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Testosterone and Jamaican Fathers

Exploring Links to Relationship Dynamics and Paternal Care

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Abstract

This paper investigates relationships between men’s testosterone and family life in a sample of approximately 350 Jamaican fathers of children 18–24 months of age. The study recognizes the role of testosterone as a proximate mechanism coordinating and reflecting male life history allocations within specific family and cultural contexts. A sample of Jamaican fathers and/or father figures reported to an assessment center for an interview based on a standardized questionnaire and provided a saliva sample for measuring testosterone level. Outcomes measured include subject demographics such as age and relationship status as well as partnership quality and sexuality and paternal attitudes and behavior. The variation in these fathers’ relationship status (e.g., married co-residential fathers, fathers in new non-residential relationships) was not associated with men’s testosterone. Too few stepfathers participated to enable a direct test of the prediction that stepfathers would have higher testosterone than biological fathers, although fathers who reported living with partners’ (but not his own) children did not have higher testosterone than fathers not reporting residing with a non-biological child. Fathers’ relationship quality was negatively related to their testosterone. Measures of paternal attitudes and behavior were not related to fathers’ testosterone. Consistent with previous ethnography, this sample of Jamaican fathers exhibited variable life history profiles, including residential status. We discuss why fathers’ relationship quality was found to be negatively related to their testosterone level, but other predictions were not upheld.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all of the men who participated in this study and the field research team who conducted interviews. For comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript, we thank Kali Bertelsen, Elizabeth Brogdon, Kristen Herlosky, Emilio Jacintho, Timothy McHale, Alesha Pettit, Teofilo Reyes, and Shelly Volsche. Thank you to Meghan Pierce for running the testosterone assays. For financial support, we are indebted to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), University of the West Indies (UWI), Michigan State University (MSU), University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 455003, Las Vegas, NV, 89154-5003, USA

    Peter B. Gray

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Health, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica

    Jody Reece, Charlene Coore-Desai, Twana Dinall, Sydonnie Pellington & Maureen Samms-Vaughan

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  1. Peter B. Gray
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Correspondence to Peter B. Gray.

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Gray, P.B., Reece, J., Coore-Desai, C. et al. Testosterone and Jamaican Fathers. Hum Nat 28, 201–218 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-016-9283-6

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