A study of neighborhood familiarity effect on mate selection process

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare neighborhood communications of Shiraz citizens as a metropolis and four other cities of Fars province in relation to the youth young mate selection process. This hypothesis is examined that the development of the metropolis causes girls to be more anonymous and reduces their chances of marriage. Sample consists of 1100 households selected by stratified random sampling method (700 households in Shiraz and 100 households in each county of the province). Data were collected by structured interviews and analyzed by descriptive statistical methods (t-test, analysis of variance and Pearson correlation). The results showed that there is a significant difference between level of neighboring relationships in Shiraz metropolis and other cities of the province in general. The rate of marriage between neighbors in Shiraz compared to the four other cities was the lowest. Tendency to mate selection among close relatives has been increased in the two sequential generations. Moreover, comparing recent data about never-married women at different ages is also consistent with the hypothesis. A negative correlation coefficient was found between the level of neighboring relationships and percentage of unmarried women at any age levels. These findings are interpreted of verifying the research hypothesis, i.e. girls are more anonyous in metropolitan areas.