Assortative mating for major psychiatric diagnoses in two population-based samples
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous studies on assortment for psychiatric disorders have reported discrepant findings. We aimed to test whether there is a significant association for psychiatric diagnoses, including alcoholism, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder and phobias between husbands and wives in two population-based samples. We further evaluated whether marital resemblance occurs primarily within or across psychiatric disorders and if assortment for psychopathology is primary or secondary to assortment for correlated variables. METHODS: A model for mate selection addressed whether the correlation between mates for psychiatric disorders arises from direct assortment (primary homogamy) or through correlation with other variables for which assortment occurs (secondary homogamy) or through cross-variable assortment. The model accounted for within-person co-morbidity as well as across-spouse data. RESULTS: Findings suggested that a moderate degree of assortment exists both within and across psychiatric diagnoses. Only a small amount of the observed marital resemblance for mental illness could be explained by assortment for correlated variables such as age, religious attendance and education. Similar results were obtained for the two samples separately and confirmed in their joint analysis, revealing that the co-morbidity and assortment findings, except for the marital correlation for age, religious attendance and education, replicate across samples. CONCLUSIONS: Significant but moderate primary assortment exists for psychiatric disorders. The bias in twin studies that have ignored the small amount of assortment is negligible.
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Assortative mating for most personality traits has been found to be low in magnitude.
“However, assortative mating for most personality traits has been found to be low in magnitude (Maes et al., 1998).”
From Genetic and environmental influences on impulsivity: A meta-analysis of twin, family and adoption studies (2011) · cites this paper as Maes et al., 1998
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- Authors
- MAES, H. H. M., NEALE, M. C., KENDLER, K. S., HEWITT, J. K., SILBERG, J. L., FOLEY, D. L., MEYER, J. M., RUTTER, M., SIMONOFF, E., PICKLES, A., & EAVES, L. J.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1998-11
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1389-1401
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- OpenAlex
- W2128837088
- Cited by
- 202
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 6.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1r01hl048148-01a1)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL-48148)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH45268, R01MH040828, MH 40828, R01MH045268)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- assortative mating, mental illness, alcoholism, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder, phobia, comorbidities, mate choice
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Alcoholism, Anxiety Disorders, Mental Disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Marriage, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Social Environment, Comorbidity, Spouses
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