Social Inequalities and Relationships

SES and Structural Aspects of Partnership Relationships

The likelihood and timing of entering into marriage varies across SES. Individuals whose parents achieved higher educational attainment, higher income, and higher occupational status tend to marry later than those whose parents attained lower education, lower income, and lower occupational status. These social inequalities in age at marriage have further life-course impact: Lower age at marriage is associated with higher rates of marital disruption, resulting in higher rates of separation and divorce among those with lower SES.

Before 1950, it was more common for women with more education to remain unmarried throughout their lives than it was for women with less education. Among more recent birth cohorts of young women, this pattern has reversed such that women with the least education now are the most likely to remain lifelong singles.

Overall, there has been a historical trend during recent decades toward experiencing a smaller proportion of adult years in a marital relationship due to demographic trends over time toward longer lives, later ages at first marriage, higher rates of never marrying, higher rates of divorce, and lower rates of remarriage. This smaller proportion of the life course spent married is particularly pronounced among individuals with lower SES. Partnership absence among those with lower SES is accentuated further by the fact that lower SES is consistently associated with higher rates of mortality (as well as both psychological and physical morbidity) and incarceration, particularly among men, at all ages.

Rates of cohabitation have increased in recent decades. Historically, cohabitation was most common among persons with lower SES (income and [Page 1527]education). In the 1960s and 1970s, cohabitation also became more popular among more SES-advantaged young adults going to college—often as a prelude to marital commitment. The prevalence of cohabitation, however, remains highest at lower levels of education and income. Cohabitors' reports that they expect their union to evolve into marriage varies by the male partner's SES, such that individuals in cohabiting partnerships that include a man with lower education and income report less expectation of transitioning the relationship into marriage.

SES and Quality of Partnerships

Longitudinal as well as cross-sectional assessments of marital quality relatively consistently indicate that persons with higher education and higher income report better quality marriages, including higher marital satisfaction, greater marital happiness, less marital discord, less intimate partner violence, and lower expected likelihood of separation. Some research during the 1970s and 1980s suggested that one exception to these associations was that higher wives' individual income was linked to poorer marital quality and greater likelihood of separation. Scholars speculated that women's relative independence due to higher earning capacity might undermine the dependency of wives on husbands, and that this, in turn, might undermine marital quality and stability. Research on more recent cohorts of marriages has not supported this idea, however; by contrast, both husbands' and wives' higher incomes are now found to be associated with better marital quality.

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