Marital Choices in the 19th-Century Poznań: Interplay of Origin, Occupation, and Age at Marriage

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F25%3A00143696" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/25:00143696 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-026-09511-6" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-026-09511-6</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12110-026-09511-6" target="_blank" >10.1007/s12110-026-09511-6</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Marital Choices in the 19th-Century Poznań: Interplay of Origin, Occupation, and Age at Marriage

Original language description

The study of partner preferences in historical populations is constrained by the limited information available in historical sources. These limitations make it difficult to assess the role of characteristics such as physical attractiveness or psychological traits in spouse selection. Instead, this study examines patterns of marriage partner choice among 19th‐century residents of Poznań, Poland, with particular attention to observable factors including place of origin, occupation, denomination, and age at marriage. The research material contained individual information on 15,652 marriages contracted between 1830 and 1900 in seven Poznań parishes. The partners were divided into four categories based on their marital status: first marriages, marriages of remarried men or women, and second marriages. The analyses included correlation, linear regression, Analysis of Variance, and chi-square tests. First and second marriages differed in the age at marriage of men and women, suggesting that motivations and criteria for marriage changed with life stages and marital history. Specifically, individuals entering the first marriages were the youngest, while divorced or widowed individuals who married within their own marriage category were older than those who married someone who had never been married. First marriage individuals had smaller age differences, but the lowest age correlations compared to all other categories, except remarried women who often married men of similar age or even younger. Across all marriage categories, partners exhibited strong homogamy in denominational, geographical, and social backgrounds, emphasizing the influence of social and cultural factors on marital choices. The origin of the spouses played an important role in partner selection, revealing the impact of the geographical context on the timing of marriage. Specifically, marriages were delayed when at least one partner originated from an urban area and in migrants compared to local population. Marital decisions were also shaped by age and social position, e.g., older men with higher socioeconomic status were more likely to marry younger women. However, these partner selection criteria differed between first and subsequent marriages. The findings of our study support established concepts of marriage patterns while illustrating how biological considerations, geographical contexts, social norms, and economic forces jointly shaped personal choices in historical societies.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10700 - Other natural sciences

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Human Nature An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective

ISSN

1045-6767

e-ISSN

1936-4776

Volume of the periodical

36

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

21

Pages from-to

588-608

UT code for WoS article

001685764500001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105029830714