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Life History Evolution Forms the Foundation of the Adverse Childhood Experience Pyramid

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Abstract

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are situated as the foundation of a six-tier pyramid, above which rests: (1) disrupted neurodevelopment; (2) social, emotional, and cognitive impairment; (3) adoption of health-risk behaviors; (4) disease, disability, and social problems; and (5) early death. ACEs purportedly initiate a causal sequence of negative developmental, behavioral, social, and cognitive outcomes, culminating in heightened mortality risk. Militating against this causal explanation, life history evolution is herein hypothesized to be the true foundation of any such pyramid. Subsuming ACEs within a life history framework has two broad implications: First, to some extent, ACEs are effectively changed from cause to correlate; second ACEs are seen as markers of strategic life history variation, not markers of dysfunction.

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Notes

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html

  2. This terminology is presently used as it was in Hertler et al. (2018), wherein this terminology was preferred in favor of the traditional r and K terms. The latter are outgrowths of population density equations growing out of early life history models. In this nomenclature, r-selected is related to fast-selected, while K-selected is related to slow-selected, or, respectively as we termed them fast life history (fHL) selected and slow life history (sLH) selected. For the reasoning behind these changes and differences they imply, see the introduction to the previously cited source.

  3. There is no reason to dispute relationships of partial causal significance along this chain. To this end we find convergent evidence between the ACEs literature and well understood pathways studied within the psychoneuroimmunology literature, such as the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Indeed, sustained cortisol experienced by a developing brain is known to effect change (Plotsky et al., 1998; Romeo et al., 2006; Tarullo & Gunnar, 2006; Fisher et al., 2006; Foley & Kirschbaum, 2010). There are then studies of parental care and its ability to mitigate the neuroendocrine effects of stress (Gunnar, 1998). In consequence, ACEs and LH interface in the literature on binary switches, or those longitudinal studies showing how harmful environments shunt development along ‘undesirable’ trajectories (Chisholm, 1999a, b; Del Giudice et al., 2009). LH literature demonstrates something of a sensitive period wherein disrupted attachment and mortality cues evoke a fast life history.

  4. National Educational Association’s Action Plan for Reducing the School Dropout Rates, National Responsible Fatherhood Clearing House, Promoting Responsible Fatherhood, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and The President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Saint Elizabeth University, Morristown, NJ, USA

    Steven Hertler

  2. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Tomás Cabeza de Baca, Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre, Heitor B. F. Fernandes & Aurelio José Figueredo

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  1. Steven Hertler
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  2. Tomás Cabeza de Baca
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  3. Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre
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  4. Heitor B. F. Fernandes
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  5. Aurelio José Figueredo
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All authors are listed above: Steven Hertler, Tomás Cabeza de Baca, Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre, Heitor B. F. Fernandes, and Aurelio José Figueredo.

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Correspondence to Steven Hertler.

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Hertler, S., de Baca, T.C., Peñaherrera-Aguirre, M. et al. Life History Evolution Forms the Foundation of the Adverse Childhood Experience Pyramid. Evolutionary Psychological Science 8, 89–104 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-021-00299-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-021-00299-5

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