Racial and ethnic differences in marriage: the importance of metropolitan context

Racial and ethnic differences in marriage outcomes are well established in the previous literature. In addition, variation in the social structure in which individuals reside has an impact on the context in which mate selection and marriage occur. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine how these variations shape marriage outcomes for Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Asians. Beyond racial and ethnic characteristics, this series of studies take into account temporal metropolitan characteristics. Study 1 uses U.S. Census and American Community Survey data to predict metropolitan marriage prevalence at three time points: 1990, 2000 and 2010. Study 2 predicts the odds that individuals across the four racial/ethnic groups have never married, taking into account structural characteristics including region of residence. Study 3 predicts the odds that currently married women are racially or ethnically intermarried, with emphasis on race/ethnicity and region of residence. The results suggest that metropolitan structural characteristics matter somewhat, but individuals' race/ethnicity is the strongest predictor of both the odds of having never married and intermarriage. There is also evidence that region serves as a moderator impacting the overall marriage outcomes of racial/ethnic minority groups to a greater extent in comparison to Non-Hispanic Whites.