{"title":"Non-kin alloparents and child outcomes: Older siblings, but not godparents, predict educational attainment in a rural context","authors":"Eric B. Hubbard , Ollie Shannon , Anne C. Pisor","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.09.006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Despite increasing evidence of non-kin contributions to cooperative childrearing, explicit investigation of non-kin allomaternal care remains rare, meaning we have little data to evaluate why non-kin provide care and whether non-kin investment translates into benefits for mothers or children. Here, we examine the role of godparents—kin and non-kin allomothers that often invest in both mothers and children—to investigate whether having a godparent translates into benefits in terms of the godchild's educational attainment. Among adults in two rural Bolivian communities, we find that having a godparent, whether kin or non-kin and regardless of where they live, does not predict years of education, finishing high school, or pursuing higher education. Instead, having more older siblings predicted educational attainment on all these dimensions. We make recommendations for how field researchers can better assess the impact of non-kin allomothers in future research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Evolution and Human Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513823000843","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Despite increasing evidence of non-kin contributions to cooperative childrearing, explicit investigation of non-kin allomaternal care remains rare, meaning we have little data to evaluate why non-kin provide care and whether non-kin investment translates into benefits for mothers or children. Here, we examine the role of godparents—kin and non-kin allomothers that often invest in both mothers and children—to investigate whether having a godparent translates into benefits in terms of the godchild's educational attainment. Among adults in two rural Bolivian communities, we find that having a godparent, whether kin or non-kin and regardless of where they live, does not predict years of education, finishing high school, or pursuing higher education. Instead, having more older siblings predicted educational attainment on all these dimensions. We make recommendations for how field researchers can better assess the impact of non-kin allomothers in future research.
期刊介绍:
Evolution and Human Behavior is an interdisciplinary journal, presenting research reports and theory in which evolutionary perspectives are brought to bear on the study of human behavior. It is primarily a scientific journal, but submissions from scholars in the humanities are also encouraged. Papers reporting on theoretical and empirical work on other species will be welcome if their relevance to the human animal is apparent.