Journal
ANNUAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY, VOL 72
Volume 72, Issue -, Pages 391-414Publisher
ANNUAL REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-051920-013658
Keywords
couples; marriage; intimate relationships; socioeconomic status
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [R01HD091832]
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Research has shown how a couple's socioeconomic background can influence their choices in maintaining relationships, resulting in different capacities and adaptive strategies for couples of varying advantages. A generalizable relationship science must recognize and address these differences in socioeconomic diversity among couples.
The ways that couples form and manage their intimate relationships at higher and lower levels of socioeconomic status (SES) have been diverging steadily over the past several decades. At higher SES levels, couples postpone marriage and childbirth to invest in education and careers, but they eventually marry at high rates and have relatively low risk for divorce. At lower SES levels, couples are more likely to cohabit and give birth prior to marriage and less likely to marry at all. This review examines how SES comes to be associated with the formation, development, and dissolution of intimate relationships. Overall, research has highlighted how a couple's socioeconomic context facilitates some choices and constrains others, resulting in different capacities for relationship maintenance and different adaptive mating strategies for more and less advantaged couples. A generalizable relationship science requires research that acknowledges these differences and one that recruits, describes, and attends to socioeconomic diversity across couples.
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