File:Analysis of Spousal Phenotypic Correlation for Educational Attainment Over Time.png

English: There exists a notable difference in correlation that surpasses the Standard Error (SE). This difference intensifies over time, implying a potential link between educational attainment disparity among spouses and the likelihood of divorce. The observation suggests that couples with a larger educational mismatch might be more prone to divorcing. An alternative hypothesis posits that as individuals age, they exhibit stronger assortative mating based on educational attainment. However, one might counter-argue that with shifting societal norms, fewer individuals are meeting their partners during college or graduate school. Consequently, the initial hypothesis—that disparities in educational attainment increase the risk of divorce—appears to be the more plausible explanation. "We used a data set covering the entire Swedish population to estimate spousal EA correlations by year since marriage. Specifically, the data are merged from two administrative sources: the Longitudinal Integrated Database for Labour Market Research (LISA) for education and family identifiers, and the Total Population Register (RTB) for information on marital status and dates of marriages/divorces (Ekbom, 2011). For all heterosexual couples who got married in Sweden between 1990 and 2000, we have annual information about the highest educational qualification of both spouses for at least fifteen years after the marriage. Although it barely matters for the estimates, we restrict the sample to only those who have stayed married for at least 15 years in order to keep the sample roughly the same across the different time points. Here are our estimates of the spousal phenotypic correlation for each t years after marriage (t = 0 is the year of marriage):"