| Exogamous marriages experience higher dissolution rates than endogamous marriages (e.g., Bramlett & Mosher, 2002; Bratter & King, 2008); yet, the reasons underlying the heightened risk have received little attention in the research literature. This study, informed by the homogamy perspective (Burr, 1973) and ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1984) compared exogamous and endogamous marriages across several key marital processes, perceived social support, and demographic characteristics. A total of 204 exogamous and 204 endogamous heterosexual married couples were randomly selected from the RELATE dataset (Busby, Holman, & Taniguchi, 2001) to test for mean differences across marriage types. Compared with endogamous marriages, exogamous marriages were on average younger in age, and had shorter marriages at time of participation. Differences in age gaps between spouses, males' income, and education level of females were not significant. However, females' income and education levels of males were marginally significant across groups. Further analyses controlled for age of spouses, income, and length of marriage. Marital processes assessed were: marital instability, relationship satisfaction, communication behaviors, and conflict styles. Results indicated that exogamous marriages had marginally higher rates of marital instability and lower rates of relationship satisfaction. Exogamous marriages used more negative communication behaviors and fewer positive communication behaviors than endogamous marriages. However, couples did not differ on Gottman's (1993) conflict styles including their use of hostility or on being matched/mismatched on conflict styles. Perceived social support from family and peers towards the marriage did not differ across marriage types. Implications of these findings suggest that exogamous marriages may become distressed earlier in their marriages compared to endogamous marriages and that early signs of distress may include problems with negative and positive communication patterns. Limitations of the present study and future directions for research with exogamous marriages are discussed. |
