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Mothers and Fathers Perform More Mate Retention Behaviors than Individuals without Children

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Abstract

Human life history is unique among primates, most notably the extraordinary length of infant dependency and the formation of long-term pair-bonds. Men and women are motivated to remain pair-bonded to maintain the distribution of male-provisioned resources to a woman and her offspring, or to protect offspring from infanticide. Men and women can employ several strategies to retain their mate and prevent their partner from defecting from the relationship, including individual mate retention (behaviors performed alone) and coalitional mate retention (behaviors performed by a close ally). The current research investigates whether men and women with children perform more frequent mate retention behaviors than men and women without children. Participants (n = 1003) currently in a heterosexual romantic relationship completed a survey, reporting whether they had genetic children with their current romantic partner and how frequently they performed various mate retention behaviors. The results indicate that men (n = 262) and women (n = 234) who share genetic children with their current partner performed more frequent individual mate retention behaviors and requested more frequent coalitional mate retention behaviors than men (n = 280) and women (n = 227) who do not share genetic children with their current partner. The results are interpreted as they relate to hypotheses concerning the evolution of pair-bonding in humans, and mate retention behaviors more generally. Limitations of the current research are discussed, and profitable avenues for future research in this domain are suggested.

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Notes

  1. Multiple Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVAs) were also conducted separately by participant sex. Whether the participant shared a genetic child with their current romantic partner was included as a between-subjects variable, and participant age and length of the romantic relationship were entered as covariates. Each individual and coalitional mate retention variable (see Table 2) was entered separately as the dependent variable. All results of ANCOVAs are similar in direction and magnitude to the results of independent samples t tests reported in Tables 3–6; therefore, the more parsimonious results of the t tests are reported throughout the manuscript. Full results of ANCOVAs are available upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, 108 Pryale Hall, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA

    Nicole Barbaro, Todd K. Shackelford & Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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  1. Nicole Barbaro
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  2. Todd K. Shackelford
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  3. Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford
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Correspondence to Nicole Barbaro.

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Barbaro, N., Shackelford, T.K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. Mothers and Fathers Perform More Mate Retention Behaviors than Individuals without Children. Hum Nat 27, 316–333 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-016-9261-z

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