The Place of Proximity

Abstract

The mother-adult daughter relationship has been highlighted in both the social sciences and the public health literature as an important facet of social support networks, particularly as they pertain to maternal and child health. Evolutionary anthropologists also have shown positive associations between support from maternal grandmothers and various outcomes related to reproductive success; however, many of these studies rely on proximity as a surrogate measure of support. Here I present data from the Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Survey (PRMIHS) comparing geographic proximity of mother and daughter with a self-reported measure of mother-to-daughter support. These two measures were used to predict infant health outcomes as well as various measures of instrumental and emotional aid provided during pregnancy and after birth. Primary support was shown to have a positive effect across the analyses, whereas geographic proximity was associated with an increased risk of infant mortality and low birth weight as well as reduced odds of receiving support. This paradox was then examined using a combination variable that teased out the interactions of maternal support and proximity. Women who were geographically close to their mothers but who did not consider them a primary source of support had increased odds of infant death and low birth weight, and were less likely to receive either tangible or intangible forms of aid, while women whose mothers were both close and primary showed uniformly positive outcomes. These results place the role of propinquity within the larger context of social support and highlight the need for more detailed studies of social support within evolutionary anthropology.

Does grandparental help mediate the relationship between kin presence and fertility?

“…This suggests that when in-laws live nearby, but do not have much contact nor provide help, their presence actually reduces fertility outcomes. A similar result was found in Puerto Rico, where women who lived geographically close to their mothers, but did not receive support from them actually had increased odds of infant death and low birth weight offspring (Scelza 2011). For women who have geographically close kin, but have poor relationships with them, their fertility may actually be reduced.…”

“…Kin may also provide other types of non-physical help, such as emotional support, informational help, or emergency support. Research has shown that social support is important for good health and well-being (Berkman 1984;Sosa et al 1980), and we might expect that social or emotional support has an effect on fertility, potentially through the decision to have more children, or because pregnancies are more likely to result in live births and healthy children (Scelza 2011). Informational help may include the information kin provide about how best to raise children or when to seek medical care.…”

The Rebirth of Kinship

“…Thus, Mattison (2011) explores the explanatory value of a simple quantitative model of matriliny , emphasizing that the forms of wealth affecting reproduction may be more important in determining whether inheritance or wealth transmission will be daughter-biased than paternity certainty is on its own. Scelza (2011) shows that geographic proximity may not always be a good indicator of maternal support in studies of collaborative child-rearing, highlighting the dynamics between proximity and reported direct support in determining outcomes of child well-being. Both of these studies elucidate theoretical causality in kinship behavior by contemporaneously weighing two or more putative causes through multivariate analysis.…”

Alternatives to the Grandmother Hypothesis

“…For example, in the Gambia, Noel-Miller (2005:199) found that the coresidence of a grandparent and grandchild did not improve the grandchild's survival chances. In Puerto Rico, Scelza (2011) concluded that geographic proximity between a woman and her mother was crucial for infant health-but only so long as it occurred in conjunction with the mother's social support.…”