Age assortative mating and conjugal dissolution in Mexico

Prior evidence has shown that non-normative gender arrangements, such as age hypogamy, are more likely to dissolve in comparison to traditional couples. However, a higher prevalence of age hypogamy or changes in gender norms could modify this relationship. In this study, I analyse the relationship between partners’ relative age and the risk of conjugal dissolution in Mexico over time. For this purpose, I used discrete-time event history analysis and data from the 2017 Retrospective Demographic Survey of Mexico (Eder), capitalising on information on the conjugal trajectories of women born between 1962 and 1997. The preliminary results show that in older cohorts, women in age hypogamous couples had a higher risk of conjugal dissolution in comparison to women in homogamous and hypergamous couples. However, the differences between groups narrow among younger cohorts, and in the youngest cohort, the relative disadvantage in conjugal instability for hypogamous couples disappears. These results invite further discussion of the meaning of non-normative arrangements in contexts with strong gender norms.