Volume 50 - Article 23 | Pages 625–642  

Age-heterogamous partnerships: Prevalence and partner differences by marital status and gender composition

By Tony Silva, Christine Percheski

Abstract

Objective: We examine age heterogamy in the United States and its associations with other partnership characteristics following the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015.

Methods: We use American Community Survey data for 2017–2021 to examine age gaps in over 3.3 million couples, differentiating by couple gender composition (man-man, man-woman, woman-woman) and marital status (cohabiting, married). We estimate the prevalence of age heterogamy and how it correlates with education, income, and race/ethnicity differences between partners.

Results: The prevalence of age heterogamy and its associations with other partner differences vary by couple gender composition and marital status. Man-man couples have higher rates of age heterogamy than man-woman and woman-woman couples; over three in ten man-man couples had age gaps of at least eight years between partners, with no difference by marital status. Age heterogamy was less common among married than cohabiting man-woman couples. For most couple types, educational and income differences between partners were more common among age-heterogamous partnerships. The prevalence of interracial/interethnic partnerships was higher among age-heterogamous married man-man and man-woman couples but not for woman-woman couples.

Contribution: Man-man couples have higher rates of age heterogamy, and partner differences related to education, income, and race/ethnicity are tied to age heterogamy for man-man couples more strongly than for other couple types. Partnering patterns for man-man couples are distinct from other couple types.

Author’s Affiliation

• Tony Silva - University of British Columbia, Canada EMAIL
• Christine Percheski - Northwestern University, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Fertility change in the American Indian and Alaska Native population, 1980–2010
Volume 37 - Article 1

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Educational outcomes in stepfamilies: A comparative analysis of cohabitation and remarriage
Volume 53 - Article 34    | Keywords: cohabitation, comparative analysis, education, remarriage, stepfamily

The partnership context of first parenthood – and how it varies by parental class and birth cohort in the United Kingdom
Volume 53 - Article 16    | Keywords: cohabitation, cohort analysis, event history, event history analysis, family formation, intergenerational inequality, marriage, parental socio-economic status, parenthood, single parenthood, United Kingdom

Gendered labor market adjustments around marital and cohabiting union transitions during Europe’s early cohabitation diffusion
Volume 53 - Article 15    | Keywords: adult equivalent household income, cohabitation, employment income, gender inequalities, hours worked, intra-household specialization, marriage, union transitions

Attitudes toward child well-being in diverse families across Europe
Volume 53 - Article 11    | Keywords: attitudes, children, Europe, European Social Survey, family, gender, same-sex couples, single parenthood, stepfamily

Where do we go from here? Partnership-parenthood trajectories of cohabitation as first union during young adulthood in the United States
Volume 53 - Article 9    | Keywords: cohabitation, family inequality, fertility, marriage, race/ethnicity, transition to adulthood, union formation, United States of America