Abstract
Persons of Japanese ancestry from Hawaii who marry within their own racial/ethnic group show a significant degree of homogamous assortative mating for “pidgin” and for standard English usage, variables reflective of important cultural differences in Hawaii. Persons of Japanese ancestry who married persons of other racial/ethnic groups had less exposure to pidgin in their parental homes and were less likely to speak this dialect of English. Sibling-spouse analyses suggested that assortment for such language use is entirely due to social homogamy rather than active phenotypic assortment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahern, F. M., Cole, R. E., Johson, R. C., and Wong, B. (1981). Personality attributes of persons marrying within vs. across racial/ethnic groups.Behav. Genet. 11:181–194.
Ahern, F. M., Johnson, R. C., Wilson, J. R., McClearn, G. E., and Vandenberg, S. G. (1982). Familial resemblances in personality.Behav. Genet. 12:261–280.
Ahern, F. M., Johnson, R. C., and Cole, R. E. (1983). Generational differences in spouse similarity in educational attainment.Behav. Genet. 13:95–98.
Cohen, S. M. (1977). Socioeconomic determinants of intraethnic marriage and friendship.Soc. Forces 55:997–1010.
Daws, G. (1968).Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
DeFries, J. C., Johnson, R. C., Kuse, A. R., McClearn, G. E., Polovina, J., Vandenberg, S. G., and Wilson, J. R. (1979). Familial resemblances for specific cognitive abilities.Behav. Genet. 9:23–43.
Heath, A. C., Eaves, L. J. (1985). Resolving the effects of phenotype and social background on mate selection.Behav. Genet. 15:15–30.
Heath, A. C., Eaves, L. J., Nance, W. E., and Corey, L. A. (1987). Social inequality and assortative mating: Cause or consequence?Behav. Genet. 17:9–17.
Johnson, R. C. (1984). Group size and group income as influences on marriage patterns in Hawaii.Soc. Biol. 31:101–107.
Johnson, R. C., and Nagoshi, C. T. (1985). Parental ability, education, and occupation as influences on offspring cognition in Hawaii and Korea.Pers. Indiv. Diff. 6:413–423.
Johnson, R. C., DeFries, J. C., Wilson, J. R., McClearn, G. E., Vandenberg, S. G., Ashton, G. C., Mi, M. P., and Rashad, M. N. (1976). Assortative mating for specific cognitive abilities in two ethnic groups.Hum. Biol. 48:343–352.
Johnson, R. C., Ahern, F. M., and Cole, R. E. (1980). Secular change in degree of assortative mating for ability?Behav. Genet. 10:1–8.
Johnson, R. C., Nagoshi, C. T., Ahern, F. M., Wilson, J. R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., and Vandenberg, S. G. (1983). Family background, cognitive ability, and personality as predictors of educational and occupational attainment.Soc. Biol. 30:86–100.
Johnson, R. C., Nagoshi, C. T., and Ahern, F. M. (1987). A reply to Heath et al. on assortative mating for educational level.Behav. Genet. 17:1–7.
Labov, T., and Jacobs, J. A. (1986). Intermarriage in Hawaii, 1950–1983.J. Marriage Fam. 48:79–88.
Lind, A. H. (1980).Hawaii's People (4th ed.), University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
Nagoshi, C. T., Johnson, R. C., and Ahern, F. M. (1987). Phenotypic assortative mating vs. social homogamy among Japanese and Chinese parents in the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition.Behav. Genet. 17:477–485.
Siegel, S. (1956).Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Stevens, G., and Schoen, R. (1988). Linguistic intermarriage in the United States.J. Marriage Fam. 50:267–279.
Wilson, J. R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., Vandenberg, S. G., Johnson, R. C., Mi, M. P., and Rashad, M. N. (1975). Use of family data as a control to assess sex and age differences in two ethnic groups.Int. J. Aging Hum. Dev. 6:261–276.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nagoshi, C.T., Johnson, R.C. & Danko, G.P. Assortative mating for cultural identification as indicated by language use. Behav Genet 20, 23–31 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01070737
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01070737