Being Cared for and Growing Up Slowly: Parenting Slows Human Life History

Hui Jing Lu, An Ting Yang, Yuan Yuan Liu, Nan Zhu, Lei Chang

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

SYNOPSIS: Objective. For most animals, extrinsic mortality risks drive a fast life history (LH) strategy in which animals disregard risks and accelerate reproduction. Instead of perpetuating mortality driving fast LH, humans have reduced almost all mortality risks in living environments, resulting in a significant slowing of LH. Additionally, humans exhibit invested parenting which entails teaching their young survival or mortality reduction skills. Could parenting provide an additional pathway to the development and slowing of human LH? Design. Data reported here come from interviews and questionnaires administered to a community sample of 286 rural Chinese parents and their children when the children were on average 7, 8, and 11 years old. Results. Parental acceptance statistically mediates and moderates the longitudinal association between environmental adversities and children’s LH. Conclusions. Parenting breaks the species-general contingency between mortality conditions and fast offspring LH strategies and provides an additional pathway to the development and slowing of human LH.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)140-158
Number of pages19
JournalParenting
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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