Interracial Unions and Marital Dissolution: Changes over Time

Kate H. Choi, University of Western Ontario

Interracial marriages dissolve at considerably higher rates than endogamous unions: a phenomenon that often serves as signal for the significant barriers to social interaction across race/ethnic groups. Yet, the rise in the prevalence and acceptability of interracial marriages suggests that barriers to interaction across race/ethnic groups are eroding in recent decades, which make us wonder whether marital stability differences between interracial and endogamous unions are also diminishing over time. Using data from the 1995, 2002, and 2006-10 NSFG, I ascertain whether the marital stability differences are diminishing over time. I also investigate the extent to which changing selectivity into interracial unions and shifts in behavioural differences across union type explain these changes. Preliminary results suggest that marital stability differences between interracial and endogamous unions are decreasing over time. These changes are partly due to the declining selectivity in intermarriages as well as diminishing behavioural differences between interracial and endogamous unions.