Poster #230 - Linking Parental Investment with Life History Strategy in Adolescents in Rural Dominica

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Life History Strategy theory describes an organism’s pattern of resource allocation between endeavors related to the survival of the individual, and endeavors related to the survival of one’s offspring (McArthur & Wilson, 1967; Wilson, 1975). A “fast” life history strategy entails less consideration of the future, and more emphasis placed on short-term endeavours and less investment in one’s kin. Conversely, a “slow” life history strategy involves investing in one’s future, and a heavy emphasis placed selective sexuality and investment in offspring (West-Eberhand, 2003). Parental investment in kin appears to be an important predictor of life history strategy, as insensitive parenting and insecure attachment have been identified as precursors to the adoption of a fast life history strategy, and positive family relationships and secure attachment have associated with the development of a slow life history strategy (Belsky, Steinberg and Draper, 1991).

To study the impact of parental investment on life history strategies outside of Western societies (where most research has been done), we chose to study adolescents in Bwa Mawego, a small, isolated, rural village located in the Commonwealth island nation of Dominica. Family and kinship are central to the “economic, social and reproductive behaviour” of individuals in this community (Quinlan & Flinn, 2005). As such, when family environments are harsh and unpredictable, it may be reasonable to suggest that this increases the chance of adolescents perpetrating aggressive behaviour and engaging in precocious sexual behaviour as part of the adoption of a fast life history strategy (e.g., Dunkel, Mathes, Kesselring, Decker & Kelts, 2015).
Data for the current study was collected in three waves between the years of 2011 and 2014. Given the small size of Bwa Mawego, virtually every local adolescent (96%) was included in data collection giving a total sample size of 51 adolescents. Participants were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires which included demographic information, a questionnaire about their dating and sexual history, the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire (Goodman, 1994), a measure of proactive and reactive aggression (Dodge & Coie, 1987), and a questionnaire which assessed the frequency of their involvement in bullying and victimization across five sub-types of bullying in both the village and their school.

Given the fact that our sample limited our quantitative options, we chose to conduct a series of anthropological case studies: one pairs of adolescents involved in bullying, two in victimization, and one pair is uninvolved in bullying and victimization. We describe each case terms of their relationships with their family members and approximate their life history strategy using indices of their psychosocial functioning, their levels of proactive and reactive aggression, their dating and sexual history and their involvement in bullying and victimization across three time periods (Table 1). Results suggest that harsh and unpredictable family environments (i.e., mother and father absence, varying care and residence) were associated with poorer psychosocial functioning, greater levels of aggression and bullying perpetration, and earlier and less restricted sexual activity, thus confirming our postulation that low levels of parental investment would be associated with later aggression and precocious sexual behaviour.

Authors

• Katerina Schiralli, Brock University
  Presenting Author

• Mark Flinn, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anthony Volk, Brock University
  Non-Presenting Author