Gender and Educational Differentials in Marital Sorting of Hispanic Young Adults

AuthorMarta Tienda,Kate H. Choi
DOI10.1177/00027162211043774
Published date01 July 2021
Date01 July 2021
Subject MatterFamilies
ANNALS, AAPSS, 696, July 2021 179
DOI: 10.1177/00027162211043774
Gender and
Educational
Differentials in
Marital Sorting
of Hispanic
Young Adults
By
KATE H. CHOI
and
MARTA TIENDA
1043774ANN The Annals Of The American AcademyMarital Sorting Of Hispanic Young Adults
research-article2021
Over the past few decades, Hispanic young adults have
made impressive gains in educational attainment, but
improvements have not been even by gender, with
Latinas now averaging more schooling than Latinos.
These developments in education have implications
for Latinx marital sorting behavior and the marriage
conditions that they face. Using data from the American
Community Survey, we examine intermarriage pat-
terns of Hispanics ages 25 to 34, focusing on gender
differences in assortative mating along ethnic and
educational lines. We show that college-educated
Latinos are less likely than both their lesser-educated
peers and college-educated Latinas to marry partners
who are less educated than themselves. We also reveal
that highly educated Latinas are more likely than
Latinos with comparable levels of education to inter-
marry. We discuss implications for the intergenera-
tional maintenance of Hispanicity as an ethno-race,
and for their ability to transmit the socioeconomic
gains obtained via educational improvements to future
generations of Hispanics.
Keywords: mate selection; assortative mating; educa-
tional inequality
Since 1970, Hispanics1 have made signifi-
cant gains in education. Child Trends
(2018) reports that in 1971, less than half of
Hispanics ages 25 to 29 completed high school,
Kate H. Choi is a demographer whose research exam-
ines the determinants and consequences of social ine-
quality. Her work focuses on the determinants of
partner selection and racial disparities in family forma-
tion. She is an associate professor in sociology at
Western University.
Marta Tienda is Maurice P. During ’22 Professor of
Demographic Studies and professor of sociology and
public affairs emerita at Princeton University. She is
past president of the Population Association of America
and member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences and American Academy of Education. She is
the president of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science.
Correspondence: hchoi228@uwo.ca
180 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY
but by 2017 this share rose to 83 percent. Hispanic college attendance and com-
pletion rates also increased, such that over half of the age cohort acquired some
postsecondary training and 19 percent attained a bachelor’s degree or more by
2017. Despite these notable gains, the educational attainments of Hispanic
young adults continue to trail those of other ethno-racial groups (Krostad 2016;
Gramlich 2017; Flores, Carroll, and Lyons, this volume). Mirroring experiences
of other groups, Hispanic educational improvements have been uneven by gen-
der, as women’s educational gains have surpassed those of men. By 2019, 27
percent of Latinas ages 25 to 34 attained some postsecondary education, com-
pared with 23 percent of Latinos; moreover, 22 percent of young Latinas gradu-
ated from college, compared with 16 percent of Latinos (see Table S1 in online
appendix and Flores, Carroll, and Lyons [this volume] for a more detailed dis-
cussion).
Rising educational attainments, coupled with widening gender asym-
metries, have direct implications for the marital sorting behavior of Hispanics
and their ability to transmit both socioeconomic and cultural resources to the
next generation. Educational improvements may have broadened Hispanic
young adults’ partner preferences to include members of other ethno-racial
groups while amplifying opportunities to form intimate relationships with
them (Qian, Lichter, and Tumin 2018). Furthermore, gender asymmetries in
educational attainment means that Latina college graduates experience a
shortage of coethnic spouses with comparable levels of education. As such,
they will be more likely than Latinas with lower levels of education and Latino
college graduates to marry a non-Hispanic spouse or a coethnic spouse with
lower levels of education.
Furthermore, Latinas in intermarriages may have greater difficulty transmit-
ting their cultural traditions and Hispanic identity to their multi-ethnic children
(Kalmijn 1998; Jiménez 2008). Their limited ability to transmit cultural resources
from one generation to the next may inhibit the maintenance of Hispanic identity
beyond their own generation (Duncan and Trejo 2011). Because socioeconomic
homogamy results in the clustering of socioeconomic resources for couples and
their offspring (S. Choi, Chung, and Breen 2020; Mare 2016), marrying a co-
ethnic spouse with lower levels of education may limit Latina college graduates’
ability to transmit the socioeconomic gains obtained from educational improve-
ments to the next generation.
We examine how the rise in education and the widening gender asym-
metries of Hispanic young adults influences the marital sorting patterns of
young Hispanic men and women. Specifically, we describe Hispanic young
adults’ intermarriage behavior along ethno-racial and educational lines,
explicitly considering the significance of widening gender asymmetries for
sorting behavior. As an indicator of social integration, the marital sorting
behavior of young Hispanic adults has implications for their long-term well-
being and their ability to transfer socioeconomic and cultural resources to the
next generation.

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