Citation

Lu HJ, Chang L. Dev. Sci. 2019; ePub(ePub): e12827.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Macau.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/desc.12827

PMID

30887602

Abstract

Within the evolutionary life history (LH) framework, aggression and risk taking are adaptive implementations of a fast LH strategy to adapt to environmental unsafety and unpredictability. Based on a longitudinal sample of 198 Chinese adolescents living in rural areas, half of whom were separated from their parents, the present study tested LH hypotheses about aggression and risk taking in relation to safety constraints in the childhood living environments. The results showed that proxies of environmental unpredictability, including parental separation, were positively associated with aggression and risk taking and negatively associated with slow LH strategy, which in turn was negatively associated with aggression and risk taking. Children separated from their parents scored lower on slow LH strategies and higher on aggression and risk taking. These findings support the evolutionary assumption that human development responds to safety cues through behavioral implementations of LH strategies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

aggression; child and adolescent development; environmental unpredictability; fast and slow life history strategies; risk taking