SOCIAL PRESTIGE AND ASSORTIVE MATING - A COMPARISON OF STUDENTS FROM 1956 AND 1988

The current patterns and trends in assortive mating among college stud ents were examined in a replication and extension of Rogers & Havens' (1960) study of campus prestige and mate selection. Log-linear models of association were used to consider the effects of prestige, sex-rati o and propinquity on assortive mating. The tendency to date within gro up was found to have increased within the past 30 years. After adjusti ng for the over-time shifts in sex-ratio and propinquity, the pattern of assortive mating was found to be most consistent with interpretatio ns of the increasing salience of prestige for assortive mating among c ollege students.