Similarity breeds connection. This principle—the homophily principle—structures network ties of every type, including marriage, friendship, work, advice, support, information transfer, exchange, comembership, and other types of relationship. The result is that people's personal networks are homogeneous with regard to many sociodemographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics. Homophily limits people's social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience. Homophily in race and ethnicity creates the strongest divides in our personal environments, with age, religion, education, occupation, and gender following in roughly that order. Geographic propinquity, families, organizations, and isomorphic positions in social systems all create contexts in which homophilous relations form. Ties between nonsimilar individuals also dissolve at a higher rate, which sets the stage for the formation of niches (localize...

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Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks

People have a tendency to marry within their social group or to marry a person who is close to them in status Although many characteristics play a role in the choice of a spouse, sociologists have most often examined endogamy and homogamy with respect to race/ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status I first give an overview of hypotheses on the causes of endogamy and homogamy The various hypotheses that have been suggested in the literature can be distinguished as arguments about three more general factors: (a) the preferences of marriage candidates for certain characteristics in a spouse, (b) the interference of “third parties” in the selection process, and (c) the constraints of the marriage market in which candidates are searching for a spouse Second, I summarize empirical research by answering four questions: (a) To what extent are groups endogamous and how do groups differ in this respect? (b) How has endogamy changed over time? (c) Which factors are related to endogamy? (d) How do various d

/pdf/intermarriage-and-homogamy-causes-patterns-trends-4irspzm0zc.pdf

Intermarriage and Homogamy: Causes, Patterns, Trends

Studies of how characteristics of the family of origin are associated with educational and labor market outcomes indicate the degree of openness of societies and have a long tradition in sociology. We review research published since 1990 into educational stratification and social (occupational or class) mobility, focusing on the importance of parental socioeconomic circumstances, and with particular emphasis on comparative studies. Large-scale data now available from many countries and several time points have led to more and better descriptions of inequality of opportunity across countries and over time. However, partly owing to problems of comparability of measurement, unambiguous conclusions about trends and ranking of countries have proven elusive. In addition, no strong evidence exists that explains intercountry differences. We conclude that the 1990s witnessed a resurgence of microlevel models, mostly of a rational choice type, that signals an increased interest in moving beyond description in strat...

Inequality of opportunity in comparative perspective : Recent research on educational attainment and social mobility

統計年鑑 = Statistical yearbook

This paper reports trends in educational assortative marriage from 1940 to 2003 in the United States. Analyses of census and Current Population Survey data show that educational homogamy decreased from 1940 to 1960 but increased from 1960 to 2003. From 1960 to the early 1970s, increases in educational homogamy were generated by decreasing intermarriage among groups of relatively well-educated persons. College graduates, in particular, were increasingly likely to marry each other rather than those with less education. Beginning in the early 1970s, however, continued increases in the odds of educational homogamy were generated by decreases in intermarriage at both ends of the education distribution. Most striking is the decline in the odds that those with very low levels of education marry up. Intermarriage between college graduates and those with “some college” continued to decline but at a more gradual pace. As intermarriage declined at the extremes of the education distribution, intermarriage among those in the middle portion of the distribution increased. These trends, which are similar for a broad cross section of married couples and for newlyweds, are consistent with a growing social divide between those with very low levels of education and those with more education in the United States.

Trends in Educational Assortative Marriage From 1940 to 2003

Loglinear analysis is used to assess the degree of educational homogamy in 65 countries. Differences in educational homogamy among these countries are then explained in terms of level of economic development, degree of political democracy, the dominant religion, and the technological background of developing countries. An inverted U-curve relationship is found between level of economic development and educational homogamy. Furthermore, cultural characteristics are found to be important explanatory variables. Grouping countries into "families of nations" according to dominant religion and technological background helps explain the differences among countries. Catholic, Muslim, Confucian, and mixed Catholic/Protestant countries show significantly more educational homogamy than do Protestant countries, and industrializing societies with a horticultural background show significantly less educational homogamy than do industrializing societies with an agrarian background.

Educational Homogamy in 65 Countries: An Explanation of Differences in Openness Using Country-Level Explanatory Variables

We address two issues central to current stratification research: trends in educational homogamy in modernizing societies, and differences in educational homogamy between countries with different religious backgrounds. Regarding the trends in educational homogamy, there are different versions of modernization theory that lead to different predictions about the direction of the trends. With respect to the effect of a country's religious background on educational homogamy, Raymo and Xie (2000, henceforward R&X) present new empirical evidence that appears to contradict the results of our paper on this subject (Smits, Ultee, and Lammers 1998). In this reply, we discuss these issues in detail and try to place them in a new light by presenting new empirical findings on trends in educational homogamy in 60 countries.

More or less educational homogamy? A test of different versions of modernization theory using cross-temporal evidence for 60 countries

This paper is about the analysis of effects of status inconsistency and mobility on a dependent variable. We compare the mainstream square additive baseline model to alternative designs by Hope (1971, 1975) and Sobel (1981, 1985). Both writers claim that the square additive baseline model also contains some status inconsistency effects. An examination of the relationships between the square additive model, Hope's halfway/difference model, and Sobel's simple diagonal reference model shows that the effects uncovered by Sobel and Hope pertain to the inequality of the effects of the status variables on the dependent variable. These salience difference effects are therefore distinct from the non-additive status inconsistency effects which would be detected using the square additive approach. Less restricted versions of the diagonal reference model, the DM-1 and DM-2 models as well as a recent model by Weakliem (1992), are also examined with regard to additive/non-additive components and symmetry of effects.

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Models for status inconsistency and mobility: A comparison of the approaches by Hope and Sobel with the mainstream square additive model

Religion et Classe sociale ont longtemps ete considerees comme des indicateurs du comportement electoral aux Pays-Bas, mais ces deux facteurs sont supposes avoir perdu de leur influence au profit des attitudes politiques, telle que le liberalisme economique et le conservatisme culturel. Dans un premier temps, un certain nombre d'hypotheses prenant en compte de recentes idees theoriques et empiriques, sont developpees. Dans un deuxieme temps, ces hypotheses sont testees en fonction de la discussion centrale de l'etude : quel est le role actuel de la religion et de la classe sociale dans le comportement electoral ? Les resultats inattendus montrent que ces deux facteurs peuvent etre considerablement supplees par les attitudes politiques

Religious and class voting in the Netherlands 1990-1991: A review of recent contributions tested

Effects of occupational status differences between spouses on the wife's employment and on her occupational achievement are studied for the coun- tries of the European Union. The results show a tendency towards similarity in occupational sta- tus within marriages. Labor force participation of a wife is highest when her potential occupational status equals her husband's occupational status. Furthermore, the husband's occupation produces both a ceiling effect and a facilitating effect on the wife's occupational achievement. The strength of these effects differs somewhat between the countries. For a wife's participation in the labor force, these differences are related to the country's dominant religion.

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Effects of Occupational Status Differences between Spouses on the Wife's Labor Force Participation and Occupational Achievement: Findings from 12 European Countries.

J.G.M. Lammers

Papers

Educational Homogamy in 65 Countries: An Explanation of Differences in Openness Using Country-Level Explanatory Variables

More or less educational homogamy? A test of different versions of modernization theory using cross-temporal evidence for 60 countries

Models for status inconsistency and mobility: A comparison of the approaches by Hope and Sobel with the mainstream square additive model

Religious and class voting in the Netherlands 1990-1991: A review of recent contributions tested

Effects of Occupational Status Differences between Spouses on the Wife's Labor Force Participation and Occupational Achievement: Findings from 12 European Countries.