The analysis of assortative mating: a LISREL model

The use of linear models to discriminate between primary and secondary assortative mating has allowed a significant advance in our understanding of the mate selection process. We describe how these methods may be implemented in the LISREL and COSAN packages and illustrate the method with data on cognitive ability, education, and personality reported by Phillips et al. (Behav. Genet. 18:347-356, 1988). Issues discussed include the interface between path diagrams and computer program specification, the near-independence of parameters for within-person correlations from parameters for marital correlations, and the fact that almost all of marital resemblance for IQ seems to be due to assortative mating for educational level.