I believe I read about a similar study in Psychology Today years ago. There was also the theory that children with the most genetic characteristics of one parent tend to be "favored" by that parent. But, I'm not so sure I would buy into that one. The chosing of a mate that resembles your sexual opposite role model makes a lot of sense however.

It's an interesting study and I believe I've seen others that are similar in their findings.

Kind of hits a nerve personally, in that I've just recently found out that my husband's ancestors and mine were from the same geographic area in Europe. Previously, I had always thought that I was of one type of background when in fact, with a little research, it turned out to be quite different !

It's starting to look like we're all pre-programmed genetically.

How Oedipal

Perhaps, but after a brief search on the net, I noted a very large number of studies into this topic, although most of them dealt with other species. Looks like there is a lot of evidence for "likes attract".

Here's a link to an abstract that discusses human interactions.

http://www.pnas.org/content/100/15/8805.abstract

I read a similar article in a social work text years ago that offered the "evolutionary" explanation for child abuse and neglect - to summarize, children with features most unlike either parent are more likely to suffer abuse than siblings in the same household whose traits are similar to their parents. This is consistent with findings that step-parents commit abuse more often than biological parents, although the definition of step-parent did not necessarily include adoptive parents. Also explains why children with disabilities are more vulnerable.

I wonder if any studies have attempted to answer how women raised without fathers chose their mates, or whether women with abusive fathers or step-fathers will chose opposite features in their mates.

I don't know of any specific research into that but this article does note the "pick similar" linkage is broken when the parent is a bad parent.