Spouse Selection among the Children of European Immigrants: A Comparison of Marriage Cohorts in the 1960 Census 1

Abstract

This article uses 1960 census data to describe patterns of spouse selection among the native-born children of European immigrants. The analysis builds on previous studies of ethnic intermarriage, but is new in that it focuses specifically on the second generation. In addition, it considers intermarriage as a multidimensional phenomenon and evaluates how the relative importance of national and educational boundaries in marriage choice has changed. Comparisons of synthetic marriage cohorts suggest that second generation European Americans marry increasingly into the native stock, they marry increasingly out of their national origin group, and the national boundaries that separate them have become weaker over time. At the same time, it is found that educational homogamy has increased across cohorts. More generally, changes in the marital assimilation of the second generation can be characterized as a shift from national origins to education. Methodologically, the study is novel in that multidimensional logmultiplicative models of association are used as a new way of measuring marriage distances between groups.