Human Assortative Mating for Height: Non-Linearity and Heteroscedasticity

Document Type

Article

Authors

I C. McManus, University of London and St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, U.K.
C G.N Mascie-Taylor, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.

Abstract

Positive assortative mating for stature is widely reported to occur in most Western societies. In this paper we analysed data collected by the National Child Development Study as part of their longitudinal survey of British children and their fami­lies. The reported heights of 12,994 husband and wife pairs produced a simple correlation of +0.258. However, further analyses indicated that the relationship between husband’s height and wife’s height is non-linear for the complete range of statures, indeed in the case of women at the upper extreme ( > 1.80 meters) there is evidence of negative assortative mating.

Recommended Citation

McManus, I C. and Mascie-Taylor, C G.N (1984) "Human Assortative Mating for Height: Non-Linearity and Heteroscedasticity," Human Biology: Vol. 56: Iss. 4, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol56/iss4/4