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Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?

Growth of different body parts in humans is sensitive to different resource constraints that are mediated by parental investment. Parental investment can involve the expenditure of material, cognitive, and emotional resources on offspring. Cranial volume, an important predictor of cognitive ability,...

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Autores principales: Lauringson, Velda, Veldre, Gudrun, Hõrak, Peeter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769954/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33384647
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.602401
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author Lauringson, Velda
Veldre, Gudrun
Hõrak, Peeter
author_facet Lauringson, Velda
Veldre, Gudrun
Hõrak, Peeter
author_sort Lauringson, Velda
collection PubMed
description Growth of different body parts in humans is sensitive to different resource constraints that are mediated by parental investment. Parental investment can involve the expenditure of material, cognitive, and emotional resources on offspring. Cranial volume, an important predictor of cognitive ability, appears understudied in this context. We asked (1) whether there are associations between growth and family structure, self-reported estimates for resource availability, and sibling number; and (2) whether these constraints relate to head and body growth in a similar manner. We assessed the associations between parental investment, height, and cranial volume in a cross-sectional study of Estonian children (born 1980–87, aged 11–17). Height correlated negatively with the number of siblings but this association became negligible in a model controlling for birthweight, parental heights, and mother’s age at birth. Unlike height, cranial volume was unrelated to sibling number, but it was negatively associated with self-reported meat and general resource shortage. Cranial volume was related to family structure and paternal education. Children living with both birth-parents had larger heads than those living in families containing a step-parent. Since these family types did not differ with respect to meat or general resource shortage, our findings suggest that families including both genetic parents provide non-material benefits that stimulate predominantly cranial growth. For the studied developmental period, cranial volume appeared a more sensitive marker of growth constraints than height. The potential of using cranial volume for quantifying physical impact of non-material parental investment deserves further attention.
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spelling pubmed-77699542020-12-30 Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources? Lauringson, Velda Veldre, Gudrun Hõrak, Peeter Front Psychol Psychology Growth of different body parts in humans is sensitive to different resource constraints that are mediated by parental investment. Parental investment can involve the expenditure of material, cognitive, and emotional resources on offspring. Cranial volume, an important predictor of cognitive ability, appears understudied in this context. We asked (1) whether there are associations between growth and family structure, self-reported estimates for resource availability, and sibling number; and (2) whether these constraints relate to head and body growth in a similar manner. We assessed the associations between parental investment, height, and cranial volume in a cross-sectional study of Estonian children (born 1980–87, aged 11–17). Height correlated negatively with the number of siblings but this association became negligible in a model controlling for birthweight, parental heights, and mother’s age at birth. Unlike height, cranial volume was unrelated to sibling number, but it was negatively associated with self-reported meat and general resource shortage. Cranial volume was related to family structure and paternal education. Children living with both birth-parents had larger heads than those living in families containing a step-parent. Since these family types did not differ with respect to meat or general resource shortage, our findings suggest that families including both genetic parents provide non-material benefits that stimulate predominantly cranial growth. For the studied developmental period, cranial volume appeared a more sensitive marker of growth constraints than height. The potential of using cranial volume for quantifying physical impact of non-material parental investment deserves further attention. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7769954/ /pubmed/33384647 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.602401 Text en Copyright © 2020 Lauringson, Veldre and Hõrak. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Lauringson, Velda
Veldre, Gudrun
Hõrak, Peeter
Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?
title Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?
title_full Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?
title_fullStr Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?
title_full_unstemmed Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?
title_short Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?
title_sort adolescent cranial volume as a sensitive marker of parental investment: the role of non-material resources?
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769954/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33384647
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.602401
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