Bratter e King, 2008;Wong, 2009), le cui motivazioni sono rintracciabili non solo nelle possibili tensioni interne ma anche in quelle esterne alla coppia. Le prime sono attribuibili alle differenze culturali e religiose dei due partner, ai differenti copioni sessuali, ma anche al divario del livello di istruzione e di età; quest'ultima, in particolare, riscontrabile nella tipologia marito italiano (38 anni in media) e moglie straniera (31 anni di media) (Istat, 2012).…”