Kermyt G Anderson, Hillard Kaplan, David Lam, and Jane B. Lancaster. 1999. Paternal care by genetic fathers and stepfathers II: Reports by Xhosa high school students. Evolution and Human Behavior 20: 433-451.

In this paper we present a biosocial model of human male parental care that allows relationship (mating) effort to influence male parental allocations. The model recognizes four classes of relationships between men and the children they parent: genetic offspring of current mates (combined relationship and parental effort), genetic offspring of previous mates (parental effort solely), step offspring of current mates (relationship effort solely), and step children of previous mates (essentially no expected investment). We test the model using data on parental investment collected from 340 Xhosa high school students in Cape Town, South Africa. Six measures of paternal investment are examined in this paper: the amount of money men spent on students for school, clothing, and miscellaneous expenditures, respectively, and how often men spent time with children, helped them with their homework, or spoke English with them. The tests provide support for the roles of both parental and relationship effort in influencing parental care: men invest significantly more in their genetic offspring and in the children of their current mates. We also examine several proximate influences on parental care, specifically the age and sex of the child, and the percentage of the child’s life the father figure co-resided with him or her. 

Paper
Back to Papers and Publications

Last modified: 10-08-02
by Kermyt G. Anderson