Family environments, adrenarche, and sexual maturation: a longitudinal test of a life history model

Life history theorists have proposed that humans have evolved to be sensitive to specific features of early childhood environments and that exposure to different environments biases children toward development of different reproductive strategies, including differential pubertal timing. The current research provides a longitudinal test of this theory. Assessments of family environments, based on interviews with mothers and fathers, were conducted in preschool, and children were then followed prospectively through middle childhood. Adrenal hormones were assayed in a selected subsample of 120 children (73 girls) at age 7, and parent and child reports of secondary sexual characteristics were collected in the full female sample of 180 girls at age 11. Higher quality parental investment (from both mothers and fathers) and less father-reported Marital Conflict/Depression forecast later adrenarche. Older age at menarche in mothers, higher socioeconomic status, greater mother-based Parental Supportiveness, and lower third-grade body mass index each uniquely and significantly predicted later sexual development in daughters. Consistent with a life history perspective, quality of parental investment emerged as a central feature of the proximal family environment in relation to pubertal timing.     

Father Absence in Pregnancy or During Childhood and Pubertal Development in Girls and Boys: A Population-Based Cohort Study

This cohort study, including 15,810 children born 2000–2003 in Denmark, aimed to investigate the association between father absence in pregnancy or during childhood and pubertal development in girls and boys. The children were followed from 11 years of age and throughout pubertal development. Mean age differences according to exposure groups were estimated for each pubertal marker separately and for a combined pubertal marker. The results suggested that father absence in pregnancy and during childhood was associated with earlier pubertal development in girls, and father absence from late childhood was associated with earlier pubertal development in boys. The paternal investment theory, the psychosocial acceleration theory and the energetics theory were explored, and did not seem to explain the observed associations.     

Why sexual abuse? An exploration of the intergenerational hypothesis

The issue of sexual abuse in the family backgrounds of offenders and mothers of victims is explored in a clinical sample of 154 cases of intrafamilial sexual abuse. More than a third of the offenders and about half of the mothers had experienced or been exposed to sexual abuse as children. Cases were divided into those where the sexual abuser was the biological father in an intact family, those where he was a stepfather or mother's live-in partner, and those where he was a noncustodial father. In biological father cases, parents were about equally likely to have experienced sexual abuse during childhood, in the stepfather/live-in partner cases, the mother was more likely to have had such an experience, and in the noncustodial father cases, the offender was more likely to have come from a sexually abusive family.     

Parent-daughter transmission of the androgen receptor gene as an explanation of the effect of father absence on age of menarche

Based on an evolutionary theory of socialization, Belsky and colleagues proposed that girls exposed to a stressful environment, especially when due to father absence in the first 7 years of life, showed an early onset of puberty, precocious sexuality, and unstable relationships as adults. The authors of this article examined an alternative explanation that a variant X-linked androgen receptor (AR) gene, predisposing the father to behaviors that include family abandonment, may be passed to their daughters causing early puberty, precocious sexuality, and behavior problems. The results of a study of 121 White males and 164 White females showed a significant association of the short alleles of the GGC repeat polymorphism of the AR gene with a range of measures of aggression and impulsivity, increased number of sexual partners, sexual compulsivity, and lifetime number of sex partners in males; and paternal divorce, father absence, and early age of menarche in females. These findings support a genetic explanation of the Belsky psychosocial evolutionary hypothesis regarding the association of fathers' absence and parental stress with early age of onset of menarche and early sexual activity in their daughters. A genetic explanation of the father absence effect is proposed in which fathers carrying the AR alleles are more likely to abandon a marriage (father absence) and pass those alleles to their daughters in whom they produce an earlier age of menarche and behavioral problems.     

Childhood Experience and the Onset of Menarche: A Test of a Sociobiological Model

We tested predictions about psychosocial factors in the onset of menarche using data from a longitudinal study of 16-year-old girls. Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper have proposed a model that seeks to explain individual differences in maturational timing in terms of stressful childhood experiences. Their model hypothesizes that (1) individuals who grow up under conditions of family stress (2) experience behavioral and psychological problems which (3) provoke earlier reproductive readiness. In this study, the effect of family stressors on menarche was mediated by neither behavior problems nor weight, contrary to the predictions. However, the most provocative proposition advanced by Belsky et al. received empirical support. Family conflict and father absence in childhood predicted an earlier age of menarche, and these factors in combination with weight showed some evidence of an additive influence on menarche. A genetic inheritance model may provide a more parsimonious account of these data than does a conditional adaptation model derived from sociobiology.     

Intrafamilial sexual abuse: brother-sister incest does not differ from father-daughter and stepfather-stepdaughter incest

OBJECTIVE: Three groups of girls who were sexually abused (by either brothers, fathers, or stepfathers) were compared. The purpose was to identify the differing characteristics of the abuse, the family environments, and the psychosocial distress of these children. METHOD: Seventy-two girls aged between 5 and 16 were assigned to one of the three groups. Subjects were matched between groups on the basis of their actual age. Children completed measures of traumatic stress; their mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist-Parent Report Form (CBCL) and other self-report questionnaires on family characteristics. Workers in child protective services completed information regarding the nature and severity of the abuse. RESULTS: Results suggested few differences in the characteristics of sexual abuse between the three groups. However, penetration was much more frequent in the sibling incest group (70.8%) than in the stepfather incest (27.3%) or father incest (34.8%) groups. Ninety percent of the victims of fathers and brothers manifested clinically-significant distress on at least one measure, whereas 63.6% of stepfather victims did. Compared with father and stepfather perpetrators, brothers were raised in families with more children and more alcohol abuse. CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude that the characteristics of brother-sister incest and its associated psychosocial distress did not differ from the characteristics of father-daughter incest These findings suggest that theoretical models and clinical practices should be adjusted accordingly and that sibling incest should not necessarily be construed as less severe or harmful than father-daughter incest.     

African American late adolescents' relationships with parents: developmental transitions and longitudinal patterns

Five-year longitudinal patterns and the influence of developmental transitions on 76 middle-class African American late adolescents' (M=18.43 years) relationships with parents were examined. Late adolescents were closer to mothers than to fathers. Controlling for age, late adolescent females who had left home reported less negative relationships with mothers than did adolescents living at home or in transition to leaving home, and late adolescent females living at home reported more intense conflicts with parents 3 years earlier than did boys living at home and girls living away. Earlier attachment led to more attached and supportive relationships with both parents and less negative interactions with mothers in late adolescence. Stable father presence also influenced more positive relationships with fathers.     

Associations Between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual Intercourse

Children raised without a biological father in the household have earlier average ages of first sexual intercourse than children raised in father-present households. Competing theoretical perspectives have attributed this either to effects of father absence on socialization and physical maturation or to nonrandom selection of children predisposed for early sexual intercourse into father-absent households. Genetically informative analyses of the children of sister dyads ( N  = 1,382, aged 14–21 years) support the selection hypothesis: This association seems attributable to confounded risks, most likely genetic in origin, which correlated both with likelihood of father absence and early sexual behavior. This holds implications for environmental theories of maturation and suggests that previous research may have inadvertently overestimated the role of family structure in reproductive maturation.     

The Antecedents of Menarcheal Age: Heredity, Family Environment, and Stressful Life Events

Variations in pubertal timing, specifically age at menarche, have been associated with several antecedents, both genetic and environmental. Recent research has considered a broader range of environmental stressors and their influence on the development of the reproductive system. In this investigation, the following possible antecedents were considered: ( a ) hereditary transmission, ( b ) weight and weight for height, ( c ) stressful life events, ( d ) family relations, ( e ) absence or presence of an adult male in the household, and ( f ) psychological adjustment. Subjects were 75 premenarcheal girls between the ages of 10 and 14 drawn from a larger longitudinal investigation of adolescent development. Girls were from white, well-educated, middle- to upper-middle-class families and attended private schools in a northeastern urban area. While breast development, weight, family relations, and depressive affect were predictive of age at menarche, family relations predicted age at menarche above the influence of breast development or weight. A trend for maternal age at menarche to predict adolescent's age at menarche was found. Weight for height, presence of an adult male in the household, and stressful events were not predictive of age at menarche. These complex interactions of biological and psychosocial development demonstrated here may account to some extent for the inter- and intraindividual variation observed in pubertal development.     

Biological and social contributions to negative affect in young adolescent girls

This study is a preliminary attempt to investigate whether internal or external pubertal changes and whether social or biological factors are more likely to be associated with negative affect. About 100 white girls aged 10-14 years were given a physical examination, had blood drawn, and filled out the Youth Behavior Profile and a life-events checklist. Negative affect increased during the most rapid rises in hormone levels; however, hormones accounted for only 4% of the variance in negative affect. Pubertal status and timing were not associated with negative affect. In contrast, social factors accounted for more variance than hormonal pubertal factors alone (8%-18%), as did the interaction of negative life events and pubertal factors (9%-15%). Results are discussed in terms of what hormonal activation effects are most likely to be found, the meaning of such effects for subsequent behavior, and the interaction of biological and social events.     

Perceptions of Pubertal Timing and Discrimination Among African American and Caribbean Black Girls

This study used a nationally representative sample of African American and Caribbean Black adolescent females to examine the relation between perceived pubertal timing relative to peers and discriminatory experiences. Participants included the 607 girls who participated in the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent (NSAL-A), and ranged in age from 13 to 17. Most African American girls perceived their development as on-time relative to their same-aged peers; whereas the majority of Caribbean Black girls perceived their development as earlier than their same-aged peers. The results indicated that girls who perceived that their pubertal development was earlier than their same-aged peers reported more general and racial discrimination experiences.     

From parents to children: the impact of mothers’ and fathers’ educational attainments on those of their sons and daughters in West Germany

Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that in Germany educational success still strongly depends on the social origin of individuals. Using the National Educational Panel Study, we analyse the effects of fathers’ and mothers’ education levels on their sons’ and daughters’ educational attainments across three successive birth cohorts in West Germany. We calculate the predicted probabilities of reaching low, medium or high education levels on the basis of the level of education of the mothers and the fathers. Our results show: a persistence of the status maintenance model, with very few exceptions; a growth in the educational level of women via medium-level education connected to segregation in the labour market; and finally that the first transition of girls to medium-level education has been completed, leaving space for daughters to attempt to outnumber sons in tertiary education, mainly due to the pressure of mothers.     

Gendered Packaging of a STEM Toy Influences Children's Play,Mechanical Learning,and Mothers’ Play Guidance

To study effects of the gender-packaging of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) toys, mother–child dyads (31 daughters; 30 sons; M = 5.2 years) were randomly assigned to play with a mechanical toy packaged for girls (GoldieBlox) or boys (BobbyBlox). When familiarizing themselves with the toy to prepare for play, mothers given BobbyBlox built more with toy pieces than did mothers given GoldieBlox. During dyadic play, mothers with sons built more; mothers with daughters read the toy's narrative instructions more. Children's independent play likewise varied with game packaging. Girls learned the mechanical belt-drive principle better from playing with BobbyBlox; boys learned the principle better from playing with GoldieBlox. Implications for gender-schema theories, STEM interventions, and toy marketing are discussed.     

Linking family hardship to children's lives

The impact of drastic income loss on children is mediated by a number of family adaptations, including the shift toward more labor-intensive households and altered relationships. Using newly developed codes on parenting behavior during the Great Depression, this study investigates the role of parental behavior (rejecting, nonsupportive) in linking economic hardship to children's lives in the Oakland Growth Study. The results extend beyond those reported in Children of the Great Depression by showing that economic hardship adversely influenced the psychosocial well-being of girls, but not boys, by increasing the rejecting behavior of fathers. The parenting behavior of mothers did not vary significantly by income loss. In addition, the rejecting influence of hard-pressed fathers was more pronounced in relation to less attractive daughters, as judged by physical features. Attractive daughters were not likely to be maltreated by their fathers, no matter how severe the economic pressure. These outcomes on family mediation and conditional effects underscore the importance of viewing economic decline in relation to both the child's characteristics and parenting behavior. An understanding of the effects of economic decline in children's lives requires knowledge of parent and child behavior within the family and life course.     

Class,honour and reputation: gendered school choice practices in a migrant community

In this paper, I draw on a qualitative study of Iraqi-born Muslim mothers in Australia exploring how they navigate choosing secondary schools for their daughters. While the mothers interviewed for this study agreed on the importance of education and its role in facilitating upward social mobility for all their children, they articulated a specific and more complex set of concerns in relation to selecting schools for their daughters. This article suggests that families’ positions in the Australian diasporic Iraqi community are tied to girls’ schooling and, therefore, school choices are heavily gendered and contribute to a gendered structuring of family and community life. By analysing the narratives of Iraqi-born mothers, a deeper understanding emerges of the complex and varied outlooks of migrant Muslim parents on education and gender in their everyday practices of raising and educating their daughters.     

The process of incest: Biologic father and stepfather families

This article compares incest between biologic fathers and their daughters and stepfathers and their stepdaughters. The term "incest" is applied to each of these types of families. The sample for the study was located in a mental health treatment facility designed to work specifically with incestuous families and includes 102 cases (56 stepfather families; 46 biologic father families). The data were obtained by interviews with the four primary program therapists. Differences in sexual behavior between the two groups indicated that biologic fathers more frequently engaged in full intercourse, more frequently involved multiple daughters and more frequently began the sexual activity when their daughters were adolescents than did stepfathers. Possible explanations of the differences are explored.     

Comparing maltreating fathers and mothers in terms of personal distress, interpersonal functioning, and perceptions of family climate

OBJECTIVE: This study compared perceptions of personal distress, interpersonal and marital problems, and aspects of family climate of maltreating fathers and mothers. METHODS: Subjects were 2841 offenders (1918 of whom were fathers or father-figures) who were identified and treated by the USAF Family Advocacy Program between 1988 and 1996. Independent variables for the analysis were parent sex (mother vs. father) as well as type and severity of maltreatment, history of repeat offenses, and history of abuse in childhood. RESULTS: Maltreating mothers were more distressed and reported more problems from individuals outside the family than maltreating fathers; fathers reported more rigid expectations for children, less cohesive families, and less organized families than did maltreating mothers. Regardless of parental sex, victimization in the family of origin was related to distress and unhappiness. Similarly, both victimization in the family of origin and history of repeated offenses were powerful predictors of a more negative family climate regardless of the offending parent's sex. No significant statistical interactions between parental sex and other independent variables were found when predicting personal and interpersonal distress, marital problems, or family climate. CONCLUSIONS: Studies rarely examine maltreating fathers except in the context of sexual abuse. Fewer still compare maltreating mothers and fathers. This study identified meaningful, though generally small, differences between maltreating mothers and fathers. Patterns suggest that maltreating mothers may tend to cope more poorly with personal distress, whereas maltreating fathers tend to operate in a family climate that is both distant and rigid, while holding inappropriate expectations for children's behavior. The absence of interactions between parental sex and the other independent variables included in the analysis indicate that these patterns do not vary by the history of victimization in the family of origin, the type or severity of child maltreatment, or the history of prior maltreatment in the family.     

Family rearing antecedents of pubertal timing

Two general evolutionary hypotheses were tested on 756 White children (397 girls) studied longitudinally: (1) rearing experiences would predict pubertal timing; and (2) children would prove differentially susceptible to rearing. Analysis of pubertal measurements, including some based on repeated physical assessments, showed that mothering and fathering, earlier and later in childhood, predicted pubertal development, but only for girls, with negative parenting appearing most influential; maternal harsh control predicted earlier menarche. Rearing effects varied by infant negative emotionality, proving stronger (and opposite) for girls who in infancy were lower rather than higher in negativity. Maternal menarche, controlled in all analyses, was a stronger predictor than rearing. Findings are discussed in terms of theory development, genetic and nutritional influences, and sample restrictions.     

The family environment of sexual abuse: a comparison of natal and stepfather abuse

Data from 17 states, drawn from the 1983 National Study on Child Neglect and Reporting, were used to compare families in which a daughter had been sexually abused by a natal father or stepfather. While broad comparisons are made in terms of age and race of victims, as well as household composition, the primary focus is on familial stress factors. Given the lower incidence of natal father abuse and the assumption that natal fathers have stronger emotional links to their children and greater commitment to the father role, we predicted that when they did engage in sexual abuse, it would be in a family environment characterized by relatively high levels of personal, social, and economic stress. This was confirmed to the extent that natal father abuser families showed significantly higher levels of drug and/or alcohol abuse, marital problems, and insufficient income than did stepfather abuser families.