Early maturity, shortened stature, and hardship: Can life‐history trade‐offs indicate social stratification and income inequality in the United States?

Abstract

ObjectiveLife‐history strategies promote reproductive fitness and survival. Limited energy availability and competing energetic demands between life‐history decisions may result in organismal trade‐offs leading to selection for “optimal” traits that facilitate fitness and survival in present environmental conditions. Few life‐history analyses have been conducted in food abundant/high resource human populations. Here, we use a life‐history theory framework integrated with a biocultural approach to assess whether trade‐offs between growth (height) and the onset of reproductive maturation (ages at menarche) were observed in a sample of adult women living in the United States.MethodsAdult women (18 years and older) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005 to 2006 were analyzed using complex survey regression to evaluate associations between ages at menarche, height, and biological, socio‐economic, demographic, and anthropometric variables.Associations between stature, ages at menarche, and socio‐economic status (household income and education level) suggest life‐history trade‐offs in this populations may be mitigated by access to resources and marginalization.ConclusionsThese study results have applied public health implications. We demonstrate that females who experience early menarche in the US population achieve short stature. Our study also demonstrates the need for implementing life‐history analyses in Western affluent populations, where marginalization may result in life‐history trade‐offs.

The influence of subjective socioeconomic status on inclination to offline collective action: a sequential mediation framework of group relative deprivation and online collective behavioral intentions

“…These findings indicate that individuals with lower subjective socioeconomic status exhibit a higher tendency towards collective action, whereas those with higher subjective socioeconomic status are less prone to engage in collective action. Furthermore, these results provide support for the application of life history strategy theory(Han & Chen, 2020;Rivara & Madrigal, 2019;Griskevicius et al, 2013) to college students, expanding its utility and validating previous research indicating that individuals with lower subjective SES are inclined towards fast life history strategies.…”

Association of early menarche with elevated BMI, lower body height and relative leg length among 14- to 16-year-old post-menarcheal girls from a Maya community in Yucatan, Mexico

“…Coexistence of short stature and excess weight (overweight and obesity) in terms of nutritional dual burden is common in Yucatan population (Varela-Silva et al 2012). Along with, consumption of non-essential energy-dense, industrially processed and ultra-processed foods and drinks are very high in Mexican populations (Bogin et al 2014;Illescas-Zárate et al 2021;López-Moreno 2021;Mendoza et al 2017) Life history strategies determine physical growth, development, sexual maturity, reproductive fitness, and survival (Rivara and Madrigal 2019). A mismatch between available energy and limited capacity to access may result in trade-offs that can be interpreted by a biocultural approach of evolutionary life history theory (McDade 2003).…”

“…A mismatch between available energy and limited capacity to access may result in trade-offs that can be interpreted by a biocultural approach of evolutionary life history theory (McDade 2003). Sexual maturity in adolescence determines reproductive health and success in the life of women; proximate and ultimate causes and consequences of EM (Gillette and Folinsbee 2012) may have negative impacts on fecundity, quality, and quantity of offspring that can be analyzed in an evolutionary framework (Rivara and Madrigal 2019). EM as an indicator of early sexual maturity and its association with short stature and lower relative subischial leg length (RSLL) can also be explained in terms of evolutionary mechanisms of life history trade-off and intergenerational transmission of maternal capital, both in utero and postnatal.…”

“…Life history theory integrated with a biocultural approach indicated that early reproductive maturity results in a growth trade-off and short stature in a sample of adult women in the U.S. (Rivara and Madrigal 2019). Leg length and other body dimensions relative to height among individuals are used as proxy of early life environmental conditions that influence physical growth in children (Bogin 2012;Bogin and Varela-Silva 2010).…”

Casting shadows: later-life outcomes of stature

“…Therefore, an earlier age at menarche should be related to short stature, and would enable women to have longer reproductive careers. Indeed, some studies find an association between early childbirth and short stature among women (Rivara & Madrigal, 2019 ; Sear, 2010 ). On the other hand, taller women also have been found to have easier births, higher birthweight babies, fewer stillbirths and higher survival chances among their children (ibid).…”