Midparent

{{Context|date=March 2023}}

In human genetics the midparent value of a trait is defined as the average of the trait value of the father and a scaled version of that of the mother. This value can be used in a study to analyze the data set without heeding sex effects. Studying quantitative traits in heritability studies may be complicated by sex differences observed for the trait.

Well-known examples include studies of humans' height, whose midparent value h_mp is given by:{{cite book|last1=Vogel |first1=Friedrich |last2=Motulsky |first2=Arno G. |chapter=Formal Genetics of Humans: Multifactorial Inheritance and Common Diseases |title=Human Genetics. Problems and Approaches|date=1997 |pages=207 |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-03356-2_7|isbn=978-3-662-03356-2}}

:$h\_\{mp\}=\backslash frac\{h\_f+(1.08\backslash times\; h\_m)\}\{2\}$

where h_f is the father's height, and h_m the mother's.

The coefficient 1.08 serves as a scaling factor. After the 1.08 scaling, the mean of the mother's height is the same as that of the father's, and the variance is closer to the father's; in this way, sex difference can be ignored.