Dr. Robert J. Quinlan and Dr. Mark V. Flinn will lead a team of researchers to investigate the complex interactions between family life, personal experience, culture, and biology in how children develop in a rural village on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica. The overall objective of this two-year biocultural investigation is to better understand how children's social experiences in childhood may influence the development of their mating and parenting behaviors as adults. The researchers employ cross-disciplinary perspectives and methodologies from cultural anthropology, human biology, and psychology, to examine the nurture and nature components of sexual and personality development.
The researchers hypothesize that in certain situations, stressful family environments may elevate children's stress (cortisol and alpha amylase, as indicators of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and sympathetic-adrenal-medullar activity) hormones, affecting their sexual and personality development. With eighteen years of previous research at the study site, they have a wealth of data to build on, including data on family composition, parental relationships, parental care, breastfeeding, wealth, children's stress hormones, health, and kinship. This information will be analyzed in concert with new data on parental investment, stress reactivity, physical maturation, age at first birth/pregnancy, personality characteristics, and risk taking behavior. The research is designed to examine associations among these measures while controlling for genetic effects.
This research is important because it will advance theory in biocultural anthropology by providing new insights into significant aspects of how variability in childhood social and cultural environments affects adult biology, personality, and behavior. Results are likely to have important ramifications for practical issues such as teenage pregnancy, disease transmission, and mental health. The study also offers training and field experience for American graduate students and Dominican students. Finally, the project members will work with local community members, educators, and health and social service officials to generate accessible and culturally appropriate educational materials for Caribbean families and schools.
Early Childhood Stress, Personality & Reproduction in a Matrifocal Community Results of this research show that environmental stressors in infancy and adolescence have combined effects on the development of human reproductive behavior in a "Third World" nation. The analysis is based on historical-longitudinal data on mortality and fertility and cross-sectional analysis of psychological traits believed to be associated with risky behaviors. High environmental stress indicated by infant mortality at the population level is associated with a developmental path characterized by early age at first birth and subsequently high fertility rates indicating reproductive responses to environmental risk. When the environment is extremely harsh (such as during times of severe famine) then human development appears to be strongly "canalized" in infancy, with little response to later improvements. However, under most circumstances, ranging from excellent to very poor environmental conditions, age at first birth and fertility rates are sensitive to both early environment (in infancy) and later environment (late adolescence and young adulthood). Personality traits appear to mediate between environmental quality in early life, and age at first birth and fertility rates later in life. This study indicates that environmental quality effects the development of "risky personality" and risk prone cultural cognition that are geared toward early reproduction and high fertility. This research has important implications for economic development and population planning in developing nations.
