Zachary Riggins

Zachary Riggins 

521 words 

Examining Two Articles on Family 

In the article Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006, data was collected from the General Social Survey (GSS) between the years 1973 and 2006. This article aims to explain possible trends over time among race and gender regarding marriage satisfaction. This was achieved by comparing regression analyses across four different time periods (one time period per decade). The independent variables are race and gender subdivided into four groups: white husbands, white wives, black husbands, and black wives. The article refers to the divorce item within the GSS as nominal, indicating whether respondents were, at least, in their second marriage. In addition, the researchers control for other factors such as education, income, and age. White men scored the highest overall across all four decades in terms of marriage satisfaction. It should be noted that white men, white women, and black men all report slight declines in marriage satisfaction across all four decades, though not significant. Perhaps the most interesting find is how black women, for the last decade, report a significantly increased satisfaction of marriage (from a mean score of 1.36 to 1.47). Regarding the multivariate analysis, white respondents hold higher scores than black respondents for marriage satisfaction regardless of independent variables. The trend analysis yields results indicating that marital satisfaction among whites and blacks may be growing closer. However this indication may be product of the jump in black wife marital satisfaction within the last decade. 

The article Explaining Race and Ethnic Variation in Marriage: Directions for Future Research compiles, synthesizes, and analyzes results from different research regarding race and marriage. One line of research seems to indicate that differences between whites and blacks regarding family formation contribute to continued inequalities seen across all levels of society. Some research found black men face more unstable work settings than white men, leading to some race-based differences regarding marriage. Other research shows that blacks tend to have more stronger relationships with their in-laws than whites, but some qualitative studies find the exact opposite. These inconsistencies have led researchers to hone in on two different categories concerning differences with race and marriage: structural and cultural. Black men and women are more similar in terms of earning power than white men and women. This reduced gap in earning power may be responsible for a reduced role in division of labor among married black men and women. This in turn may lead to some of the differences we observe between whites and blacks regarding marriage. Another finding indicates black men have higher reports of infidelity towards their wives than white men.  This article concludes by providing ways to improve upon previous models of research in order to discover more potential structural and cultural ties regarding marriage. 

The analysis of research within the second article can be tied to the findings of the first article. For instance, the second article glazes over research indicating black men have higher rates of infidelity than white men. If we consider the first article, this is perhaps an example of why blacks overall reported lower marriage satisfaction compared to whites. As the second article mentions however, we should find ways to further pinpoint and distinguish cultural as well as structural factors to marriage satisfaction concerning race.