The effect of school performance upon marriage and long-term reproductive success in 10,000 Swedish males and females born 1915–1929

Abstract

Goodman, A; Koupil, I (2010) The effect of school performance upon marriage and long-term reproductive success in 10,000 Swedish males and females born 1915-1929. Evolution and human behavior , 31 (6 AbstractHumans are an exceptionally intelligent species, and the selective pressures which may have shaped these advanced cognitive powers are therefore of interest. This study investigates the fitness consequences of pre-reproductive school performance in a Swedish population-based cohort of 5244 males and 4863 females born [1915][1916][1917][1918][1919][1920][1921][1922][1923][1924][1925][1926][1927][1928][1929]. School performance was measured at around age 10 using three variables: mean schoolmarks; being promoted/held back in school; and recognised learning difficulties. Our primary outcomes were probability of ever marrying, total number of children and total number of grandchildren. In males (but not females), poorer school performance predicted fewer children and grandchildren. This was primarily mediated via probability of marriage; mortality and fertility within marriage were not important mediating pathways. The effect of school performance upon marriage in males was independent of early-life social and biological characteristics, including birthweight for gestational age, preterm birth, family composition and family socio-economic position. The effect of school performance upon the probability of marriage in males was, however, largely mediated by adult socioeconomic position. This suggests that in general sexual selection for cognitive abilities per se did not play a major role in either males or females in this cohort. Adult socio-economic position did not, however, fully explain the marriage disadvantage in males or (at marginal significance) females with particularly poor school performance. We conclude that school performance can affect long-term reproductive success. In this population, however, the effect is confined to males and is largely mediated by the increased probability of marriage which comes with their greater socio-economic success.

Physical attractiveness influences reproductive success of modern men

“…Education level was asked because higher education would be associated with reproductive success (Kaplan and Lancaster 2000;Weeden et al 2006;Goodman and Koupil 2010) and birth order/number of siblings is associated with mating strategies and/or fertility (Draper and Hames 2000;Michalski and Shackelford 2002;Milne and Judge 2009). Descriptive statistics of measured variables are presented in Table 1.…”

Parental Investments and Educational Outcomes: Trivers–Willard in the U.S.

“…For example, in the U.S. and the UK, for men personal income is positively associated with number of offspring for men, whereas it is negatively associated with number of offspring for women (Hopcroft, 2006(Hopcroft, , 2015Weeden et al, 2006;Nettle and Pollet, 2008;Huber et al, 2010). In Sweden, both income and education are positively associated with number of offspring for men only and negatively associated with number of offspring for women (Fieder and Huber, 2007;Goodman and Koupil, 2010). In Norway, Lappegård and Rønsen (2013) find that both education and income increase the probability of additional children for men only.…”

Age-specific fertility by educational level in the Finnish male cohort born 1940‒1950

“…Consequently, educational differences in fertility rates probably vary across different stages of the male life course. Evidence from the Nordic countries indicates that highly educated men, at least in younger birth cohorts, have lower levels of childlessness and higher average completed fertility than their counterparts with less education (Nikander 1995;Fieder and Huber 2007;Kravdal and Rindfuss 2008;Goodman and Koupil 2010;Rønsen and Skrede 2010;Lappegård, Rønsen, and Skrede 2011). Outside the Nordic countries the association between education and fertility varies from positive through flat to negative (Kiernan 1989;Toulemon 2000;Weeden et al 2006;Keizer, Dykstra, and Jansen 2008;Nettle and Pollet 2008;Toulemon, Pailhé, and Rossier 2008;Parr 2009;Kneale and Joshi 2008;Barthold, Myrskylä, and Jones 2012;Thomson, Winkler-Dworak, and Kennedy 2013).…”

“…We stratify the analysis by marital history because fertility is higher among married men (Goodman and Koupil 2010) and education is a significant determinant of marital status (Lyngstad and Jalovaara 2010;Jalovaara 2012). In addition, we make comparisons with Finnish women comprising the respective birth cohort in order to contextualize our findings.…”