Assortative Mating by Unwed Biological Parents of Adopted Children

Analyses of data obtained from 662 unwed couples whose children were relinquished for adoption reveal that biological parents of adopted children mate assortatively. For physical characters, assortative mating of unwed parents was similar to that of wed parents; for behavior characters, however, there was less assortative mating by the unwed parents. Because assortative mating inflates estimates of genetic parameters in adoption studies, future studies should collect information on both biological parents.