SPOUSE PREFERENCES OF NEVER-MARRIED, DIVORCED, AND COHABITING AMERICANS

This research demonstrates that mate-selection preferences are pattern ed according to men's and women's prior experiences with marriage, div orce, and cohabitation. Compared with men and women who have never div orced or cohabited, men and women who have experienced one or both of these events express consistently different preferences in their willi ngness to marry others with particular personal traits. The research w as based on a national sample of 2,536 unmarried individuals interview ed as part of the National Survey of Families and Households. The exis tence of patterned differences in mate-selection preferences is interp reted to imply the possible existence of different ''marriage markets' ' for those who have and have not experienced divorce or cohabitation. The implications of the existence of such varied marriage markets for the cultural meaning of marriage are explored.