The education of one spouse and the fatness of the other spouse

Abstract

As shown in 702 wives with 9-12 years of education and 612 husbands similarly educated, the summed skinfolds of one spouse are influenced by the educational level of the other spouse, considerably so for the husbands. Women with 9-12 years of education married to men of lower educational attainment are higher in the sum of four skinfolds while women of similar years of schooling married to men of college education and beyond are leaner (P=0.001). Possible explanations for the effect of the education of one spouse on the fatness level of the other spouse include selective mating in the direction set by the husband's socioeconomic milieu and fatness "drift" on the part of the wives, again in the direction of the husband's socioeconomic status (SES). While these findings do not lend themselves to a simple biological explanation, they do reiterate the effects of socioeconomic variables on fatness level within populations and even within families.

Impact of the age at menarche on adult body composition in healthy pre- and postmenopausal women

“…Various factors such as ethnicity (Beall and Goldstein, 1992;Kumanyika, 1994;Conway, 1995) or socioeconomic parameters (Van Itallie, 1985;Garn, 1986;Garn et al, 1989) influence body composition in premenopausal as well as postmenopausal women. Poor and impoverished women tend to be fatter and more often obese, while women of high socioeconomic status tend to be leaner.…”

Body weight and dieting in adolescence: Impact of socioeconomic status

“…The instrument addressed height and weight, desired weight, selected dieting behaviors, and the frequency of vigorous exercise ( > 1 hr /day) for weight control. SES was assessed using father's education as a predictor of family income (Garn et al, 1989). Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous.…”

The Effect of Assortative Mating upon Genetic Association Studies: Spurious Associations and Population Substructure in the Absence of Admixture

“…It should be noted that at least for some traits, such as body mass index (BMI, kg/m 2 ), we have evidence that these correlations are truly a function of assortative mating and not the effects of either (a) increased spousal similarity with age or cohabitation, or (b) decreased survival of mating unions among less similar individuals (Allison et al, 1996). Not only do people assortatively mate, but common experience and empirical data indicate that, for at least some characteristics, people assortatively mate according to an ''economic model'' (Garn et al, 1989). In an economic model of assortative mating, there are multiple phenotypes that influence the selection of a mate and can be ''traded'' against each other to determine overall desirability (e.g., a beautiful person may attract a wealthy person and vice verse).…”