Publication type
Journal Article
Series Number
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2025
Summary:
We examine whether union dissolution is associated with partners’ (mis)match on political preferences, defined as self-reported closeness, intention to vote, or reported vote for a specific party. Previous studies have shown that partners’ heterogamy by ethnicity, education, and other dimensions increases the risk of union dissolution because of differences between partners in lifestyles, attitudes, and beliefs or because of disapproval from family and community members. We posit that similar arguments can apply to political heterogamy and test this hypothesis using UK data from the British Household Panel Study and the UK Household Longitudinal Study. The data offer a unique opportunity to assess the role of heterogamy by political preferences while controlling for heterogamy in other domains and for other partners’ characteristics over a long period (1991–2019). The data also facilitate a more specific analysis of the referendum on the United Kingdom's permanence in the European Union (known as the Brexit referendum). We find a positive association between political heterogamy and union dissolution, which is as strong as some other forms of heterogamy. The role of diverging opinions on the Brexit referendum in union dissolutions appears to be even more important than the role of partners’ differing party preferences.
Published in
Demography
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 62 , p.1059 -1085
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-11983537
ISSN
00703370
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
© 2025 The Authors
#588768
Related Publications
-
Sleeping with the enemy. Partners’ political attitudes and risk of separation
- Bruno Arpino
- Alessandro Di Nallo
Research Paper
June 1, 2022