Showing papers by "Jay Belsky published in 2012"

Beyond cumulative risk: Distinguishing harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy.

Abstract: Drawing on life history theory, Ellis and associates' (2009) recent across- and within-species analysis of ecological effects on reproductive development highlighted two fundamental dimensions of environmental variation and influence: harshness and unpredictability. To evaluate the unique contributions of these factors, the authors of present article examined data from a national sample 1364 mothers and their children participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Harshness was operationalized as income-to-needs ratio in the first 5 years of life; unpredictability was indexed by residential changes, paternal transitions, and parental job changes during this same period. Here the proposition was tested that these factors not only uniquely predict accelerated life-history strategy, operationalized in terms of sexual behavior at age 15, but that such effects are mediated by change over the early-childhood years in maternal depression and, thereby, observed maternal sensitivity in the early-elementary-school years. Structural equation modeling provided empirical support for Ellis et al.'s (2009) theorizing, calling attention once again to the contribution of evolutionary analysis to understanding contemporary human parenting and development. Implications of the findings for intervention are discussed.

Serotonin transporter genotype 5HTTLPR as a marker of differential susceptibility? A meta-analysis of child and adolescent gene-by-environment studies.

Abstract: We present results of a meta-analysis of gene-by-environment (G × E) studies involving the serotonin transporter genotype 5HTTLPR to evaluate empirical support for two competing conceptual frameworks in developmental psychopathology: diathesis-stress and differential susceptibility. From a diathesis-stress perspective, the cumulative negative effects of the short allele (ss and sl genotypes) and adverse environments on development have been stressed. From a differential-susceptibility perspective, carriers of the s allele are predicted to be more open to adverse as well as positive environments, for better and for worse. Studies with children and adolescents up to 18 years of age (N=9361) were included. We found 41 effect sizes (N=5863) for the association between negative environments and developmental outcomes with or without significant moderation by 5HTTLPR genotype and 36 effect sizes (N=3498) for the potentially 5HTTLPR-moderated association between positive environments and developmental outcomes. Five moderators were examined: age, ethnicity, genotyping (biallelic or triallelic) and methods used to assess environment and outcome. In the total set of studies, including studies with mixed ethnicities, we found that ss/sl carriers were significantly more vulnerable to negative environments than ll carriers, thus supporting the diathesis-stress model. In the Caucasian samples, however, ss/sl carriers also profited significantly more from positive environmental input than ll carriers. Associations between (positive or negative) environment and (positive or negative) developmental outcome were absent for ll carriers. The meta-analytic findings support the hypothesis that in Caucasian samples 5HTTLPR is a genetic marker of differential susceptibility. G × E interactions might be critically dependent on ethnicity.

The Development of Human Reproductive Strategies: Progress and Prospects

Abstract: An evolutionary-biological perspective on the effects of the extrafamilial and familial environment on multiple psychological, behavioral, and even somatic features of children’s development challenges prevailing thinking about human development, which regards some contextual conditions and their sequelae as “good” and others as “bad.” Theory and research on the development of human reproductive strategies based on such evolutionary thinking has evolved substantially over the past two decades. In this article, I review two decades of theory and research findings pertaining to the development of reproductive strategies—highlighting the contextual regulation of pubertal timing, the distinctive role of fathers, individuals’ differential susceptibility to rearing influences, mechanisms of influence, and new ways of conceptualizing influential environmental features—and outline future directions for research.

Distinguishing ordinal and disordinal interactions.

Abstract: Re-parameterized regression models may enable tests of crucial theoretical predictions involving interactive effects of predictors that cannot be tested directly using standard approaches. First, we present a re-parameterized regression model for the Linear × Linear interaction of 2 quantitative predictors that yields point and interval estimates of 1 key parameter-the crossover point of predicted values-and leaves certain other parameters unchanged. We explain how resulting parameter estimates provide direct evidence for distinguishing ordinal from disordinal interactions. We generalize the re-parameterized model to Linear × Qualitative interactions, where the qualitative variable may have 2 or 3 categories, and then describe how to modify the re-parameterized model to test moderating effects. To illustrate our new approach, we fit alternate models to social skills data on 438 participants in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. The re-parameterized regression model had point and interval estimates of the crossover point that fell near the mean on the continuous environment measure. The disordinal form of the interaction supported 1 theoretical model-differential-susceptibility-over a competing model that predicted an ordinal interaction.

The health and development of children born to older mothers in the United Kingdom: observational study using longitudinal cohort data.

Abstract: Objective To assess relations between children’s health and development and maternal age. Design Observational study of longitudinal cohorts. Setting Millennium Cohort Study (a random sample of UK children) and the National Evaluation of Sure Start study (a random sample of children in deprived areas in England), 2001 to 2007. Participants 31 257 children at age 9 months, 24 781 children at age 3 years, and 22 504 at age 5 years. Main outcome measures Childhood unintentional injuries and hospital admissions (aged 9 months, 3 years, and 5 years), immunisations (aged 9 months and 3 years), body mass index, language development, and difficulties with social development (aged 3 and 5 years). Results Associations were independent of personal and family characteristics and parity. The risk of children having unintentional injuries requiring medical attention or being admitted to hospital both declined with increasing maternal age. For example, at three years the risk of unintentional injuries declined from 36.6% for mothers aged 20 to 28.6% for mothers aged 40 and hospital admissions declined, respectively, from 27.1% to 21.6%. Immunisation rates at nine months increased with maternal age from 94.6% for mothers aged 20 to 98.1% for mothers aged 40. At three years, immunisation rates reached a maximum, at 81.3% for mothers aged 27, being lower for younger and older mothers. This was linked to rates for the combined measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation because excluding these resulted in no significant relation with maternal age. An increase in overweight children at ages 3 and 5 years associated with increasing maternal age was eliminated once maternal body mass index was included as a covariate. Language development was associated with improvements with increasing maternal age, with scores for children of mothers aged 20 being lower than those of children of mothers aged 40 by 0.21 to 0.22 standard deviations at ages 3 and 4 years. There were fewer social and emotional difficulties associated with increasing maternal age. Children of teenage mothers had more difficulties than children of mothers aged 40 (difference 0.28 SD at age 3 and 0.16 SD at age 5). Conclusion Increasing maternal age was associated with improved health and development for children up to 5 years of age.

Preschoolers’ Psychosocial Problems: In the Eyes of the Beholder? Adding Teacher Characteristics as Determinants of Discrepant Parent–Teacher Reports

Abstract: In this study, we explored informant characteristics as determinants of parent–teacher disagreement on preschoolers’ psychosocial problems. Teacher characteristics were included in the analyses, in addition to child and parent factors. Psychosocial problems of 732 4-year olds from a Norwegian community sample were assessed by parents and teachers (CBCL-TRF). Furthermore, teachers reported on their education, experience and relationship to the child. Parental stress and psychopathology were also measured. Teachers rated children considerably lower than their parents did, especially on internalizing problems. When teachers rated more child problems, this was strongly associated with conflict in the teacher–child relationship, which predicted disagreement more than other factors. The highest agreement was on boys’ externalizing problems. Girls’ behavior was rated much lower by teachers than boys’ behavior compared to parents’ ratings. Possible teacher perception biases are discussed, such as teacher–child conflict, non-identification of internalizing problems, and same-gender child preference.

Developmental Antecedents of Political Ideology A Longitudinal Investigation From Birth to Age 18 Years

Abstract: The study reported here examined the developmental antecedents of conservative versus liberal ideologies using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development and a follow-up study conducted when the sample was 18 years old. Specifically, we examined variation in conservative versus liberal ideologies at age 18 years as a function of parenting attitudes and child temperament during the first 5 years of life. Consistent with long-standing theories on the development of political attitudes, our results showed that parents' authoritarian attitudes assessed when children were 1 month old predicted conservative attitudes in those children more than 17 years later. Consistent with the findings of Block and Block (2006), our results also showed that early childhood temperament predicted variation in conservative versus liberal ideologies.

The impact of Sure Start local programmes on seven year olds and their families

Abstract: This evaluation found that living in a Sure Start Local Programme (SSLP) area was associated with positive impacts on 5 of the 14 outcomes investigated. The analysis of the most recent data shows beneficial effects for almost all children and families living in SSLP areas and provides almost no evidence of adverse effects on population sub-groups such as workless or lone-parent families. These results are in marked contrast to the findings of the initial study published in 2005. Although methodological variations may account for differences in findings across the two phases of the evaluation, the researchers argue that it is eminently possible that the differing results accurately reflect the contrasting experiences of SSLP children and families in the two phases. They argue that the three-year-olds in the latest study have benefited from exposure to more mature and developed local programmes throughout their young lives.

Gene-Environment Interaction and the Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting: Testing the Differential-Susceptibility Hypothesis

Abstract: The current study evaluated the differential-susceptibility hypothesis in explaining the intergenerational transmission of parenting, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Exposure to maternal parenting was measured prospectively when respondents were adolescents and parental stress was measured when they were parents themselves, some 14 years later, on average Cumulative-genetic plasticity was measured by dominantly coding the presence of putative plasticity alleles from four genes: the 10R allele of DAT1, the A1 allele of DRD2, the 7R allele of DRD4, and the short allele of 5HTTLPR Results showed that the more plasticity alleles individuals carried (range 0–4), the more that parenting experienced in adolescence predicted future parenting experience Those respondents with the most plasticity alleles not only experienced the highest levels of parental stress when exposed to negative maternal parenting in adolescence but the lowest levels when exposed to positive maternal parenting in adolescence These results indicate that differential susceptibility is operative in the case of the intergenerational transmission of parenting, which could explain why estimates of such transmission have proven so modest in studies which fail to consider GXE interactions

Differential susceptibility to long-term effects of quality of child care on externalizing behavior in adolescence?

Abstract: Much research on the quality of child care reveals it —in the case of low-quality child care—to be related to poorer child functioning, net of confounding factors, perhaps especially in the case of...

Effects of divorce on Dutch boys' and girls' externalizing behavior in Gene × Environment perspective: diathesis stress or differential susceptibility in the Dutch Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey study?

Abstract: The effects of divorce on children's behavioral development have proven to be quite varied across studies, and most developmental and family scholars today appreciate the great heterogeneity in divorce effects. Thus, this inquiry sought to determine whether select dopaminergic genes previously associated with externalizing behavior and/or found to moderate diverse environmental effects (dopamine receptors D2 and D4, catechol-O-methyltransferase) might moderate divorce effects on adolescent self-reported externalizing problems; and, if so, whether evidence of gene-environment (G × E) interaction would prove consistent with diathesis-stress or differential-susceptibility models of environmental action. Data from the first and third wave of the Dutch Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (n = 1,134) revealed some evidence of G × E interaction reflecting diathesis-stress but not differential susceptibility. It is intriguing that some evidence pointed to "vantage sensitivity," which are benefits accruing to those with a specific genotype when their parents remained together, the exact opposite of diathesis-stress. The limits of this work are considered, especially with regard to the conditions for testing differential susceptibility, and future directions are outlined.

A typological approach to testing the evolutionary functions of human female orgasm.

Abstract: Building on previous work that identified different types of orgasm in women (King, Belsky, Mah, & Binik, 2011), the goal of the present study was to extend such typological work and determine whether female orgasmic variability tracked potentially evolutionarily salient sexual partner characteristics (e.g., those displaying possible immune-system compatibility). A total of 265 females completed an Internet survey about their orgasmic experience—achieved either with partners or alone. For partnered orgasms, they also provided details of partner characteristics and sexual behaviors. Latent class analysis revealed two orgasm types which were meaningfully distinguishable in terms of sensations and location—either centered on the surface of genitalia or deep inside. Deep orgasms were associated with internal sensations consistent with proposed functions of female orgasm in terms of differential sperm insuck. Such orgasms were associated with partners who were perceived as considerate, dominant, with a noticeably attractive smell, and as providing firm penetration. However, some hypothesized reproductively significant partner characteristics were not differentially associated with deep orgasms (i.e., muscularity, aggression, masculinity). Results were discussed and future research directions outlined. In particular, it is suggested that sexual passion between partners is a non-accidental component of sexual functioning and that this has too frequently been missing in sex research involving humans. Direct physiological measures of the results of female orgasm need to be undertaken. Additionally, the intriguing phenomenon of female ejaculation deserves scientific attention.

Does Being an Older Parent Attenuate the Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting

Abstract: Evidence that the transition to parenthood is occurring at older ages in the Western world, that older parents provide more growth-facilitating care than do younger ones, and that most prospective studies of the intergenerational transmission of parenting have focused on relatively young parents led us to evaluate whether parental age might moderate—and attenuate—the intergenerational transmission of parenting. On the basis of the seemingly commonsensical assumption that as individuals age they often become more psychologically mature and have more opportunity to reflect upon and free themselves from the legacy of childhood experiences, we hypothesized that deferring parenting would weaken links between rearing experiences in the family of origin and parenting in the family of procreation. To test this proposition we repeated analyses reported by Belsky, Jaffee, Sligo, Woodward, and Silva (2005) on 227 parents averaging 23 years of age linking rearing experiences repeatedly measured from 3 to 15 years of age with observed parenting in adulthood; we added 273 participants who became parents at older ages than did those in the original sample. Although previously reported findings showing that rearing history predicted mothering but not fathering reemerged, parental age generally failed to moderate the intergenerational transmission of parenting. Other investigators prospectively following children and adults into adulthood and studying the intergenerational transmission process should determine whether these null results vis-a`-vis the attenuation of transmission with age obtain when parents with older children are studied or when other methods are used.

Maternal age, investment, and parent-child conflict: a mediational test of the terminal investment hypothesis.

Abstract: Drawing on the evolutionary terminal investment hypothesis and Trivers' (1974) parent-offspring conflict theory, we advance and evaluate a mediational model specifying why and how maternal age, via mating effort and parental investment, affects mother-child conflict. Data from a longitudinal study of 757 families indicate that (a) older maternal age predicts lower mating effort during the child's first 5 years of life, and (b) thereby, higher maternal investment in middle childhood when the child is around 10 years old. (c) Higher maternal investment, in turn, forecasts less child-perceived mother-child conflict in adolescence (age 15). These results proved robust against theoretically relevant covariates (family resources, parity, maternal education, and maternal personality characteristics) and in the context of an autoregressive model. Study limitations are noted and results are discussed in terms of the unique contributions of an evolutionary perspective to the determinants-of-parenting literature.

Health of children born to older mothers in the UK

Abstract: Aims There is a strong trend towards later childbearing.1 Older maternity is associated with increased risks of preterm labour, fetal malformations and fetal death, but there has been little research into the longer term welfare of offspring. We studied the effects of maternal age on the health and well-being of children age 9 months to 5 years. Methods The sample consisted of children in the Millennium Cohort Study2 and the National Evaluation of Sure Start Impact Study.3 Outcomes were: child has had an accident in the last year, child has had a hospital admission in the last year, child has had all recommended immunisations, child9s BMI and child9s BAS Naming Vocabulary Score. Outcomes were modelled using logistic and linear regression models, polynomial in maternal age. Models controlled for sex, age, parity, birth weight, breast feeding, ethnicity, lone parenting, paternal age, worklessness, income, mother9s education and social class. Models of child9s BMI controlled for maternal BMI. The sample size at 9 months was 31,257 (table 1). Results Older motherhood was associated with more favourable outcomes for accidents, hospital admissions, and naming vocabulary. Immunisation rates were better for older mothers at 9 months, and unrelated to maternal age at 3 years once the controversial MMR immunisation was discounted. Child9s BMI was unrelated to maternal age. Conclusions Offspring of older mothers have more favourable outcomes for some measures of health and well-being, once socio-economic factors associated with increased maternal age are controlled.

communities in England Neighbourhood deprivation, school disorder and academic achievement in primary schools in deprived

Abstract: Summary of stepwise linear regressions (Standardized betas) predicting school level achievement in Summer 2002–3 at Key Stage 1(KS1,7 years) and Key Stage 2 (KS2,11 years) from neighbourhood characteristics,school characteristics and school disorder Predictors KS1 English KS1 Math KS2 English KS2 Math KS2 Science Neighbourhood deprivation, IMD rank a 0.064** 0.059** 0.084** 0.088** 0.071**% students eligible for free school meals –0.356*** –0.331*** –0.362*** –0.241*** –0.288***% of students with special educational needs –0.173*** –0.133*** –0.160*** –0.156*** –0.102**School disorder (total SDS) –0.238*** –0.237*** –0.277*** –0.312*** –0.257***Adjusted R 2 0.38 0.32 0.42 0.32 0.28F 204.67*** 161.05*** 237.18*** 160.31*** 129.31***[4,1335] [4,1336] [4,1327] [4,1327] [4,1327] a A low rank signifies high deprivation; *** p < 0.001.Indicators that were not significant predictors: school size (number of students); % of students with English as a second language.Downloaded from jbd.sagepub.com