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Parental age. Although it might seem obvious what “parental age” refers to, it should be noted that age at first menarche, age at first sexual encounter, and age of first birth may not, indeed typically do not, coincide. Biosocial factors, such as status, must also be included. Also worthy of note is that humans are unusual mammals in that females can live for 25 or more years after maternal viability stops (at around age 50). Menopause may well be an adaptation to grand-parental investment beyond child-bearing years (Buss and Schmitt 1993).
Life History Theory. A mid-level biological account of the differential allocation of resources to growth or repair. In general animals can fall into fast (relatively high risk, low investment) or slow (low risk, high investment) patterns of child-bearing (Stearns 1976).
Introduction
Humans are obligate – indeed intensive – investors in their offspring, with the minimum potential parental...
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References
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Stearns, S. C. (1976). Life history tactics: A review of the ideas. Quarterly Review of Biology, 51, 3–47.
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Dempsey, M., King, R. (2020). Age of Parent. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2306-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2306-1
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