Ages at Marriage, Occupations of Grooms and Interreligious Marriage Rates

Abstract

Records for Iowa first marriages from 1953 through 1957 were used to test relationships between interreligious marriage rates, used as measures of religious endogamy norm saliency, and the ages of spouses and status levels of grooms. Interreligious marriages were represented by marriages of Catholic with non-Catholic spouses or by marriages of persons who identified with any Protestant church with Catholics or persons who were not identified with any Protestant church. A differential relationship between ages at marriage and interreligious marriages rates was clearly observed for Catholic spouses, but only slightly for church-Protestant spouses. Status levels of grooms were inversely related to interreligious marriage rates in all populations. And, ages at marriage and status levels interacted to produce the highest rates of interreligious marriage among the youngest or oldest low status couples. Least interreligious marriage rates were observed among high status couples where spouses were in their twenties. These findings suggested that religious endogamy norm saliency is related to reference group experiences associated with status levels and ages at marriage.

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