Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T08:06:48.118Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Predicting cross-cultural patterns in sex-biased parental investment and attachment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Robert J. Quinlan
Robert J. Quinlan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4910. rquinlan@wsu.eduhttp://www.wsu.edu/~rquinlan/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

If parenting behavior influences attachment, then parental investment (PI) theory can predict sex differences and distributions of attachment styles across cultures. Trivers-Willard, local resource competition, and local resource enhancement models make distinct predictions for sex-biased parental responsiveness relevant to attachment. Parental investment and attachment probably vary across cultures in relation to “local fitness currencies” for status, wealth, and well-being.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 40 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Borgerhoff Mulder, M., (1998) Brothers and sisters: How sibling interactions affect optimal parental allocations. Human Nature 9(2):119–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, J. S. (1996) The evolutionary ecology of attachment organization. Human Nature 7:1–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clutton-Brock, T. H. (1991) The evolution of parental care. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronk, L. (2000) Female-biased parental investment and growth performance among the Mukogodo. In: Adaptation and human behavior: An anthropological perspective, ed. Cronk, L., Chagnon, N. & Irons, W., pp. 203–21.Google Scholar
Levine, R. & Norman, K. (2001) The infant's acquisition of culture: Early attachment reexamined in anthropological perspective. In: The psychology of cultural experience, ed. Moore, C. & Mathews, H., pp. 83–104. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quinlan, R. J. (2006) Gender and risk in a matrifocal Caribbean community. American Anthropologist 108(3):464–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinlan, R. J., Quinlan, M. B. & Flinn, M. V. (2005) Local resource enhancement and sex-biased breastfeeding in a Caribbean community. Current Anthropology 46(3):411–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trivers, R. L. & Willard, D. E. (1973) Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring. Science 179:90–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed