Journal
HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE
Volume 19, Issue 3, Pages 311-330Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s12110-008-9046-0
Keywords
kin investment; asymmetric caregiving; paternity certainty; matrilineal family ties; grandparents; aunts and uncles
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Paternity certainty and matrilineal family ties have been used to explain the asymmetric caregiving of grandparents and aunts and uncles. The proximate mechanisms underlying biased kin investment, however, remain unclear. A central question of the study presented here was whether the parent-kin relationship is an important link in the caregiving. In a two-generational questionnaire study, we asked subjects to estimate the intensity of their relationships to parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles (emotional closeness, investment received in childhood). In addition, the subjects' parents rated their emotional closeness to their parents and siblings. We found that the parent-kin relationship was closely linked to the relatives' child care and could partly explain asymmetric caregiving. Maternal aunts played a special role as caregivers. Especially the mother's younger or last-born sister cared intensively for nieces and nephews, regardless of her closeness to the subjects' mother.
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