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Dying young and living fast: variation in life history across English neighborhoods

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  • Daniel Nettle

Abstract

Where the expected reproductive life span is short, theory predicts that individuals should follow a "fast" life-history strategy of early reproduction, reduced investment in each offspring, and high reproductive rate. I apply this prediction to different neighborhood environments in contemporary England. There are substantial differences in the expectation of healthy life between the most deprived and most affluent neighborhoods. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (n = 8660 families), I show that in deprived neighborhoods compared with affluent ones, age at first birth is younger, birthweights are lower, and breastfeeding duration is shorter. There is also indirect evidence that reproductive rates are higher. Coresidence of a father figure is less common, and contact with maternal grandmothers is less frequent, though grandmaternal contact shows a curvilinear relationship with neighborhood quality. Children from deprived neighborhoods perform less well on a verbal cognitive assessment at age 5 years, and this deficit is partly mediated by parental age and investment variables. I suggest that fast life history is a comprehensible response, produced through phenotypic plasticity, to the ecological context of poverty, but one that entails specific costs to children. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Nettle, 2010. "Dying young and living fast: variation in life history across English neighborhoods," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(2), pages 387-395.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:21:y:2010:i:2:p:387-395
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arp202
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Nettle, 2010. "Why Are There Social Gradients in Preventative Health Behavior? A Perspective from Behavioral Ecology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-6, October.
    2. Dorsa Amir & Matthew R Jordan & Richard G Bribiescas, 2016. "A Longitudinal Assessment of Associations between Adolescent Environment, Adversity Perception, and Economic Status on Fertility and Age of Menarche," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Paul Mathews & Rebecca Sear, 2013. "Family and Fertility: Kin Influence on the Progression to a Second Birth in the British Household Panel Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, March.
    4. Bence Csaba Farkas & Valérian Chambon & Pierre O. Jacquet, 2022. "Do perceived control and time orientation mediate the effect of early life adversity on reproductive behaviour and health status? Insights from the European Value Study and the European Social Survey," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Sotomayor, Orlando, 2013. "Fetal and infant origins of diabetes and ill health: Evidence from Puerto Rico's 1928 and 1932 hurricanes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 281-293.
    6. Megan Flaviano & Emily W. Harville, 2020. "Adverse Childhood Experiences on Reproductive Plans and Adolescent Pregnancy in the Gulf Resilience on Women’s Health Cohort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. David Escamilla-Guerrero & Edward Kosack & Zachary Ward, 2023. "The Impact of Violence during the Mexican Revolution on Migration to the United States," NBER Working Papers 31531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jose L. Vilchez, 2017. "The Solution for the Behavioural Constellation of Deprivation," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 246-263, September.
    9. Laura J. Brown & Sarah Myers & Abigail E. Page & Emily H. Emmott, 2020. "Subjective Environmental Experiences and Women’s Breastfeeding Journeys: A Survival Analysis Using an Online Survey of UK Mothers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-27, October.
    10. van der Wal, Arianne J. & van Horen, Femke & Grinstein, Amir, 2018. "Temporal myopia in sustainable behavior under uncertainty," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 378-393.
    11. N Lettinga & P O Jacquet & J-B André & N Baumand & C Chevallier, 2020. "Environmental adversity is associated with lower investment in collective actions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, July.
    12. Leiby, Justin & Madsen, Paul E., 2017. "Margin of safety: Life history strategies and the effects of socioeconomic status on self-selection into accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 21-36.
    13. Aburto, José Manuel & di Lego, Vanessa & Riffe, Tim & Kashyap, Ridhi & van Raalte, Alyson & Torrisi, Orsola, 2023. "A global assessment of the impact of violence on lifetime uncertainty," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118196, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Venla Berg & Anneli Miettinen & Markus Jokela & Anna Rotkirch, 2020. "Shorter birth intervals between siblings are associated with increased risk of parental divorce," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, January.
    15. Daniel Nettle & Agathe Colléony & Maria Cockerill, 2011. "Variation in Cooperative Behaviour within a Single City," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-8, October.
    16. Obschonka, Martin & Stuetzer, Michael & Rentfrow, Peter J. & Shaw-Taylor, Leigh & Satchell, Max & Silbereisen, Rainer K. & Potter, Jeff & Gosling, Samuel D., 2018. "In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries contributed to present-day regional differences in personality and well-being," MPRA Paper 89645, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Eckart Voland & Kai P. Willführ, 2015. "Why does paternal death accelerate the transition to first marriage in the C18-C19 Krummhörn population?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2015-005, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

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