Thesis
Parental investment and men's sexual behavior: life history theory and reproductive strategies in a sample of American men
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2006
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100191
Abstract
From a life-history perspective, differences in the timing of events relevant to reproduction reflect an organism's investment strategy. In humans, evidence suggests that the availability of direct parental care is an indicator to the offspring what strategy will have the highest payoff in later reproductive success. It was predicted that males who grow up in an intact family environment will have sex and father children at a later age than males who grow up in a situation indicative of less direct investment. Furthermore, since delaying reproduction is at a cost to quantity of reproductive opportunities available to males, those males from intact families were also predicted to have fewer sex partners. The presence of a stepfather within a child's family environment may indicate a further decrease in investment from the mother, who may be reducing her parenting effort in favor of mating effort. Therefore, it was predicted that stepfather presence would independently be associated with early ages of first sex and first birth, as well as a greater number of sex partners. Lastly, although cross-culturally it may be more common for a mother to assume the role of single parent to her offspring, there is evidence that, in terms of children's response to parental investment, a father can equally serve this role. The hypothesis that there should be no difference in sexual behavior between those males raised by a single father and those raised in another situation was tested. Hazard models of timing of first sex and first birth reveal significantly higher hazards of earlier first sex and first birth among males whose parents were separated. Significant independent effects were found for ethnicity, and father's education. General linear models of number of sex partners also support the predictions: males whose parents were separated had a greater number of sex partners. An independent effect of ethnicity was also present in the linear models. Stepfather presence increased the hazard of both first sex and first birth, but had no effect on number of sex partners. As predicted, living with a single father had no significant effect.
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Details
- Title
- Parental investment and men's sexual behavior
- Creators
- Adam Howell Boyette
- Contributors
- Robert J. Quinlan (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525191001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis