ArticleAmerican journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council2016
How does childhood socioeconomic hardship affect reproductive strategy? Pathways of development.
Article in American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Correlates and Patterns of Adolescents' First Romantic Relationships in Three Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Journal of marriage and the family · 2026Article
- Recalled Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Behavioral Traits Associated With an Accelerated Life History in Cebu, Philippines.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
- Article
- Early-life adversities and later-life reproductive patterns in women with fully traced reproductive history.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Facing the pandemic in the dark: Psychopathic personality traits and life history strategies during COVID-19 lockdown period in different areas of China.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Precocious puberty under stressful conditions: new understanding and insights from the lessons learnt from international adoptions and the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Matrilateral bias of grandparental investment in grandchildren persists despite the grandchildren's adverse early life experiences.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Epigenetic regulation of 5α reductase-1 underlies adaptive plasticity of reproductive function and pubertal timing.BMC biology · 2022Article
- Redheaded women are more sexually active than other women, but it is probably due to their suitors.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Phenotypic Signals of Sexual Selection and Fast Life History Dynamics for the Long-Term but Not Short-Term Mating.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior · 2021Article
- Faster life history strategy manifests itself by lower age at menarche, higher sexual desire, and earlier reproduction in people with worse health.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Unravelling the role of epigenetics in reproductive adaptations to early-life environment.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2020Review
- On the Incongruence between Psychometric and Psychosocial-Biodemographic Measures of Life History.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Child volunteers in a women's paramilitary organization in World War II have accelerated reproductive schedules.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Using sequence analysis to test if human life histories are coherent strategies.Evolutionary human sciences · 2020Article
- Life History in a Postconflict Society : Violent Intergroup Conflict Facilitates Fast Life-History Strategy.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2019Article
- Age at First Birth, Parity and History of Hysterectomy Are Associated to Frailty Status: Cross-Sectional Analysis from the International Mobility in Aging Study -Imias.Journal of cross-cultural gerontology · 2018Article
- From Environment to Mating Competition and Super-K in a Predominantly Urban Sample of Young Adults.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior · 2017Article
- Substance, History, and Politics.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior · 2017Review
- Early-life disease exposure and associations with adult survival, cause of death, and reproductive success in preindustrial humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
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Abstract
objectivesIn high-income populations, evidence suggests that socioeconomic disadvantage early in life is correlated with reproductive strategy. Children growing up in unfavorable rearing environments tend to experience earlier sexual maturity and first births. Earlier first births may be associated with higher fertility, but links between socioeconomic disadvantage and larger family size have rarely been tested. The pathways through which early disadvantage influences reproduction are unknown. We test whether physiological factors link childhood adversity to age at first birth and total children.
methodsUsing data from the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a 1947 British birth cohort, we developed path models to identify possible physiological traits linking childhood socioeconomic status, and poor housing standards, to two reproductive outcomes: age at first birth and total children. We explored birth weight, weight gain after birth, childhood illnesses, body mass index at age 9, age at menarche, and adult height as possible mediators.
resultsWe found direct, negative effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and housing on age at first birth, and of housing on fertility. Although we found links between childhood disadvantage and menarche and height, neither of these were significantly correlated with either reproductive outcome. Age at first birth completely mediates the relationship between childhood adversity and total fertility, which we believe has not been empirically demonstrated before.
conclusionsWhile there are some links between childhood adversity and child health, we find little evidence that physiological pathways, such as child health and growth, link early childhood adversity to reproductive outcomes in this relatively well-nourished population. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:356-363, 2016. © 2015 The Authors American Journal of Human Biology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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