On gold diggers: Status gain or loss in age heterogamous marriages

Deviations from the age norms governing mate selection often provoke negative stereotypes regarding the participants. This article focuses on age heterogamous unions or so-called May-December marriages, involving an older person with a young spouse. The public often attributes pecuniary (gold digger) motives to the latter. Our research tests the widespread notion that the younger woman exchanges youth for status or money. Using data from the Panel on Income Dynamics, age homogamous and age heterogamous couples are compared in terms of each of the spouse's achieved and inherited status and the contribution these make to explained variance in family income. Analysis using hierarchical multiple regression revealed that, contrary to popular belief, the status of the older spouse does not make a more important contribution toward explained income. Indeed, in this study, the reverse was the case in that the wife's status contributed more toward explained income. The notion that age heterogamy in marriage represents a channel of upward mobility for young women married to older men needs systematic reexamination.