You are my world – The social embeddedness of remarriage

• Published in: Visions of the 21st Century Family Vol. 7; pp. 399 - 421
• Main Author: Lin, Muh-Chung
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2013; Emerald Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Sociology; Sociology of the family; Sociology: family & relationships; divorce; social network analysis; Remarriage; social embeddedness; life course
• ISBN: 9781783500284; 178350028X
• ISSN: 1530-3535
• DOI: 10.1108/S1530-3535(2013)0000007016

Abstract Marriage is a social institution that integrates individuals to form families. Yet, the social embeddedness of married couples is surprisingly rarely examined, particularly for remarriage. Drawing from multiple datasets, this chapter shows that before marriage, remarried dyads are socially less embedded than their continuously married counterparts; after marriage, their social relations rely more on the spouse. First, with the attrition of close associates over the life course and the disruption in social network due to divorce, individuals tend to look outside their networks and at less conventional venues, and to adopt dating strategies involving fewer contacts from existing network, resulting in greater socio-demographic heterophily in remarriage. Second, such dating strategies and the greater socio-demographic heterogamy imply socially invisible wedding ceremonies for remarried couples. Third, remarried individuals’ social networks, in the absence of spousal ties, remain as fragmented as those of the divorced in terms of network characteristics such as density, volume of contacts, and emotional closeness. A remarried individual’s network is akin to that of the divorced plus a spouse. Compared to first marriage, the spouse is much more prominent in the social relations of remarried individuals.