Family environments, adrenarche, and sexual maturation: A longitudinal test of a life history model
Family environments, adrenarche, and sexual maturation: A longitudinal test of a life history model
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01092.x
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发表时间：
2007-12-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Essex, Marilyn J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ellis, Bruce J.;Essex, Marilyn J.
生活史理论家提出，人类已经进化到对儿童早期环境的特定特征敏感，暴露于不同的环境会使儿童倾向于发展不同的生殖策略，包括不同的青春期时间。目前的研究为这一理论提供了纵向检验。根据对父母的采访，在学前班进行了家庭环境评估，然后对儿童进行了前瞻性的跟踪调查。在选定的120名7岁儿童（73名女孩）的子样本中测定肾上腺激素，并在180名11岁女孩的完整女性样本中收集父母和孩子的第二性征报告。高质量的父母投资（来自母亲和父亲）和父亲报告的婚姻冲突/抑郁症预测以后肾上腺素。母亲初潮年龄较大，社会经济地位较高，母亲对父母的支持程度较高，三年级体重指数较低，这些因素都是女儿性发育较晚的唯一且显著的预测因素。与生活史的角度来看，父母的投资质量出现了近端的家庭环境中的青春期时间的一个中心特征。
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.