Abstract
This study investigates how allomaternal care (AMC) impacts human development outside of energetics by evaluating relations between important qualitative and quantitative aspects of AMC and developmental outcomes in a Western population. This study seeks to determine whether there are measurable differences in cognitive and language outcomes as predicted by differences in exposure to AMC via formal (e.g., childcare facilities) and informal (e.g., family and friends) networks. Data were collected from 102 mothers and their typically developing infants aged 13–18 months. AMC predictor data were collected using questionnaires, structured daily diaries, and longitudinal interviews. Developmental outcomes were assessed using the Cognitive, Receptive Language, and Expressive Language subtests of the Bayley III Screening Test. Additional demographic covariates were also evaluated. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC)-informed model selection was used to identify the best-fitting model for each outcome across three working linear regression models. Although AMC variables had no significant effects on Receptive and Expressive Language subtest scores, highly involved familial AMC had a significant medium effect on Cognitive subtest score (β = 0.23, p < 0.01, semi-partial r = 0.28). Formal childcare had no effect on any outcome. This study provides preliminary evidence that there is a measurable connection between AMC and cognitive development in some populations and provides a methodological base from which to assess these connections cross-culturally through future studies. As these effects are attributable to AMC interactions with networks of mostly related individuals, these findings present an area for further investigation regarding the kin selection hypothesis for AMC.
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Supporting materials openly available in an Open Science Framework data repository at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/CUVM8.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation under the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Science under the DDRI Biological Anthropology Program (Award Number: BCS-1752542); and by the University of Arizona through the School of Anthropology (under the W. & N. Sullivan Research Scholarship Fund and Reicker Grants), Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, Graduate and Professional Student Council, and Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute. I thank the mothers and children who participated in this study, which would not have been possible without them. I extend a special thanks to Your Family’s Journey, Tucson Moms Group, Tucson Meet up Moms Group, and the countless other Tucson groups that aided in my recruitment efforts. I am thankful to the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families for allowing me to conduct research at the Lang Lab for Family and Child Observational Research. I also thank Drs. Mark Borgstrom and Ed Bedrick for their statistical advice, and the dedicated research assistants who tirelessly helped with data coding and entry: Shreya Muralidhara, Darian Holstad, Nicole Cortes, Jordana Gotlieb, Erin Conway, and Gabriel Prado. I appreciate Drs. Ivy Pike, David Raichlen, Evan MacLean, Melissa Barnett, and Daniel Papaj (my dissertation committee) for their continued support, and I am particularly indebted to Dr. Ivy Pike, Cait McPherson, and Kevin Snyder for comments on previous drafts of this work. I also thank the University of Arizona’s Graduate College and the International Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood for supporting me during my dissertation writing phase.
Funding
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation under the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Science under the DDRI Biological Anthropology Program (Award Number: BCS-1752542); and by the University of Arizona through the School of Anthropology (under the W. & N. Sullivan Research Scholarship Fund and Reicker Grants), Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, Graduate and Professional Student Council, and Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute.
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Singletary, B. Learning Through Shared Care. Hum Nat 32, 326–362 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09395-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09395-8