Doctoral Dissertation Research: Constraint in Marriage Systems and Fitness Outcomes

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Whom one selects as a partner has enormous consequences on access to resources, social support, health, and well-being. Theories abound explaining which traits are suspected to be the most desirable, yet limited research explores the consequences of constrained decision-making on whom one selects as a reproductive partner. This is despite the fact that partner choice is constrained in numerous contexts. This study seeks to understand the effects of constrained decision-making on partner choice and associated effects on health and well-being. The work will train a graduate student in scientific cultural anthropology and will provide insights relevant to debates about the causes and consequences of variation in human reproductive systems. A review of marriage systems indicates that the marrying individuals generally prefer different partners than those selected from within endogamous social networks. The effects of this discordance are not well studied, however. This study will be conducted in a community where roughly half of marriages involve constrained partner choice and half involve marriages in which partners are freely chosen. The research leverages this comparison to ask several important questions about the consequences of constrained reproduction. In particular, the researchers investigate whether more or healthier children result from in constrained versus unconstrained marriage. To understand these relationships, this study will measure marriage satisfaction, birth rates, child survival and growth rates, and child health, as well as material parental contributions in both types of marriages, with the ultimate goal of understanding what benefits unconstrained partner choice might provide. These findings are increasingly relevant to public health issues, especially as scientists struggle to understand the role of other processes that compromise partner-choice mechanisms, including other forms of medically assisted reproduction. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.