Abstract
Recent work in human behavioural ecology has suggested that analyses focusing on early childhood may underestimate the importance of paternal investment to child outcomes since such investment may not become crucial until adolescence or beyond. This may be especially important in societies with a heritable component to status, as later investment by fathers may be more strongly related to a child's adult status than early forms of parental investment that affect child survival and child health. In such circumstances, the death or absence of a father may have profoundly negative effects on the adult outcomes of his children that cannot be easily compensated for by the investment of mothers or other relatives. This proposition is tested using a multigenerational dataset from Bangalore, India, containing information on paternal mortality as well as several child outcomes dependent on parental investment during adolescence and young adulthood. The paper examines the effects of paternal death, and the timing of paternal death, on a child's education, adult income, age at marriage and the amount spent on his or her marriage, along with similar characteristics of spouses. Results indicate that a father's death has a negative impact on child outcomes, and that, in contrast to some findings in the literature on father absence, the effects of paternal death are strongest for children who lose their father in late childhood or adolescence.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 549-569 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Biosocial Science |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 1 2012 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Social Sciences(all)
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
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Paternal investment and status-related child outcomes : Timing of father's death affects offspring success. / Shenk, Mary K.; Scelza, Brooke A.
In: Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol. 44, No. 5, 01.09.2012, p. 549-569.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Paternal investment and status-related child outcomes
T2 - Timing of father's death affects offspring success
AU - Shenk, Mary K.
AU - Scelza, Brooke A.
PY - 2012/9/1
Y1 - 2012/9/1
N2 - Recent work in human behavioural ecology has suggested that analyses focusing on early childhood may underestimate the importance of paternal investment to child outcomes since such investment may not become crucial until adolescence or beyond. This may be especially important in societies with a heritable component to status, as later investment by fathers may be more strongly related to a child's adult status than early forms of parental investment that affect child survival and child health. In such circumstances, the death or absence of a father may have profoundly negative effects on the adult outcomes of his children that cannot be easily compensated for by the investment of mothers or other relatives. This proposition is tested using a multigenerational dataset from Bangalore, India, containing information on paternal mortality as well as several child outcomes dependent on parental investment during adolescence and young adulthood. The paper examines the effects of paternal death, and the timing of paternal death, on a child's education, adult income, age at marriage and the amount spent on his or her marriage, along with similar characteristics of spouses. Results indicate that a father's death has a negative impact on child outcomes, and that, in contrast to some findings in the literature on father absence, the effects of paternal death are strongest for children who lose their father in late childhood or adolescence.
AB - Recent work in human behavioural ecology has suggested that analyses focusing on early childhood may underestimate the importance of paternal investment to child outcomes since such investment may not become crucial until adolescence or beyond. This may be especially important in societies with a heritable component to status, as later investment by fathers may be more strongly related to a child's adult status than early forms of parental investment that affect child survival and child health. In such circumstances, the death or absence of a father may have profoundly negative effects on the adult outcomes of his children that cannot be easily compensated for by the investment of mothers or other relatives. This proposition is tested using a multigenerational dataset from Bangalore, India, containing information on paternal mortality as well as several child outcomes dependent on parental investment during adolescence and young adulthood. The paper examines the effects of paternal death, and the timing of paternal death, on a child's education, adult income, age at marriage and the amount spent on his or her marriage, along with similar characteristics of spouses. Results indicate that a father's death has a negative impact on child outcomes, and that, in contrast to some findings in the literature on father absence, the effects of paternal death are strongest for children who lose their father in late childhood or adolescence.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864545303&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84864545303&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0021932012000053
DO - 10.1017/S0021932012000053
M3 - Article
C2 - 22429791
AN - SCOPUS:84864545303
VL - 44
SP - 549
EP - 569
JO - Journal of Biosocial Science
JF - Journal of Biosocial Science
SN - 0021-9320
IS - 5
ER -