PI: R. Kelly Raley Co-PI: Catherine B. McNamee University of Texas, Austin
Why do Mexican Americans have patterns of first marriage and divorce similar to whites, but lower rates of remarriage? One explanation is that people with higher socio-economic status have higher marriage rates and lower divorce rates than people with lower socio-economic status. However, Mexican Americans marry at rates comparable to non-Hispanic whites and divorce at slightly lower rates. Some have argued that Mexican American marriage is supported by their cultural orientation towards familialism. However, this is inconsistent with patterns of remarriage for Mexican Americans who remarry at rates significantly lower than non-Hispanic whites. This study investigates the unexplained race and ethnic variation in remarriage using: 1) the National Survey Family Growth, 2) the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and 3) 30 in-depth interviews of 15 Mexican American and 15 non-Hispanic White recently divorced women living in Austin, Texas.
BROADER IMPACTS: It is well established that the wellbeing, particularly economic wellbeing, of adults and their children is positively associated with marriage, including remarriage. Therefore, a better understanding of racial/ethnic differences in martial transitions has potential practical and therapeutic importance for assisting professionals and families in navigating post-divorce transitions.
, was to investigate why Latinos have first marriage and divorce rates similar to whites but lower remarriage rates. To investigate racial, ethnic, and nativity differences in remarriage, we use data from two national surveys that include both women and men: 1) the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-2010 (NLSY79) and 2) the National Survey of Family Growth 2006-2010 (NSFG). We also conducted 23 semi-structured in-depth interviews with recently divorced white and Latina women during the fall of 2011. The research explored several potential explanations for the lower remarriage rates among Latinos. One is that Latinos are more likely to be Catholic and Catholics are less likely to remarry. The survey data suggested religious affiliation may account for a modest part of remarriage differences between whites compared to U.S.-born Latinas, foreign-born Latinas, and U.S.-born Latinos. Another potential explanation was that Latinas are more likely to have children, a status associated with lower remarriage rates. We found that motherhood status did not help to explain Latina’s lower remarriage rates, but the negative association between having children and remarriage is stronger for foreign-born Latinas. In fact, among women with no children, remarriage rates of foreign-born Latinas are no lower than for white women. Additionally, we investigated the role of attitudes towards remarriage. While prior research found that Latinos have more positive views about marriage and this buoys their marriage rates despite economic disadvantage, it may be that among the divorced Latinos have no more positive attitudes toward marriage than whites because the most pro-marriage Latinos will remain married. We find foreign-born and U.S.-born Latinos have more positive attitudes towards marriage than whites even among those divorced. Reinforcing the findings of the quantitative analysis, in-depth interviews of recently divorced white and Latino women detected no ethnic differences in the preference to remarry. This suggests that barriers to remarriage rather than their own attitudes or values are the source of remarriage differences. None of the women interviewed felt that their religious beliefs prohibited remarriage. However, interviews uncovered ethnic differences in reactions from parents. The parents of white women were generally supportive of their daughter’s post-divorce relationship decisions and many encouraged their daughters to start dating. In contrast, Latinas frequently reported parental disapproval for divorcing and of post-divorce relationships. Latinas reported that parental disapproval derived from their parents’ attachment to the first marriage and their religious beliefs about divorce. Therefore, Latinas may avoid remarriage in deference to their parents’ values and religious beliefs. When faced with parental criticism, Latina women took the disapproval seriously whereas white women were more likely to disregard it. This suggests that Latinas may have a harder time transitioning to serious post divorce relationships because they value their parents’ opinions and their parents’ are often not supportive of new relationships. Finally, the qualitative interviews uncovered some differences in the importance of economic barriers to remarriage. Both Latina and white women wanted partners with better socioeconomic characteristics than their first husbands and both wanted to improve their own socioeconomic characteristics prior to remarrying. However, Latinas’ more often earned more than their first husbands reflecting socioeconomic disadvantages of Latino men. Also, the families of both Latinas and white women often provided some assistance during the divorce, but the form of this assistance varied. Latinas frequently moved back in with their parents while white women received cash assistance. Living with parents could reduce privacy and make forming new relationships difficult. Additionally, although both white woman and Latinas expressed as strong desire to get out of debt, increase schooling, or improve their careers, cash assistance may be a more direct way to accomplish these goals. Catherine McNamee will defend her dissertation in July 2012. Papers based on this project will be presented at the annual meeting for the American Sociological Association and submitted to the annual meeting for the Population Association of America. The research will result in several articles to be submitted to academic journals within the 2012-2013 year. The findings have also created additional research questions that Cate McNamee will investigate during the next two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University. Additionally, the 23 interviews have been transcribed for public use. Presentations: McNamee, Catherine. "Race-ethnic Differences at Remarriage and the Role of Pro-nuptial Values" Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Denver, CO. Papers in preparation: Competing forces shaping Race-Ethnic-Nativity differences in Remarriage: Can religion or parenthood explain the Latino Remarriage Conundrum? Paper to be submitted for presentation at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America. Barriers to Remarriage: Do religious beliefs and parental reactions toward developing post-divorce relationships explain R-E-N differences in remarriage? Paper to be submitted for presentation at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America.
