Socioecononuk and Cu ~ Incorporation and Mariaal Disruption among Mexican Americans*

This article examines how processes of socioeconomic and cultural incorporation affect marital-disruption patterns among Mexican-origin persons in the U.S. in comparison to non-Hispanic whites and African Americans. The results, which are based mainly on recent National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, indicate that, once other variables are controlled, the correlation of level of education with marital disruption among U.S. native Mexican Americans is negative and similar in level to that of non-Hispanic whites. However, the correlation of educational level with marital disruption among Mexican immigrants is both positive and lower than that of other groups. It is argued that these results do not support the idea that cultural familism explains Mexican-origin mantal-disruption patterns, nor the idea that segmented assimilation processes exert influence on marital disruption, bui rather the idea that socioeconomic and cultural incorporation interact in their effects on marital variables. This article examines patterns of marital disruption in the Mexican-origin population of the U.S., thereby focusing on a pivotal dimension of postwar marital and family change (McLanahan & Casper 1995) in the case of the country's largest contemporary immigrant group (Bean & Tienda 1987). The purpose of the research is to investigate the effects on marital disruption of education, an important indicator of socioeconomic incorporation (McCarthy &amp