Nordic family patterns and the north-west European household system

Moring, Beatrice

doi:10.1017/s0268416003004508

Cited by 44 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…Mortality rates were high, especially among children: more than 30 per cent did not reach maturity (15 years of age, the youngest known reproducer in our population) [28]. Surviving offspring usually moved away from home to work from around age 15 years onwards, but commonly returned home [34]. Similar to the general European pattern at the time, the average age at first marriage was 25 and 27 years for women and men, respectively (see [35]), and 76 per cent of individuals in the sample married if they survived to age 15 years.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are elder siblings helpers or competitors? Antagonistic fitness effects of sibling interactions in humans

2013

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Determining the fitness consequences of sibling interactions is pivotal for understanding the evolution of family living, but studies investigating them across lifetime are lacking. We used a large demographic dataset on preindustrial humans from Finland to study the effect of elder siblings on key life-history traits. The presence of elder siblings improved the chances of younger siblings surviving to sexual maturity, suggesting that despite a competition for parental resources, they may help rearing their younger siblings. After reaching sexual maturity however, same-sex elder siblings' presence was associated with reduced reproductive success in the focal individual, indicating the existence of competition among same-sex siblings. Overall, lifetime fitness was reduced by same-sex elder siblings' presence and increased by opposite-sex elder siblings' presence. Our study shows opposite effects of sibling interactions depending on the life-history stage, and highlights the need for using long-term fitness measures to understand the selection pressures acting on sibling interactions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All siblings usually lived close by [34]. The mating system was patrilocal and monogamous; divorce was forbidden [34]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are elder siblings helpers or competitors? Antagonistic fitness effects of sibling interactions in humans

2013

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“…In hunter gather societies, for example, brothers and sisters commonly co-reside into adulthood (Hill et al, 2011). During the 18th and 19th century in Iceland, children often shared the same household with their parents after they married (Wall, Robin & Laslett, 1983; Moring, 2003). Therefore, the environments that are shared by siblings throughout development and often past sexual maturity may contribute to similar fertility rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of parental investment on lifetime reproductive success in Iceland

Lynch

2017

PeerJ

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BackgroundDemonstrating the impact that parents have on the fitness of their children is a crucial step towards understanding how parental investment has affected human evolution. Parents not only transfer genes to their children, they also influence their environments. By analyzing reproductive patterns within and between different categories of close relatives, this study provides insight into the genetic and environmental effects that parents have on the fitness of their offspring.MethodsWe use data spanning over two centuries from an exceptionally accurate Icelandic genealogy, Íslendingabók, to analyze the relationship between the fertility rates of close relatives. Also, using genetic data, we determine narrow sense heritability estimates (h2) to further explore the genetic impact on lifetime reproductive success. Finally, we construct four simulations to model the expected contribution of genes and resources on reproductive success.ResultsThe relationship between the reproduction of all full sibling pairs was significant and positive across all birth decades (r = 0.19) while the reproductive relationship between parents and offspring was often negative across many decades and undetectable overall (r = 0.00) (Fig. 1 and Table 1). Meanwhile, genetic data among 8,456 pairs of full siblings revealed a narrow sense heritability estimate (h2) of 0.00 for lifetime reproductive success. A resources model (following the rule that resources are transmitted from parents to children, distributed equally among siblings, and are the only factor affecting reproductive success) revealed a similar trend: a negative relationship between parent and offspring reproduction (r = − 0.35) but a positive relationship among full siblings (r = 0.28). The relationship between parent and offspring lifetime reproductive success (LRS) and full sibling LRS was strongly and positively correlated across time (r = 0.799, p < 0.001). Similarly, the LRS among full siblings was positively correlated with both the LRS among half siblings (r = 0.532, p = 0.011) and the relationship between the LRS of aunts and uncles with their nieces and nephews (r = 0.438, p = 0.042).DiscussionWe show that an individual’s lifetime reproductive success is best predicted by the reproduction of their full and half siblings, but not their parents, grandparents or aunts and uncles. Because all siblings share at least one parent, we believe parental investment has had an important impact on fitness. Overall, these results indicate that direct parental investment, but not genes, is likely to have had an important and persistent impact on lifetime reproductive success across more than two centuries of Icelandic history.

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“…The stereotypical image of old people historically mostly living with off-spring in complex households of three generations and/or similar constellations has some support in demographic studies, but variations between local areas were often great (Moring 2003). Some Northern areas in Sweden shifted from great complexity towards simpler, nuclear family types in the later 1800s (Egerbladh 1989).…”

Section: Household Patterns Of Old Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also in Norway household structures varied a good deal, and in Eastern and Northern Finland stem families were common (many of these vanished with the evacuation of Karelians away from the advancing Soviet army in 1940). Complex families may historically have been somewhat less common in Denmark (Moring 2003).…”

Section: Household Patterns Of Old Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

Demography of Aging in the Nordic Countries

Sundström

2009

International Handbook of Population Aging

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Bibliographic note:The author has a background in sociology and social work and has mainly done work on family care and public services for older people, in the Nordic countries and internationally. These studies have dealt with both micro aspects and macro features of care, such as local variations in needs and service coverage. A recent study for the Swedish government (2006) on informal care giving is a response to growing interest in this topic in the Nordic countries, in another (2008) he has scrutinized policies and practices of family care for elders in Europe. ABSTRACTAgeing of the population took place remarkably early in the Nordic countries, and most so in Denmark and Sweden. A special feature of Nordic older people are decling but still high rates of singlehood and childlessness. The streamlined patterns of older people either living alone, with spouse only or in institutional care, with few other varieties, began earlier in the Nordic countries. Unmarried cohabitation and livingapart-together relationships (LATs) is common among older persons here, as are also long-lived marriages and strivings of older people to establish independent lives. Institutional and other public care has been relatively well organized for centuries in this region, but was up till recently a prerogative for poor people with no one able or willing to care for them. A minority eventually used these services half a century ago. Now the large majority will have used them before they die, but broader take-up comes at a price: needs assessments are increasingly stricter and service use much briefer than before. Today's public services are remarkably egalitarian, adjusting for sizable class-differences and local variations in health and living alone. Very few older people live with off-spring today (especially in Denmark and Sweden) but apart from that, patterns of kinship and geographical closeness of kin differ little from those of continental and southern Europe. Interestingly, many older persons are givers rather than receivers in transactions with their social environment, including care giving. Peculiar for the Nordic countries is not only relative acceptance of state interventions, but also of "overlap" between family support and public services for older people in need of assistance. It is rare to find needy persons without support; as cutbacks in public services (the case of Sweden) have been off-set by increasing family support.

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Nordic family patterns and the north-west European household system

Cited by 44 publications

References 7 publications

Are elder siblings helpers or competitors? Antagonistic fitness effects of sibling interactions in humans

Are elder siblings helpers or competitors? Antagonistic fitness effects of sibling interactions in humans

The impact of parental investment on lifetime reproductive success in Iceland

Demography of Aging in the Nordic Countries

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