Infant Attachment Security and the Timing of Puberty: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis

Belsky, J., Houts, R. M. and Fearon, R. M. P. (2010) Infant Attachment Security and the Timing of Puberty: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis. Psychological Science, 21 (9). pp. 1195-1201. ISSN 0956-7976 doi: 10.1177/0956797610379867

Abstract/Summary

Life-history theories of the early programming of human reproductive strategy stipulate that early rearing experience, including that reflected in infant-parent attachment security, regulates psychological, behavioral, and reproductive development. We tested the hypothesis that infant attachment insecurity, compared with infant attachment security, at the age of 15 months predicts earlier pubertal maturation. Focusing on 373 White females enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we gathered data from annual physical exams from the ages of 9½ years to 15½ years and from self-reported age of menarche. Results revealed that individuals who had been insecure infants initiated and completed pubertal development earlier and had an earlier age of menarche compared with individuals who had been secure infants, even after accounting for age of menarche in the infants’ mothers. These results support a conditional-adaptational view of individual differences in attachment security and raise questions about the biological mechanisms responsible for the attachment effects we discerned.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/17505
Identification Number/DOI	10.1177/0956797610379867
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords	attachment; puberty; reproductive strategy; menarche; evolution
Publisher	Sage Publications
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