Annual Review of Sociology· 2013Q1· Review
Trends and Variation in Assortative Mating: Causes and Consequences
- 676citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
Assortative mating, the tendency for people to marry partners with similar characteristics, has seen explanations shift from modernization theory to those emphasizing economic and gender inequality, with recent empirical tests exploring its consequences for inequality and population composition.
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Key points
- Assortative mating influences family characteristics and population reproduction by organizing people into families and determining parental traits.
- Explanations for assortative mating variation are shifting from modernization theory towards economic and gender inequality perspectives.
- The impact of changing search structures on mate selection is an underexplored area.
- Empirical evidence on how assortative mating affects inequality (within and between generations), population change, and relationship quality is increasingly available.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Assortative mating fundamentally shapes the characteristics of families and the reproduction of populations. It organizes people into families and determines the characteristics of parents. In this article, I review the literature on the causes and consequences of trends and variation in assortative mating. Explanations for why assortative mating varies have been dominated by modernization theory, but perspectives emphasizing economic inequality and gender inequality have gained momentum in recent years. Underexplored is how changes in the structure of search have affected mate selection. The idea that assortative mating affects inequality and population composition is one of the primary motivations for its study but, until recently, has rarely been tested empirically. I review the literature on the consequences of assortative mating for (a) inequality within generations, (b) inequality between generations, (c) long-run population change, and (d) relationship quality and dissolution. I conclude with suggestions for future research.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Sociology, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: Demography
DemographySocial Sciences