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Specific examples

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Early pubertal timing - precocious puberty - is associated with negative outcomes in both genders. Early maturing girls have been found to be at risk for teenage pregnancy[1], drinking [2] and weight problems[3][4] , and giving birth to low birth weight infants[5]. Early maturing boys are at risk for sexual promiscuity[6] and delinquency[7] and testicular[8] and prostate cancer[9]. Individual difference in pubertal timing may be influenced by weight, physical activity and genetics [10].

Menarche

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A central event of female puberty – menarche – is associated with father absence[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. According to the evolutionary explanation, an unstable home environment (e.g. father absence) discourages a long-term mating life history, leading girls to adopt a short-term reproductive strategy, such as early menarche[20]. This is because they perceive resources they have as scarce and, possibly, their lifespan to be shorter, under the influence of father absence. An early menarche can increase the chance of fertility, while other short-term reproductive strategies can diversify the genes inherited in offspring. These could lift up a higher success rate of rearing children to adolescence.The stress of father absence also prompts girls to develop a variety of internalising disorders, such as bulimia and depression. They may lower the person’s metabolism, causing an excessive weight gain which precipitates early menarche[4][21]. A study shows that there are fewer monitored meals in the father-absent household[22]. Having meals in the family is arguably more beneficial to children than is eating alone (i.e. solitary eating), as the former lowers the chance of obesity.

However, it has been disputed whether the environmental stress of father absence stimulates weight gain, and thus accelerates early puberty[23][24]. Likewise, the stress arisen from the absence of mother has been shown to have little influence on the child’s body weight. Since mother absence does not predict weight gain in children, it seems that the increase in the child’s body weight observed is due to the isolated genetic influence of an absent father, rather than the global environmental stress cause by the absence of either parent[24] This is possibly because in ancestral times the survival rate of children with mother being absent was extremely low. A specialised mechanism to deal with mother absence has never been developed.

In addition, recent findings seem to regard genes, rather than the environment, as the mechanism underlying the positive correlation between high body mass index and earlier first menarche onset[25] [26][27]. Androgen receptor gene may predispose a father to impulsive and externalising behaviours (e.g. family abandonment) and his offspring to early puberty [28]. The essentialness of androgen receptor to female fertility and ovary development has been proven by rodent studies.

Sexual behaviour

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Father absence in a household can result in children (of both sexes) having earlier average ages of first sexual intercourse than those raised in father present households. There is also the effect of increased rates of teenage pregnancy. Some evolutionary theories propose that early childhood is vital for encoding information that shapes future reproductive strategies (Belsky, 2007) in regulating physical and motivational pathways of sexual behaviour. Conflicting and stressful parental relationships can lead children to believe that resources are limited, people are untrustworthy, and relationships are opportunistic. As they replicate their parents’ mating-oriented reproductive behaviour, they tend to have multiple sexual partners and erratic relationships. Children implicitly and explicitly model their sexual attitudes and behaviours on their parents, see engagement in non-marital sex as normative. Father absence however can be a byproduct of initial social and economic strain within the household (e.g. violence, lack of educational opportunities and cumulative life exposure to poverty can increase the likelihood of early sexual endeavours and pregnancy). The timing of first intercourse can be heritable - shorter alleles of the X-linked androgen receptor (AR) gene has been associated with aggression, impulsivity, high number of sexual partners, divorce in males and earlier ages of physical maturation in females[28]

  1. ^ Udry, J. R. & Cliquet, R. L. (1982). A cross-cultural examination of the relationship between ages at menarche, marriage, and first birth. Demography, 19, 53-63.
  2. ^ Mezzich, A. C., Tarter, R. E., Giancola, P. R., Lu, S., Kirisci, L. & Parks, S. (1997). Substance use and risky sexual behavior in female adolescents. Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 44, 157-166.
  3. ^ Ness, R. (1991). Adiposity and age of menarche in Hispanic women. American Journal of Human Biology, 3, 41-48.
  4. ^ a b Wellens, R., Malina, R., Roche, A., Chumlea, W., Guo, S. & Siervogel, R. (1992). Body size and fatness in young adults in relation to age at menarche. American Journal of Human Biology, 4, 783-787.
  5. ^ Scholl, T. O., Hdiger, M. L., Vasilenko, P., Ances, I. G., Smith, W. & Salmon, R. W. (1989). Effects of early maturation on fetal growth. Annals of Human Biology, 16, 335-346.
  6. ^ Flannery, D. J., Rowe, D. C. & Gulley, B. J. (1993). Impact of pubertal status, timing, and age on adolescent sexual experience and delinquency. Journal of Adolescent Research, 8, 21-40.
  7. ^ Cota-Robles, S., Neiss, M. & Rowe, D. C. (2002). The role of puberty in violent and nonviolent delinquency among Anglo American, Mexican American, and African American boys. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17, 364-376.
  8. ^ Weir, H. K., Kreiger, N. & Marrett, L. D. (1998). Age at puberty and risk of testicular germ cell cancer. Cancer Causes and Control, 9, 253-258.
  9. ^ Giles, G. G., Severi, G., English, D. R., McCredie, M. R., MacInnis, R., Boyle, P. et al. (2003). Early growth, adult body size and prostate cancer risk. International Journal of Cancer, 103, 241-245.
  10. ^ Underwood, L. E. & Van Wyk, J. J. (1992). Normal and aberrant growth. In Wilson, J. D. & Foster, D. W. (eds) Williams Textbook of Endocrinology (8th edition) (pp. 1079-1138). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
  11. ^ Hetherington, E. M. (1972). Effects of father absence on personality development in adolescent daughters. Developmental Psychology, 7, 312-326.
  12. ^ Mekos, D., Hetherington, E. M. & Clingempeel, W. G. (1992). Psychosocial influences on the rate and timing of pubertal development. In Steinberg, L. (Chair) Psychosocial Antecedents of the Timing of Puberty. Washington, DC: Mendle, J., Turkeimer, E., D’Onofrio, B. M., Lynch.
  13. ^ Wierson, M., Long, P. J. & Forehand, R. L. (1993). Toward a new understanding of early menarche: The role of environmental stress in pubertal timing. Adolescence, 28, 913-924.
  14. ^ Kim, K. & Smith, P. K. (1998). Retrospective survey of parental marital relations and child reproductive development. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 22, 729-751.
  15. ^ Kim, K. & Smith, P. K. (1999). Family relations in early childhood and reproductive development. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 17, 133-148.
  16. ^ Ellis, B. J. & Garber, J. (2000). Psychosocial antecedents of variation in girls’ pubertal timing: Maternal depression, stepfather presence, and marital and family stress. Child Development, 71, 485-501.
  17. ^ Hoier, S. (2003). Father absence and age at menarche: A test of four evolutionary models. Human Nature, 14, 209-233.
  18. ^ Quinlan, R. (2003). Father absence, parental care, and female reproductive development. Evolution and Human Behaviour, 24, 376-390.
  19. ^ Romans, S. E., Martin, J. M., Gendall, K. & Herbison, G. P. (2003). Age of menarche: the role of some psychosocial factors. Psychological Medicine, 33, 933-939.
  20. ^ Belsky, J., Steinberg, L. & Draper, P. (1991a). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647-670.
  21. ^ Kaplowitz, P. B. (2008). Link between body fat and the timing of puberty. Pediatrics, 121, S208-S217.
  22. ^ Videon, T. M. & Manning, C. K. (2003). Influences on adolescent eating patterns: The importance of family meals. Journal of Adolescent Health, 32, 365-373.
  23. ^ Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A. Belsky, J. & Silva, P. A. (1992). Childhood experience and onset of menarche: A test of a sociobiological model. Child Development, 63, 47-58.
  24. ^ a b Bogaert, A. F. (2008). Menarche and father absence in a national probability sample. Journal of biosocial science, 40, 623-636.
  25. ^ Wang, W., Zhao, L. J., Liu, Y. Z., Recker, R. R. & Deng, H. W. (2006). Genetic and environmental correlations between obesity phenotypes and age at menarche. International Journal of Obesity, 30, 1595-1600.
  26. ^ Surbey, M. K. (1990). Family composition, stress, and the timing of human menarche. In Zeigler, T. E. & Bercovitch, F. B. (eds) Socioendocrinology of Primate Reproduction (pp. 11–32). New York: Wiley-Liss.
  27. ^ Mendle, J., Turkeimer, E., D’Onofrio, B. M., Lynch, S. K., Emery, R. E., Slutske, W. S. & Martin, N. G. (2006). Family structure and age at menarche: A children’s of twins approach. Developmental Psychology, 42, 533-542.
  28. ^ a b Comings, D. E., Muhleman, D., Johnson, J. P. & MacMurray, J. P. (2002). Parent–daughter transmission of the androgen receptor gene as an explanation of the effect of father absence on age of menarche. Child Development, 73, 1046-1051.
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