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Employment and Parenting
Published in Marc H. Bornstein, Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Families, Parents, and Children, 2020
Wen-Jui Han, Nina Philipsen Hetzner, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Theory and empirical evidence from different disciplines have posited that parental investments, including money (to nurture physical and psychological well-being and human capital, such as purchasing childcare, cognitively stimulating materials and environments), time, human capital (e.g., parental education) and psychological capital (e.g., parental mental health) influence optimal child development, but the level and types of parental investment depend heavily on parental employment. In this chapter, we refer to parental employment or work or labor force participation to mean an occupation by which a parent earns a living through salary or wages.
Evolution, Natural Selection, and Behavior
Published in Gail S. Anderson, Biological Influences on Criminal Behavior, 2019
Understanding the evolutionary psychology underlying the parent-child bond is important in developing child welfare policy. Parental investment in child welfare is greatest in biological parents, as the child will pass the parents’ genes on to the subsequent generations and thereby increase the parents’ reproductive fitness. Close kin, such as an aunt or an uncle, also share genes with the child, so it is advantageous for kin to invest resources in the child, although their genetic investment is lower than that of the parents. As the degree of relatedness decreases, the reproductive fitness benefits proportionally decrease. Therefore, close kin could be expected to invest more than distant kin, and any kin will invest more than non-kin.40
Sociosexual Orientations and Well-Being: Differences Across Gender
Published in International Journal of Sexual Health, 2022
Ana Blasco-Belled, Emilia Zyskowska, Martyna Terebu, Katarzyna Anna Włodarska, Radosław Rogoza
Women and men differed in their emotional mechanisms to engage in and appraise sexual activities (Townsend & Wasserman, 2011). This is in line with the parental investment theory, which posits that differences in parental investment result in differences in sexual behavior (Trivers, 1972). Because men tend to be the lesser-investing parent, they have more to gain than women from indiscriminately engaging in short-term sex with numerous partners. Another account of sexual gender differences can be found in the gender similarities hypothesis. This hypothesis argues that differences in almost all psychological attributes between men and women are small, however, gender differences can be found in some sexuality variables, including sociosexual attitudes (Hyde, 2005). Previous research has found that men consistently reported more sociosexual behavior and permissive attitudes toward casual sex than women, although in some studies the differences were small (Townsend & Wasserman, 2011).
Child Sexual Abuse and the Moralization of Purity
Published in Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2020
Mattan D. Arden, Sharon Rabinovitz
Other explanations for the differential reactions within gender can be found in the review work of Al-Shawaf, Lewis, and Buss (2017), delineating various explanations via evolutionary-based theories. Generally, the authors mention that there are at least four theoretically plausible, non-mutually-exclusive factors driving the evolution of women’s heightened sexual disgust relative to men: (a) greater minimum obligatory parental investment (the parental investment hypothesis), (b) higher likelihood and greater costs of contracting STIs (the sexually transmitted infections hypothesis), (c) defense against rape and sexual coercion (the rape avoidance hypothesis) and (d) sex differences in reputational damage as a consequence of promiscuous or deviant sexual behavior (the reputational damage hypothesis).
Predicting Short- and Long-Term Mating Orientations: The Role of Sex and the Dark Tetrad
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2018
Alexandra Tsoukas, Evita March
Although there are a number of reproductive challenges for women to overcome in a long-term mating strategy, such as identifying men who are able and willing to invest in offspring (Buss, 2006), there are significant benefits for women engaging in long-term mating. Parental investment theory (Trivers, 1972) posits that females benefit from long-term mating by committing to a mate who is able to provide the necessary resources to her and her offspring to ensure their survival (Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Pillsworth & Haselton, 2006). In addition, females were physically vulnerable in ancestral environments if they were pregnant and lactating (Buss & Schmitt, 1993), thus benefiting by attaining long-term protection from other aggressive males (Smuts, 1992) and sustenance in food provisions (Buss, 1998). Further, women may also benefit from long-term mating through attaining a higher personal social status (Li & Kenrick, 2006). Specifically, from a sociocultural standpoint, women have less access to status and power than men do, leading them to prioritize status in a long-term mate (Howard, Blumstein, & Schwartz, 1987). In sum, these considerable benefits have led researchers to conclude contemporary women, compared to men, will express stronger preference for long-term relationships (Buss et al., 1990; Clark & Hatfield, 1989; Schmitt, 2005; Simpson & Gangestad, 1991).