An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations

Abstract Within evolutionary sciences, care towards younger kin is well understood from an inclusive fitness framework, but why adults would care for older relatives has been less well researched. One existing model has argued that care directed towards elderly parents might be adaptive because of t...

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Autores principales:	Megan Arnot, Ruth Mace
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d376e350554d471dafd932e72df00d39
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d376e350554d471dafd932e72df00d392021-12-02T18:34:06ZAn evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations10.1038/s41598-021-93652-42045-2322https://doaj.org/article/d376e350554d471dafd932e72df00d392021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93652-4https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Within evolutionary sciences, care towards younger kin is well understood from an inclusive fitness framework, but why adults would care for older relatives has been less well researched. One existing model has argued that care directed towards elderly parents might be adaptive because of their benefits as carers themselves, with their help freeing up the middle generations’ energy which can then be invested into direct reproduction. However, in this model, elder care is more beneficial to fitness if the carer is fecund. To offer an initial test of this hypothesis, we look at caring behaviour relative to fecundity status in a contemporary dataset from the United Kingdom. If elder care is contingent on possible direct fitness benefits, we would expect women who are still menstruating to care more for their parents than women who can no longer reproduce. Based on this, we also predict that women who are physiologically post-reproductive would invest more in their grandchildren, through whom they can increase their inclusive fitness. After controlling for age and other relevant factors, we find that women who are still menstruating spend more time caring for their parents than those who are not, and the reverse is true when looking at time spent caring for grandchildren. These findings demonstrate that potential inclusive fitness outcomes influence how women allocate care up and down the generations.Megan ArnotRuth MaceNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Megan Arnot Ruth Mace An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
description	Abstract Within evolutionary sciences, care towards younger kin is well understood from an inclusive fitness framework, but why adults would care for older relatives has been less well researched. One existing model has argued that care directed towards elderly parents might be adaptive because of their benefits as carers themselves, with their help freeing up the middle generations’ energy which can then be invested into direct reproduction. However, in this model, elder care is more beneficial to fitness if the carer is fecund. To offer an initial test of this hypothesis, we look at caring behaviour relative to fecundity status in a contemporary dataset from the United Kingdom. If elder care is contingent on possible direct fitness benefits, we would expect women who are still menstruating to care more for their parents than women who can no longer reproduce. Based on this, we also predict that women who are physiologically post-reproductive would invest more in their grandchildren, through whom they can increase their inclusive fitness. After controlling for age and other relevant factors, we find that women who are still menstruating spend more time caring for their parents than those who are not, and the reverse is true when looking at time spent caring for grandchildren. These findings demonstrate that potential inclusive fitness outcomes influence how women allocate care up and down the generations.
format	article
author	Megan Arnot Ruth Mace
author_facet	Megan Arnot Ruth Mace
author_sort	Megan Arnot
title	An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
title_short	An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
title_full	An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
title_fullStr	An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
title_full_unstemmed	An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
title_sort	evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d376e350554d471dafd932e72df00d39
work_keys_str_mv	AT meganarnot anevolutionaryperspectiveonkincaredirectedupthegenerations AT ruthmace anevolutionaryperspectiveonkincaredirectedupthegenerations AT meganarnot evolutionaryperspectiveonkincaredirectedupthegenerations AT ruthmace evolutionaryperspectiveonkincaredirectedupthegenerations
_version_	1718377948603482112

An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations

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