Parental Investment Patterns in a Shifting Economy

这个项目审查国家和个人经济因素对家庭运作的影响。年轻人的福利受其父母可获得的经济资源的影响。也就是说，父母获得经济资源的途径影响了父母在照顾孩子上投入时间、注意力和财力的方式。拟议的研究将检验亲代投资策略会随着父母当前获得（或预期的未来获得）经济资源而改变的假设。作为一种新颖的预测，拟议的研究将根据儿童的风险水平衡量这些投资模式的不同方式。例如，儿童的早产状况是不利健康结果的潜在风险因素。过去的研究表明，有风险的儿童要么是(1)父母忽视/虐待的接受者，要么是(2)异常高水平的照顾。这项研究测试了这些孩子的两极分化结果的基础。虽然预计经济前景不佳的父母会比高风险的孩子更多地投资于低风险的孩子，但预计经济前景强劲的父母会比低风险的孩子投资更多的风险。这种模式可能有进化的起源，但在国家或个人财富不同的文化或家庭中仍然可以观察到。更高水平的亲代投资预计将对儿童未来的结果，特别是对有风险儿童的未来结果，构成重要的补偿模式。拟议的研究将测量这种结果发生的途径，即父母投资模式对儿童生理反应的影响。具体来说，该项目将评估儿童激素和酶的变化，这些激素和酶是已知对压力作出反应的。这种生理变化，反过来，应该预测这些儿童的不利或积极的健康结果。这项研究关注的是父母双方的投资模式。尽管许多人的反应预计是相似的，但其他人可能会有所不同。该研究还测试了盎格鲁和拉丁裔家庭的投资模式。然而，由于亲代投资模式的普遍性，预计各组之间没有差异。该研究将使用不同的方法来测试预测：(1)横断面研究将测量父母在孩子出生后不久的初始投资策略，(2)纵向研究将评估孩子生命最初3年的结果，(3)实验将测试父母在接触媒体图像时对未来经济结果的积极或消极影响，他们如何改变对未来育儿的预测。这项研究评估了经济因素对处于危险中的儿童福祉的影响。预测与国家和家庭经济变量对更脆弱儿童的结果的选择性后果有关。研究结果还将为基于理论的干预措施的发展提供基础，以促进父亲对处于危险中的儿童的投资，从而扩展研究者过去的工作，记录早期干预对增加母亲对非常年幼的处于危险中的儿童的投资的有效性。研究结果还将对来自不同文化和种族背景的家庭的早期干预的潜在有效性的相似性或差异性产生影响。

This project examines the effects of national and personal economic factors on the functioning of families. The welfare of the young is influenced by the economic resources available to their parents. That is, parental access to economic resources influences the ways parents invest their time, attention, and financial resources in the care of the young. The proposed research will test the hypothesis that parental investment strategies shift in response to parents' current access (or expected future access) to economic resources. As a novel prediction, the proposed studies will measure the ways in which those investment patterns differ based on the risk level of the child. For example, the child's preterm status serves as a potential risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Past work has shown that at risk children are the recipients of either (1) parental neglect/abuse, or (2) exceptionally high levels of care. This research tests the basis for these polarized outcomes of such children. Although parents experiencing or projecting a poor economic outlook are predicted to invest more in low risk than high risk children, parents experiencing or projecting a strong economic outlook are predicted to invest more in high risk than in low risk children. This pattern presumably has an evolutionary origin, but is still observed across cultures or families that differ in national or personal wealth.Higher levels of parental investment are expected to pose an important compensatory pattern in the future outcomes of children -- in particular, the future outcomes of at-risk children. The proposed studies will measure the route by which such outcomes occur, that is, the influence of parental investment patterns on children's physiological responses. Specifically, the project will assess changes in children's hormones and enzymes that are known to react to stress. Such physiological changes, in turn, should predict adverse or positive health outcomes for these children.The research is concerned with the investment patterns shown by both mothers and fathers. Although many of the responses are expected to be similar, others may differ. The research also tests investment patterns for Anglo and Latino families. However, nodifferences are anticipated across groupings due to the universal nature of parental investment patterns. The research will make use of different approaches in testing predictions: (1) a cross-sectional study will measure parents' initial investment strategies soon after children are born, (2) a longitudinal study will assess children's outcomes across the first 3 years of life, and (3) an experiment will test the ways parents change their future projections about parenting when exposed to media images that suggest positive or negative future economic outcomes.This research assesses the effects of economic factors on the well-being of at-risk children. Predictions are relevant to the selective consequences of national and family economic variables on the outcomes of more vulnerable children. Findings will also provide the groundwork for the development of theory-based interventions that promote paternal investment in at-risk children, thus extending the investigator's past work documenting the effectiveness of an early intervention for increasing maternal investment in very young at-risk children. Findings will also have implications for the similarities or differences in the potential effectiveness of early interventions for families from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.