Through the lens of evolutional psychology, mate preferences are posited into a three “G” framework (good genes, good resources, and good persons/parents/partners) that captures genetic quality, resource acquisition, and personality and caregiving qualities. Previous research acknowledged that adult children had different mate preferences from their parents, but had no consensus on how such differences existed in certain mate characteristics. This meta‐analysis aimed to examine the discrepancies of characteristics in mate preferences between parent and adult child, and how the moderators of culture, gender, measurement scoring type, and study quality could influence such discrepancies. We summarized 25 eligible articles (N = 21,008) on parent–child discrepancies in mate preferences, which covered 1473 effect sizes. A three‐level random‐effects meta‐analysis result showed that adult children's mate preferences had significant differences from parents’ preferences on in‐laws in good genes (Cohen's d = 0.42, 95% CI [0.237, 0.595]), indicating that adult children emphasized more on traits associated with genetic quality. No significant group differences were found on the related traits about good resources (Cohen's d = −0.11) and good persons/parents/partners (Cohen's d = 0.08), indicating that parents and children have similar preferences on provisioning‐related mate traits and personality. Our results also revealed that the parent–child discrepancies in mate preferences differ across culture, gender, measurement scoring type, and study quality. Our results offer insights into revisiting evolutionary perspectives of mate preference and highlighting the existing parent–child discrepancies in mate preferences that can be explained through social structural theories and family systems theory. We also discussed practical implications for research on mate preferences and highlighted new avenues for future studies.

中文翻译：

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亲子择偶差异：三层次荟萃分析


通过进化心理学的视角，择偶偏好被置于一个三“G”框架（良好的基因、良好的资源和良好的人/父母/伴侣）中，该框架涵盖了遗传质量、资源获取以及个性和照顾质量。先前的研究承认，成年子女与父母有不同的择偶偏好，但对于这种差异如何存在于某些择偶特征方面尚未达成共识。这项荟萃分析旨在研究父母和成年子女之间择偶偏好特征的差异，以及文化、性别、测量评分类型和学习质量的调节因素如何影响这种差异。我们总结了 25 篇关于亲子择偶差异的符合条件的文章 (N = 21,008)，涵盖了 1473 个效应量。三水平随机效应荟萃分析结果显示，成年子女的择偶偏好与父母对具有良好基因的姻亲的偏好存在显着差异（Cohen's d = 0.42，95% CI [0.237，0.595]），表明成年子女孩子们更注重与遗传质量相关的特征。良好资源（Cohen's d = -0.11）和好人/父母/伴侣（Cohen's d = 0.08）的相关特征没有发现显着的群体差异，这表明父母和孩子对与供给相关的配偶特征和性格有相似的偏好。 。我们的结果还显示，亲子在择偶偏好上的差异因文化、性别、测量评分类型和学习质量的不同而不同。 我们的研究结果为重新审视择偶偏好的进化观点提供了见解，并强调了现有的亲子择偶偏好差异，这些差异可以通过社会结构理论和家庭系统理论来解释。我们还讨论了择偶偏好研究的实际意义，并强调了未来研究的新途径。