Male Scarcity is Associated with Higher Prevalence of Premature Gestation and Low Birth Weight Births Across the United States

Kruger, Daniel J.; Clark, Jillian; Vanas, Sarah

doi:10.1002/ajhb.22369

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Two ratios must be considered: (1) the operational sex ratio (OSR), which is the ratio of males to females ready to mate (Kvarnemo & Ahnesjo, 1996) and (2) adult sex ratio (ASR) which is the ratio of sexually mature males to females. Based on the stressful conditions described above, African American males experience excess mortality (Kruger, Clark, & Vanas, 2013), the highest proportion of imprisonment in the United States, and underrepresentation in higher education (Irvin Painter, 2007; Pettit & Western, 2004). As a result of both this excess morbidity and mortality ( p52 ) and the high degree of male incarceration ( p54 ), the sex ratio is biased toward a higher availability of African American women than men in the marriage market (Irvin Painter, 2007).…”

Section: Life History Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adversity, Adaptive Calibration, and Health: The Case of Disadvantaged Families

Baca

Wahl

Barnett

et al. 2016

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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Epidemiologists and medical researchers often employ an allostatic load model that focuses on environmental and lifestyle factors, together with biological vulnerabilities, to explain the deterioration of human physiological systems and chronic degenerative disease. Although this perspective has informed medicine and public health, it is agnostic toward the functional significance of pathophysiology and health deterioration. Drawing on Life History (LH) theory, the current paper reviews the literature on disadvantaged families to serve as a conceptual model of stress-health relationships in which the allocation of reproductive effort is instantiated in the LH strategies of individuals and reflects the bioenergetic and material resource tradeoffs. We propose that researchers interested in health disparities reframe chronic degenerative diseases as outcomes resulting from strategic calibration of physiological systems to best adapt, survive, and reproduce in response to demands of specific developmental contexts. These effects of adversity on later-age degenerative disease are mediated, in part, by socioemotional and cognitive mechanisms expressed in different life history strategies.

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Section: Life History Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adversity, Adaptive Calibration, and Health: The Case of Disadvantaged Families

Baca

Wahl

Barnett

et al. 2016

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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show abstract

“…These analyses on aggregate data are routinely used to support the argument that ASR influence human behaviour (e.g. [42][43][44][45][46]56,57]). The majority of studies with aggregate data rely on national level data, but some rely on smaller spatial units [47 -50,58 -60], such as states, regions, counties, wards, cities, metropolitan areas or even hunter-gatherer societies [51].…”

Section: Introduction (A) Adult Sex Ratios Effects On Human Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential pitfalls of studying adult sex ratios at aggregate levels in humans

Pollet

Stoevenbelt

Kuppens

2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Human adult sex ratios have been studied extensively across the biological and social sciences. While several studies have examined adult sex ratio effects in a multilevel perspective, many studies have focused on effects at an aggregated level only. In this paper, we review some key issues relating to such analyses. We address not only nation-level analyses, but also aggregation at lower levels, to investigate whether these issues extend to lower levels of aggregation. We illustrate these issues with novel databases covering a broad range of variables. Specifically, we discuss distributional issues with aggregated measures of adult sex ratio, significance testing, and statistical non-independence when using aggregate data. Firstly, we show that there are severe distributional issues with national adult sex ratio, such as extreme cases. Secondly, we demonstrate that many 'meaningless' variables are significantly correlated with adult sex ratio (e.g. the max. elevation level correlates with sex ratio at US state level). Finally, we re-examine associations between adult sex ratios and teenage fertility and find no robust evidence for an association at the aggregate level. Our review highlights the potential issues of using aggregate data on adult sex ratios to test hypotheses from an evolutionary perspective in humans.This article is part of the themed issue 'Adult sex ratios and reproductive decisions: a critical re-examination of sex differences in human and animal societies'.

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“…People develop a reliable way of interacting with the environment that best enhances their chances of survival and reproduction – a life history strategy. Our life history strategies influence our cognitive flexibility and executive functioning ( Mittal et al, 2015 ), our relationship processes in terms of selecting, pursuing, and maintaining a mating relationship ( Gladden et al, 2008 ), our reproductive strategies ( Kruger et al, 2013 ; Woodley of Menie et al, 2017 ), our eating behaviors ( Hill et al, 2016 ),our attitudes ( Wenner et al, 2013 ; Figueredo et al, 2017 ), our personality styles ( Gladden et al, 2009 ; Jonason et al, 2012 ), and other behaviors such as risk taking and impulsivity ( Hill et al, 2008 ; Griskevicius et al, 2011 ; Ellis et al, 2012 ). If our current environment no longer matches the one in which we developed or were expecting based on our early developmental experiences this is going to cause stress; especially if there is a failure to appropriately adapt (i.e., adaptive plasticity).…”

Section: Psychopathologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Expectations the Missing Link between Life History Strategies and Psychopathology?

Kavanagh

Kahl

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Despite advances in knowledge and thinking about using life history theory to explain psychopathology there is still a missing link. That is, we all have a life history strategy, but not all of us develop mental health problems. We propose that the missing link is expectations – a mismatch between expected environmental conditions (including social) set by variations in life history strategies and the current environmental conditions. The mismatch hypothesis has been applied at the biological level in terms of health and disease and we believe that it can also be applied more broadly at the psychological level in terms of perceived expectations in the social environment and the resulting distress—psychopathology—that manifests when our expectations are not met.

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Male Scarcity is Associated with Higher Prevalence of Premature Gestation and Low Birth Weight Births Across the United States

Abstract: Male scarcity influences life history tradeoffs, with consequences for important social and public health issues such as adverse birth outcomes.

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Adversity, Adaptive Calibration, and Health: The Case of Disadvantaged Families

Adversity, Adaptive Calibration, and Health: The Case of Disadvantaged Families

The potential pitfalls of studying adult sex ratios at aggregate levels in humans

Are Expectations the Missing Link between Life History Strategies and Psychopathology?

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