NOTES AND COMMENTS ON THE MEANING OF RESIDENTIAL PROPINQUITY AS A FACTOR IN MATE SELECTION.

Numerous studies of residential propinquity as a factor in mate selection have appeared during the past twenty years. These studies seem to have established the general conclusion that the urban American tends to marry someone who lives within a fairly limited distance of his or her home. When these studies are examined more closely, however, numerous variations are found which raise questions about the meaning of the findings beyond this general conclusion. It is a major purpose of this paper to examine the implications of some of these variations in the earlier studies of propinquity. The discussion will be divided into four parts: (1) a consideration of the findings of a recent study of propinquity in Nashville, Tennessee; (2) some observations about the methods of data gathering and analysis used in propinquity studies; (3) consideration of the value of the collected findings of studies of propinquity; and (4) suggestions for further research. The study of Nashville followed the general design used in earlier propinquity studies. The sample studied consisted of all of those Negro couples and one-half of those white couples applying for marriage licenses in Davidson County, Tennessee, during 1950 who met the following criterion: at least one member of the couple gave a "non-institutional" address within the area covered by the census tracts of metropolitan Nashville.