ASSORTATIVE MATING FOR RELATIVE WEIGHT - GENETIC-IMPLICATIONS

Most work on the genetics of relative weight has not considered the ro le of assortative mating, i.e., mate selection based on similarity bet ween mates. We investigated the extent to which engaged men and women in an archival longitudinal database were similar to each other in rel ative body weight prior to marriage and cohabitation. After controllin g for age, a small but statistically significant mate correlation was found for relative weight (r = .13, p = .023), indicating some assorta tive mating. Furthermore, we examined whether mate similarity in relat ive weight prior to marriage predicts survival of the marriage. No sig nificant effects were found. In sum, these results are consistent with those of other studies in suggesting that there is a small but signif icant intermate correlation for relative weight. However, they are uni que in showing that these results cannot be explained on the basis of (a) cohabitation, (b) age similarity, or (c) selective survival of mar riages between couples more similar in relative weight. The implicatio ns of these findings for heritability studies, linkage studies, and th e estimation of shared environmental effects are discussed.