Status Hypergamy and Marital Well-being in China

• In Event: 3531 - Variation in Sexual and Romantic Relationships by Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

The shrinking spousal educational gap has been accompanied by a rising age gap in China since the 1990s, yet little is known on the implications of the persistent, albeit different forms of status hypergamy on marital well-being. Using the Chinese Family Panel Studies (2010, 2012, 2014), this paper examines both marital stability and satisfaction. A typology of relationships is created based on the intersection of spousal age and educational differences and the existing theory on status hypergamy. Discrete-time event history analysis and the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) showed that in China, educational status hypergamy (husbands more educated than wives) was still associated with marital stability, regardless of the couple’s age differences, whereas age hypergamy was not consistently associated with marital stability. Divorce risks were higher when husbands were much older but not more educated. Liberal marriages in which husbands were much younger and less educated were the least stable. Additionally, both men and women were less satisfied in marriage if their spouses were less educated, yet wives were more likely to be satisfied with much younger but not less educated husbands. These results suggest that men’s educational advantage matters more to marital stability compared to men’s age or women’s education, and that educational hypergamy may be stable but less satisfying. The significant gender differences in both marital stability and satisfaction further suggest rigid gender roles in Chinese marriage.

Author

• Jingjing Chen, University of California, Davis