Hypotheses relating differences in husband-wife backgrounds, or sociocultural heterogamy, to marital disagreement over role expectations, marital values, and marital conflict are empirically tested and found to be unsupported. Three alternative hypotheses are presented and tested in an attempt to shed light on the general lack of association between heterogamy and the dissensus-conflict variables, including a developmental extension of heterogamy theory (controlling for years married), an overall heterogamy index, and an examination of the direction of heterogamy (hypogamy vs. hypergamy). These tests yield virtually no support for heterogamy theory. In light of these findings regarding the predictions of heterogamy theory, arguments which might account for the overall lack of support are presented and discussed.
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