Abstract

The research reported here employs a type of cohort analysis to compare recent (1960–70) changes in the prevalence of marital instability among Mexican American women with those observed among Black and Anglo women in the southwestern United States. Analyses of detailed categories of marital status, as well as a summary measure of instability, reveal that women in all three groups recorded increases in marital dissolution. However, differences in the rate of increase by ethnic group, especially among the younger cohorts, suggested an overall pattern of divergence in trend. Some small degree of convergence was detected for a few cohorts, and lessened differentials were more common between Blacks and Anglos than between Blacks and Mexican Americans.

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