BioOne.org will be down briefly for maintenance on 17 December 2024 between 18:00-22:00 Pacific Time US. We apologize for any inconvenience.
How to translate text using browser tools
6 October 2021 Period of Marriage and Genetic Similarity in Height between Spouses in the United States over the 20th Century
Yi Li, Guang Guo
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Social norms regarding who marries whom have changed dramatically in the United States across the 20th century. These changes may influence the level of genetic similarity between spouses. This study investigates whether genetic similarity in height between husband and wife was influenced by a historical transition in spouse selection criteria. The great transition from the companionate marriage to the individualized marriage occurred in the 1960s. In the companionate marriage, husband and wife chose each other as companions, and the emphasis was on playing marital roles well: husbands being good breadwinners and wives being good homemakers. In the individualized marriage, the emphasis switched to individual feelings, and as a result, when choosing their partners people tended to pay less attention to height, suggesting a smaller genetic correlation for height between spouses. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we found that the genetic correlation for height declined substantially in the individualized marriage. We conducted a number of analyses to test for the confounding effects of cohort and age and to address population stratification, selection issues, and genetic relatedness between spouses. Evidence suggests that the effect of this transition is robust.

Copyright © 2021 Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201
Yi Li and Guang Guo "Period of Marriage and Genetic Similarity in Height between Spouses in the United States over the 20th Century," Human Biology 92(4), 215-228, (6 October 2021). https://doi.org/10.13110/humanbiology.92.4.02
Received: 6 December 2020; Accepted: 23 April 2021; Published: 6 October 2021
KEYWORDS
assortative mating
COMPANIONATE MARRIAGE
height
INDIVIDUALIzED MARRIAGE
POLYGENIC SCORE
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top