In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates

In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates

Across different times and cultures, parents play an important role in influencing their children’s mating decisions. When they do so, they aim to forge useful alliances with other parents which raises the question of what parents look for in the latter. The current research aims to address this que...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Menelaos Apostolou, Yan Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-08-01
Series:Evolutionary Psychology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704917723913
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spelling doaj-b7e49553017940c1a55b30b2ee39b15f2020-11-25T03:28:29ZengSAGE PublishingEvolutionary Psychology1474-70492017-08-011510.1177/1474704917723913In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s MatesMenelaos Apostolou0Yan Wang1 University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus Fudan University, Shanghai, ChinaAcross different times and cultures, parents play an important role in influencing their children’s mating decisions. When they do so, they aim to forge useful alliances with other parents which raises the question of what parents look for in the latter. The current research aims to address this question. In particular, we employed an online sample of 925 Chinese parents who were asked to rate the desirability of 88 traits in the parents of prospective mates for their children. Principal components analysis classified these traits in eight factors for the mothers and 10 factors of interest for the fathers of their children’s mates. We also found that parents had a well-defined hierarchy of preferences, fathers, and mothers were in agreement in what they looked for in a prospective in-law, but their preferences were contingent to the sex of the in-law.https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704917723913
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Menelaos Apostolou
Yan Wang
spellingShingle Menelaos Apostolou
Yan Wang
In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates
Evolutionary Psychology
author_facet Menelaos Apostolou
Yan Wang
author_sort Menelaos Apostolou
title In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates
title_short In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates
title_full In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates
title_fullStr In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates
title_full_unstemmed In-Law Preferences in China: What Parents Look for in the Parents of Their Children’s Mates
title_sort in-law preferences in china: what parents look for in the parents of their children’s mates
publisher SAGE Publishing
series Evolutionary Psychology
issn 1474-7049
publishDate 2017-08-01
description Across different times and cultures, parents play an important role in influencing their children’s mating decisions. When they do so, they aim to forge useful alliances with other parents which raises the question of what parents look for in the latter. The current research aims to address this question. In particular, we employed an online sample of 925 Chinese parents who were asked to rate the desirability of 88 traits in the parents of prospective mates for their children. Principal components analysis classified these traits in eight factors for the mothers and 10 factors of interest for the fathers of their children’s mates. We also found that parents had a well-defined hierarchy of preferences, fathers, and mothers were in agreement in what they looked for in a prospective in-law, but their preferences were contingent to the sex of the in-law.
url https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704917723913
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