Volume 10 - Article 5 | Pages 121-142

The impact of parent's and spouses' education on divorce rates in Norway


Date received:	17 Nov 2003
Date published:	15 Apr 2004
Word count:	5172
Keywords:	divorce, education, educational attainment, further education, hazard regression, marital dissolution, Norway, parental education, register data, social background
DOI:	10.4054/DemRes.2004.10.5

Abstract

According to both economic and sociological theory, a couple's divorce rate may be influenced by their own educational attainment, that of their parents, and whether they have taken further education after marriage, although predictions are ambiguous. However, these three variables have never been included simultaneously and few studies have included both partners' characteristics. A discrete-time hazard model based on register and census data on 54178 Norwegian first marriages started 1980-1999 reveals a very strong negative educational gradient in divorce risk and no particularly harmful influence of heterogamy.
Parent's education exerts a small positive effect, however. Among couples with the same current level of education, those who have taken education after entry into marriage display the highest divorce rate.