Abstract
This study investigates the differences in divorce risk by educational assortative mating and its changes across cohorts. It particularly focuses on women’s educational hypogamy and educational homogamy of highly educated couples, both of which have increased due to women’s improved access to higher education. Previous studies have argued that educational hypogamy couples are more likely to experience divorce than other types of couples because of its atypical character. However, in the United States, where gender equality has been improving over the decades, the positive association between educational hypogamy and divorce has declined. This study also elucidates whether typical and atypical nature of spouse pairing pattern, which accompanies a gender asymmetric relationship, has changed in Japan, by examining the relationship between educational assortative mating and divorce. In addition, as the Second Demographic Transition theory predicted, educational differences in divorce are expected to decline as the tolerance of divorce increases. However, recent studies have argued that family formation is increasingly stable among highly educated couples, compared to their less educated peers. Based on this literature, this study examines the association between educational assortative mating and divorce using an event history analysis of two nationally representative survey data: NFRJ-S01 and SSM2015. Results revealed that educational hypogamy couples are more likely to experience divorce before 1980s cohorts, but the association has disappeared in recent cohorts. By contrast, no association was observed between educational homogamy of highly educated and less educated couples.
