Educational homogamy lowers the odds of reproductive failure

Assortative mating based on education is a common phenomenon. We investigated whether it affected parameters of reproductive performance such as childlessness, offspring number and age at first marriage. On the basis of the US census from 1980 (n = 670,631 married US couples), we find that the propo...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 6; no. 7; p. e22330
Main Authors Huber, Susanne, Fieder, Martin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 26.07.2011
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adult
Age differences
Age Factors
Assortative mating
Biology
Child
Couples
Demography
Education
Educational attainment
Educational Status
Ethnicity
Female
Humans
Infertility - physiopathology
Linear Models
Logistic Models
Marital stability
Marriage
Mating
Offspring
Population
Reproduction
Reproduction - physiology
Reproductive failure
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Studies
Success
Women
United States > US
California
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Summary:Assortative mating based on education is a common phenomenon. We investigated whether it affected parameters of reproductive performance such as childlessness, offspring number and age at first marriage. On the basis of the US census from 1980 (n = 670,631 married US couples), we find that the proportion of childless individuals is usually minimal in women married to a husband of the same educational level. This holds particularly true in the highest and the lowest educated women. Educational homogamy is also associated with a lower average age at first marriage. No obvious effect of educational homogamy on a woman's average offspring number is found, where mean offspring number generally increases both with decreasing woman's and decreasing husband's educational attainment. We conclude that educational homogamy reduces the likelihood of reproductive failure.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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Conceived and designed the experiments: SH MF. Analyzed the data: SH MF. Wrote the paper: SH MF.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0022330