ArticlePloS one2016
Patterns of Family Formation in Response to Sex Ratio Variation.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adult Sex Ratio as a Demographic Feedback Linking Mating Systems, Parental Care, and Evolution.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the monthly proportion of male births and spontaneous fetal death rates in Japan: a descriptive epidemiological study using national vital statistics.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Skewed sex ratios and violence against women in Pakistan.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Explaining the prevalence of marital conflict: conceptual bifurcation and sociological explanations.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Review
- Group size and mating system predict sex differences in vocal fundamental frequency in anthropoid primates.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Men. Male-biased sex ratios and masculinity norms: evidence from Australia's colonial past.Journal of economic growth (Boston, Mass.) · 2023Article
- An evolutionary case for polygyny to counter demographic collapse.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Adult sex ratios: causes of variation and implications for animal and human societies.Communications biology · 2022Review
- Sex ratios and union formation in the historical population of the St. Lawrence Valley.PloS one · 2022Article
- Do Local Sex Ratios Approximate Subjective Partner Markets? : Evidence from the German Family Panel.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2021Article
- The Effects of the Mating Market, Sex, Age, and Income on Sociopolitical Orientation : Insights from Evolutionary Theory and Sexual Economics Theory.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Article
- Biological constraints and socioecological influences on women's pursuit of risk and the sexual division of labour.Evolutionary human sciences · 2020Article
- Higher divorce risk when mates are plentiful? Evidence from Denmark.Biology letters · 2018Article
- Female dispersion and sex ratios interact in the evolution of mating behavior: a computational model.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Population changes in residential clusters in Japan.PloS one · 2018Article
- Social determinants of adult sex ratios and racial/ethnic disparities in transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in the USA.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Persistent effect of sex ratios on relationship quality and life satisfaction.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Sex roles and adult sex ratios: insights from mammalian biology and consequences for primate behaviour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Adult sex ratios and reproductive strategies: a critical re-examination of sex differences in human and animal societies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The impact that unbalanced sex ratios have on health and societal outcomes is of mounting contemporary concern. However, it is increasingly unclear whether it is male- or female-biased sex ratios that are associated with family and social instability. From a socio-demographic perspective, male-biased sex ratios leave many men unable to find a mate, elevating competition among males, disrupting family formation and negatively affecting social stability. In contrast, from a mating-market perspective, males are expected to be less willing to marry and commit to a family when the sex ratio is female-biased and males are rare. Here we use U.S. data to evaluate predictions from these competing frameworks by testing the relationship between the adult sex ratio and measures of family formation. We find that when women are rare men are more likely to marry, be part of a family and be sexually committed to a single partner. Our results do not support claims that male-biased sex ratios lead to negative family outcomes due to a surplus of unmarried men. Rather, our results highlight the need to pay increased attention to female-biased sex ratios.
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