title: Incidence of left-handed writing in a college population with reference to family patterns of hand preference.
abstract: Hand preference data were obtained for 1816 university students, 4793 siblings and 3632 parents. Results support the following conclusions. (1) There is currently a 13.8% incidence of left handedness among young adults, representing a dramatic increase over past generations. (2) Left and right-handed respondents do not differ in terms of familial sinistrality. (3) Mother's left-handedness is associated with an increase in the incidence of sinistrality for sons and daughters, while father's left handedness is related only to sons.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D012737:Sex Factors