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Canonical correlation analysis of assortative mating in two groups of Brazilians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Anete Trachtenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
A. E. Stark
Affiliation:
School of Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
F. M. Salzano
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
F. J. Da Rocha
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Summary

In two groups of people, 98 couples in which the husband was a military serviceman and 63 couples of Jewish ancestry living in Porto Alegre, Brazil, age at marriage, age at time of survey, fifteen anthropometric variables, and hair and eye colour were studied. Proper adjustments of the data were made taking into consideration duration of cohabitation, aging and secular effects, and skewness in the distributions. There are some differences between the two groups in age at marriage, but in both there is a tendency for those currently older to have married later in life. The correlation coefficients between spouses are with very few exceptions positive, with no indication of preferences for opposites. Size and factors related to body build are the most readily detectable agents in the assortative mating occurring in this population, but in the military group relative lengths of leg and trunk, rather than stature itself, are important in conditioning mate choice.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1985, Cambridge University Press

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