Research indicates that a child of divorced parents will more often choose a partner to marry that also has divorced parents. This may not be a conscious decision, but it just demonstrates how the social forces of homogamy tends to work. As you have read, cohabitation is becoming more common so let’s apply homogamy to cohabiters who are parents. Do you think unmarried cohabiting couples who are parents are more, the same, or less likely to come from intact families? Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study suggests that both the mother and father are less likely to be from intact childhood family structures. In addition, parents who live together without legally marrying are more likely to dissolve their union compared to married parents who both come from intact childhood family structures. In some ways, this reinforces the differential association theory that was discussed in Chapter 7 that is often referred to as “birds of a feather flock together.” Family researchers Robin Hognas and Jason Thomas actually describe this social phenomenon of homogamy as “birds of a feather have babies together.” Knowing this type of information will make doing a history and physical more than just checking boxes within a medical electronic record. An understanding of homogamy and the impact on mate selection and marital satisfaction will provide added insight about your patients.