In a new study, researchers looked at the first marriages of different women in New Jersey and across the United States. A team at the National Center for Family and Marriage Research found interesting data in regards to the divorce of a first marriage by factoring in education and race and using them as dividing lines for analysis.

According to the research, women with a college education were one of the least likely sets to see their first marriage end. Oddly, women without high school diplomas were similarly matched. These women saw a rate of 14.2 and 14.4 divorces per 1,000 women 18 years or older. These statistics were not broken down by race.

When dividing first divorces by ethnicity and race, women of Asian descent found themselves with the lowest rate at 10 per 1,000. This rate tripled by the level of divorces seen in African-American women who, according to the published data, had a rate of 30.4 per 1,000. Hispanic women had a rate near the middle of these two at 18.1 while white women saw their first marriages dissolve at a rate of 16.3. The average rate of first-marriage divorce for American women, regardless of demographic, was calculated at 17.5 per 1,000 women.

Researchers were puzzled by the similarly low rates seen in both degree-holding women and those without a high school diploma. Their conclusion was that the relationship between divorce and education was not clearly defined. Other studies, according to an individual with the National Center for Family and Marriage Research, have found similar results, verifying the findings of this study to some degree.

This type of research confirms that divorce happens across all races and education levels. Every person involved in a divorce process has his or her unique attributes and situation that will impact the outcome of the divorce as a whole.

Source: PsychCentral, “College Degree Gives Some Protection from Divorce,” Rick Nauert, Nov. 7, 2011