TY - JOUR
T1 - Attachment insecurity and the biological embedding of reproductive strategies
T2 - Investigating the role of cellular aging
AU - Bolhuis, Emma
AU - Belsky, Jay
AU - Frankenhuis, Willem E.
AU - Shalev, Idan
AU - Hastings, Waylon J.
AU - Tollenaar, Marieke S.
AU - O'Donnell, Kieran J.
AU - McGill, Megan G.
AU - Pokhvisneva, Irina
AU - Lin, David T.S.
AU - MacIsaac, Julia L.
AU - Kobor, Michael S.
AU - de Weerth, Carolina
AU - Beijers, Roseriet
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Evolutionary-developmental psychologists have posited that individuals who grow up in stressful rearing circumstances follow faster life history strategies, thereby increasing their chances of reproduction. This preregistered study tested this stress-acceleration hypothesis in a low-risk longitudinal sample of 193 Dutch mother-child dyads, by investigating whether infant-mother attachment insecurity at 12 months of age predicted earlier pubertal onset and more callous-unemotional traits, aggression and risk-taking about a decade later. Also evaluated were the possible mediating roles of two biomarkers of accelerated aging (i.e., telomere length, epigenetic aging) at age 6. Structural equation modelling revealed no effects of attachment insecurity on biomarkers, pubertal timing or behavior. These null findings suggest that the explanatory value of evolutionary-developmental thinking might be restricted to high-risk samples, though unexplored variation in susceptibility to environmental influences might also explain the null findings.
AB - Evolutionary-developmental psychologists have posited that individuals who grow up in stressful rearing circumstances follow faster life history strategies, thereby increasing their chances of reproduction. This preregistered study tested this stress-acceleration hypothesis in a low-risk longitudinal sample of 193 Dutch mother-child dyads, by investigating whether infant-mother attachment insecurity at 12 months of age predicted earlier pubertal onset and more callous-unemotional traits, aggression and risk-taking about a decade later. Also evaluated were the possible mediating roles of two biomarkers of accelerated aging (i.e., telomere length, epigenetic aging) at age 6. Structural equation modelling revealed no effects of attachment insecurity on biomarkers, pubertal timing or behavior. These null findings suggest that the explanatory value of evolutionary-developmental thinking might be restricted to high-risk samples, though unexplored variation in susceptibility to environmental influences might also explain the null findings.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85140598882&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108446
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108446
M3 - Article
C2 - 36272562
AN - SCOPUS:85140598882
SN - 0301-0511
VL - 175
JO - Biological Psychology
JF - Biological Psychology
M1 - 108446
ER -