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Discriminative grandparental solicitude as reproductive strategy

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Abstract

1,857 adults rated the grandparental solicitude they received in childhood. Through a simple model based on the evolutionary concepts of ontogenetically differentiated reproductive strategy and paternity confidence, an ordered discriminative pattern of grandparental caregiving was predicted and confirmed by solid main effects, based on 603 complete cases. The maternal grandmother was the most caring. Unlike prevalent gender stereotypes, she was followed by the maternal grandfather, the paternal grandmother, and the paternal grandfather. The preferential grandparental solicitude was not influenced by residential distance, grandparent age, and availability of other grandparents. A predicted higher correlation for male than for female progenitors between solicitude and phenotypic resemblance could be confirmed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fachbereich 03 Psychologie, Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel, 34109, Kassel, Germany

    Harald A. Euler

  2. Lohfelden, Germany

    Barbara Weitzel

Authors
  1. Harald A. Euler
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  2. Barbara Weitzel
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Correspondence to Harald A. Euler.

Additional information

A shorter version of this paper with preliminary data was delivered by the first author on October 5, 1994, at the Congress “Anthropologie Heute” of the Gesellschaft für Anthropologie in Potsdam, Germany. The research was funded by the Zentrale Forschungsförderung of the Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel.

Harald A. Euler is professor of psychology at the Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel. As a Fulbright student he received his Ph.D. at Washington State University. His publications cover the psychology of learning, behavior modification, aggression, and emotion. In recent years his main research interest has been in evolutionary psychology.

Barbara Weitzel received her M.A. in ethnology and anthropology from the University of Göttingen and is currently employed as an election district assistant to a member of the Bundestag (Federal German Parliament).

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Euler, H.A., Weitzel, B. Discriminative grandparental solicitude as reproductive strategy. Human Nature 7, 39–59 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02733489

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02733489

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