Life History theory hypotheses on child growth: Potential implications for short and long-term child growth, development and health

2017 ◽  
Vol 165 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rihlat Said-Mohamed ◽  
John M Pettifor ◽  
Shane A Norris
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Child Growth ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Growth Development

scholarly journals Consequences in Infants That Were Intrauterine Growth Restricted

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich Cosmi ◽  
Tiziana Fanelli ◽  
Silvia Visentin ◽  
Daniele Trevisanuto ◽  
Vincenzo Zanardo
Keyword(s):  
Intrauterine Growth Restriction ◽  
Placental Insufficiency ◽  
Growth Restriction ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
Intrauterine Growth ◽  
Cardiovascular Abnormalities ◽  
Short And Long Term

Intrauterine growth restriction is a condition fetus does not reach its growth potential and associated with perinatal mobility and mortality. Intrauterine growth restriction is caused by placental insufficiency, which determines cardiovascular abnormalities in the fetus. This condition, moreover, should prompt intensive antenatal surveillance of the fetus as well as follow-up of infants that had intrauterine growth restriction as short and long-term sequele should be considered.

scholarly journals Evo–devo of child growth II: human life history and transition between its phases

2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ze'ev Hochberg
Keyword(s):  
Body Composition ◽  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Child Growth ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Adaptive Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
The Times

This review attempts to use evolutionary life-history theory in understanding child growth in a broad evolutionary perspective. It uses the data and theory of evolutionary predictive adaptive strategies for transition from one life-history phase to the next, and the inherent adaptive plasticity in the timing of such transitions. Humans evolved to withstand energy crises by decreasing their body size, and evolutionary short-term adaptations to energy crises utilize a plasticity that modifies the timing of transition from infancy into childhood, culminating in short stature at the time of an energy crisis. Transition to juvenility is part of a strategy of conversion from a period of total dependence on the family and tribe for provision and security to self-supply, and a degree of adaptive plasticity is provided and determines body composition. Transition to adolescence entails plasticity in adapting to energy resources, other environmental cues, and the social needs of the maturing adolescent to determine lifespan and the period of fecundity and fertility.ConclusionLife-history transitions are the times when the child adaptively responds to environmental cues in order to enhance growth–body composition–lifespan–fecundity schedules and behavioral strategies that yield the highest fitness in a given environment.

Diet, Nutrition, and Disease across the Lifespan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley J. Ulijaszek
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Growth ◽  
Child Growth ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Available Energy ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Exclusive Processes

Diet and nutrition need to be adequate to sustain human growth, sexual maturation, reproduction, and the physical labour needed to obtain food and support the successful maturation of offspring to reproductive age. This chapter examines human diet and nutrition as they relate to infectious disease experience, and how nutrition and infection influence the human life course, which is organized according to life history stages. Human life history theory organizes growth and reproduction into largely exclusive processes: available energy goes first into the former, and then, after puberty, into the latter. Human life history is extremely plastic, with child growth, onset of sexual maturity, fecundity and longevity all being sensitive to nutrition. Such plasticity has been fundamental to human ecological success and it is important to understand it to be able to interpret evidence for biological quality of life among past populations.

Life History Theory and economic modernity

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Hewson
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
General Account ◽  
Life Traits ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence

Abstract Baumard's new explanation of the Industrial Revolution shows that Life History Theory holds great potential. Here, I suggest two related hypotheses for examination. One is that there are long-term roots of slow life traits and preferences. The other is that Life History Theory can explain other aspects of economic modernity such as the Scientific Revolution and bureaucratic states. If so, then Life History Theory offers a way to reconcile several bodies of evidence and lines of explanation into a coherent general account of economic modernity.

scholarly journals Reproductive ecology of short and long-term mating: implications for sexual selection and life history theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janko Mileta Međedović
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Life History ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Reproductive Ecology ◽  
Mating Patterns ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Human Reproductive

Mating patterns are crucial for understanding selection regimes in current populations and highly implicative for sexual selection and life history theory. However, empirical data on the relations between mating and fitness-related outcomes in contemporary humans are lacking. In the present research we examined the sexual selection on mating (with an emphasis on Bateman’s third parameter – the association between mating and reproductive success) and life history dynamics of mating by examining the relations between mating patterns and a comprehensive set of variables which determine human reproductive ecology. We conducted two studies (Study 1: N=398, Mage=31.03; Study 2: N=996, Mage=40.81, the sample was representative for participants’ sex, age, region, and settlement size). The findings from these studies were mutually congruent and complementary. In general, the data suggested that short-term mating was unrelated or even negatively related to reproductive success. Conversely, long-term mating was positively associated with reproductive success and there were indices that the beneficial role of long-term mating is more pronounced in males, which is in accordance with Bateman’s third principle. Observed age of first reproduction fully mediated the link between long-term mating and number of children but only in male participants. There were no clear indications of the position of the mating patterns in human life history trajectories; however, the obtained data suggested that long-term mating has some characteristics of fast life history dynamics. Findings are implicative for sexual selection and life history theory in humans.

scholarly journals Love Styles in the Context of Life History Theory

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-249
Author(s):  
Magdalena Marzec ◽  
Andrzej Łukasik
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Reproductive Strategies ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Mating Effort ◽  
Parental Effort ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Love Styles ◽  
Number Of Children

Abstract The evolutionary function of love is to create a strong bond between the partners with reproduction in view. In order to achieve this goal, humans use various sexual/reproductive strategies, which have evolved due to specific reproductive benefits. The use of particular strategies depends on many factors but one of the most important is early childhood experiences, on which life history theory (LHT) focuses. John Lee (1973) identified 6 basic love styles: eros, ludus, storge, pragma, agape, and mania. Our goal was to check whether love styles may be treated as sexual/reproductive strategies in the context of LHT - slow or fast strategy. In our study (N = 177) we found that people who prefer the slow reproductive strategy are inclined to show passionate, pragmatic and friendly love, and those who prefer the fast strategy, treated love as a game. A low level of environmental stress in childhood results in preferring eros, storge and agape love styles, belonging to the slow strategy, and a high one results in preferring ludus, which belongs to the fast strategy. People representing eros, storge or pragma styles have restricted sociosexual orientation so they prefer long-term relationships, whereas those with the ludus style are people with unrestricted orientation, preferring short-term relationships. Besides, storge, agape and pragma seem to determine preferring qualities connected with parental effort in one’s partner, mania - with mating effort, and eros - with both kinds of effort. No correlation was found between the love style and the number of children.

Variation in Women’s Mate Preferences Over the Development of a Monogamous Relationship Corresponds with Changes in Men’s Life History Strategy (Author's Accepted Version)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Owens ◽  
Helen Driscoll ◽  
Daniel Farrelly
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Mating Effort ◽  
Monogamous Relationship ◽  
Parenting Effort ◽  
The Relationship

Much research has examined how men’s mating strategies change over the development of a relationship consistent with predictions from Life History Theory. Specifically, research shows both physiological and behavioural indicators of mating effort decrease once men are mated, and further once they become fathers, unless they remain engaged in mating effort. This switch from mating to parenting effort is sexually selected, and therefore the corresponding shifts in women should be examined, though to date, women’s short- or long-term mate preferences have been studied as separate entities rather than as a transition from short- to long- term. We examined how women’s mate preferences changed over the development of a relationship, to see if they varied consistently with what is known about variation in men’s mating effort. Vignettes detailed four key milestones in the development of a relationship and women rated the importance of the man at each stage displaying indicators of mating or parenting effort. Women increasingly prioritised indicators of parenting effort in men as the relationship developed, consistent with what is known about men’s reduction in mating effort in favour of parenting effort over the development of a relationship. The results support predictions from Life History Theory and highlight the interacting mutually reinforcing nature of sexually selected behaviours.

Effects of tributyltin on the survival in the caprellid amphipod Caprella danilevskii

2004 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madoka Ohji ◽  
Takaomi Arai ◽  
Nobuyuki Miyazaki
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Survival Rate ◽  
Sex Determination ◽  
Embryonic Stage ◽  
Short And Long Term

The caprellid amphipod Caprella danilevskii was exposed to five levels (0, 10, 100, 1000 and 10 000 ng l−1) of tributyltin (TBT) both in the embryonic stage (5 days) and over its whole life history from hatch to death (50 days) to examine the effects of TBT exposure on survival. In both experiments, survival rate decreased drastically as TBT concentrations increased, with a decrease occurring even at 10 ng l−1 in both short- and long-term exposure experiments. Significant differences were found in the survival rate between the control (no control specimens died) and the three concentration groups except 10 000 ng l−1 (all specimens died), regardless of sex. However, the survival rate in response to exposure to TBT has been found to be similar among all combinations of TBT concentration except 10 000 ng l−1, in both sexes. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the survival rate in response to exposure to each concentration of TBTCl between sexes. These findings suggest that the risk of survival in response to exposure to TBT between sexes is similar in the caprellids. No sex-specific differences of mortality by TBT exposure were observed in the species although feminization by TBT exposure was found in the caprellids in a previous study. These results all lead to the conclusion that TBT disturbs the mechanism of sex determination during the embryonic stage of the species.

scholarly journals Impaired Perinatal Growth and Longevity: A Life History Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Sloboda ◽  
Alan S. Beedle ◽  
Cinda L. Cupido ◽  
Peter D. Gluckman ◽  
Mark H. Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Metabolic Dysfunction ◽  
Repair Capacity ◽  
Extrinsic Mortality ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Increased Susceptibility

Life history theory proposes that early-life cues induce highly integrated responses in traits associated with energy partitioning, maturation, reproduction, and aging such that the individual phenotype is adaptively more appropriate to the anticipated environment. Thus, maternal and/or neonatally derived nutritional or endocrine cues suggesting a threatening environment may favour early growth and reproduction over investment in tissue reserve and repair capacity. These may directly affect longevity, as well as prioritise insulin resistance and capacity for fat storage, thereby increasing susceptibility to metabolic dysfunction and obesity. These shifts in developmental trajectory are associated with long-term expression changes in specific genes, some of which may be underpinned by epigenetic processes. This normative process of developmental plasticity may prove to be maladaptive in human environments in transition towards low extrinsic mortality and energy-dense nutrition, leading to the development of an inappropriate phenotype with decreased potential for longevity and/or increased susceptibility to metabolic disease.

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