Educational Assortative Mating among Unmarried and Married Couples in Japan and the United States

• In Event: 127 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Paper Session: Table 04. Family and Inequality

Abstract

This study is the first systematic attempt to distinguish the pattern of educational assortative mating between married and unmarried couples in Japan. As far as we know, none of the previous research investigated the pattern of educational association among unmarried couples. The most significant finding of our analysis is the difference in the pattern of educational assortative mating between married and courtship couples in Japan. Educational homogamy at the top and the bottom of the educational hierarchy characterizes the educational association among both unmarried and married partners. However, among married couples, there is apparently a stronger educational homogamy for couples who graduated from four-year universities and a propensity for women with junior college educations to marry men with B.A. degrees. Japanese unmarried couples seem to place less emphasis on the educational level of their partners than married couples. We speculate that Japanese youth hold different standards of mate selection for courtship than for marriage. To highlight the distinctive patterns of Japanese couples, we present the results of comparative analyses of the United States. Regardless of the type of partnership, Americans appear to take serious account of their partners’ educational level. There is a much smoother transition from cohabitation to marriage in the United States. The difference in the pattern of educational assortative mating between pre-marital and marital couples in Japan may reflect a discontinuous transition from courtship to marriage.

Author

• Hiroshi Ishida, University of Tokyo