ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with comparing remarriages with first marriages along a number of dimensions. Experience in a failed marriage should enable former spouses to “learn from their mistakes,” and the wisdom thus acquired should help them to make a better choice the second time around. Lack of homogamy between spouses does not appear to be very important in either first marriages or remarriages, in terms of predicting marital success. Married life customarily begins with a pledge to live happily ever after, but obviously not all marriages endure. Some end a few years later in widowhood or divorce, and a relatively high proportion of Americans whose marriages end prematurely go on to remarry. The strongest and most consistent pattern of findings that does emerge from this comparison of first marriages and remarriages relates to the spouse abuse items, and here the pattern lends some support instead to the pessimistic scenario.
