Research note: The educational gradient of divorce in the Czech Republic during the late post-socialist transition

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to describe the educational gradient and the role of educational homogamy in divorce risk in the Czech Republic. Background: The Czech Republic underwent a social transformation in the 1990s, which resulted in a significant change in many demographic trends. In contrast, the divorce trend seems to have been less affected. My aim is to describe the evolution of the patterns of the educational gradient of divorce during the late phase of the post-communist transformation. Method: Register data on marriages contracted in 1995, 2000, and 2005 were supplemented with divorce register records up to 2020. Besides the duration of the marriage, the data contains information on the education, age, and marital status of both partners at the time of marriage. The Kaplan-Meier curves and the Cox regression are used for the analysis. Results: The risk of divorce is substantially higher for the less educated, and this holds across all three marriage cohorts observed here. Homogamous marriages are not the most stable ones. From an individual's perspective, marriage with a more educated partner shows the highest stability. Conclusion: This analysis confirmed the stability of the negative educational gradient of marriages contracted during the late phase of the post-communist transition period in the Czech Republic. It refutes the notion that the higher relative education of the woman or man in the couple destabilises partnerships.