Parenting and community background and variation in women's life-history development.

Abstract

For a community sample of 623 low-income women (mean age ϭ 26.9 years), the authors use life-history theory to explore relations between parenting and community background and timing of reproductive development and sexual behaviors. Among other patterns, reported levels of paternal involvement during childhood were related to delayed menarche and ages at 1st sexual intercourse and 1st childbirth. The relation between parental investment and women's reproductive delay varied with estimates of wealth in the community in which the participants grew up. The results suggest that parents increased their investment as the level of community wealth increased, and in ways that likely facilitated women's ability to compete for social status in adulthood. Implications for future research on the relation between parenting and child outcomes are discussed.Keywords: child development, parenting style, sexual behaviors, life history, family relations Developmental research has demonstrated a correlation between parenting quality and children's long-term physical (Flinn, 1999), emotional (Amato, 1998, and social (Jaffee, Moffitt, Caspi, & Taylor, 2003) well-being. Current attention now focuses on the relative strength of parenting on child outcomes (e.g., maladjustment) and the influences of heritable factors, extra-parental experiences (e.g., peers), and context (e.g., neighborhoods) on these outcomes. One potentially innovative approach to better understand these relations is life-history theory. Life-history research focuses on the biological trade-offs (e.g., allocation of calories to staying alive vs. growing larger) associated with the competing demands of surviving, growing, and behaviorally and socially preparing for reproduction in adulthood (Geary, 2002;Roff, 1992;Stearns, 1992;Stearns & Koella, 1986). One area of research that has successfully used life-history theory is the study of the relation between family environment and pubertal timing; having a more supportive family, especially a warm relationship with father, is related to later onset of menarche in girls (Belsky, Steinberg, & Draper, 1991;Ellis, 2004;Vigil, Geary, & Byrd-Craven, 2005).The broader question concerns potential moderators of the relation between parental investment and other aspects of reproductive development (e.g., age of first childbirth) and of course other child outcomes (e.g., educational achievement), as well as the question of whether all children benefit equally from high levels of parental investment. K. M. Harris and Marmer (1996) found the often reported positive correlation between increased father-child involvement and children's long-term economic and educational success is stronger in wealthier families, and concluded that "the positive effect of father's behavioral involvement . . . . are less effective for children who experience long term poverty" (p. 632; see also Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, McCarton, & McCormick, 1998;Roosa, 2000). At first glance, these findings appear counterintuitive; we might expect that children living in ...

Reproductive traits following a parent–child separation trauma during childhood: A natural experiment during World War II

“…Also in contrast to some previous findings (Allsworth et al, 2004;Hardy and Kuh, 2005), we did not find any relations between separation trauma and timing of menopause, or with the period of fertile years. With reference to menarcheal timing, our results are in line with the mainstream of studies associating childhood adversities, lack of paternal investment or father's absence, with earlier onset of menarche (Ellis, 2004;Vigil and Geary, 2006). These findings support new models elaborated within life history theory, referred to as the psychosocial acceleration theory (Ellis, 2004), suggesting that low parental investment and compromised attachment security leads to earlier puberty (Belsky et al, 1991;Chisholm et al, 2005).…”

Effects of low survivability cues and participant sex on physiological and behavioral responses to sexual stimuli

“…The theory explains variation in life history strategies in terms of adaptive trade-offs in distribution of resources to competing life functions: maintenance, growth, and reproduction (e.g., Roff, 2002;Stearns, 1992). Although these strategies are a species-typical characteristic, humans can also adjust their life history strategies to match changes in the environment (e.g., Belsky et al, 1991;Chisholm, 1999;Ellis, 2004;Vigil & Geary, 2006). Our findings support this claim by showing that even subtle situational variations in survivability cues can lead people to exhibit behavior in line with short-term strategies.…”

Âge de la puberté et sexualité des jeunes femmes occidentales

“…Les é tudes dé montrent toutes clairement le lien entre âge de la puberté et premier rapport sexuel : plus la puberté survient tô t, plus l'adolescente a la probabilité d'avoir une sexualité pré coce [5,7,10,15,22,27,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Ceci se retrouve quel que soit le type de population é tudié e.…”

“…Parallè lement, d'autres é tudes mettent en é vidence qu'une initiation sexuelle pré coce est un facteur de risque de grossesse, initiation elle-même corré lé e à l'âge de la puberté [37,[39][40][41]. De ce fait, les é tudes sur le sujet semblent contradictoires et nous ne sommes pas en mesure de nous prononcer quant à ce phé nomè ne.…”