Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-8c549 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T08:13:20.281Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Parent–Offspring Conflict

from Part II - Middle-Level Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

By
Catherine A. Salmon  and
Jessica A. Hehman
Edited by
Todd K. Shackelford
Todd K. Shackelford
Affiliation:
Oakland University, Michigan
Get access

Summary

At first glance, the relationship between parent and offspring seems to begin in perfect harmony. In particular, the image of human parents’ devotion to their infant is one that has been depicted in art for thousands of years. And yet it often seems a sharp contrast to the modern Western image of the adolescent–parent relationship, full of strife and angst. It’s also a contrast to the relatively abrupt end of parent–child relationships seen in many animal species as offspring disperse. Human offspring have a much longer period of juvenile dependence and sometimes don’t disperse very far. But is there a good reason to expect perfect harmony or strife and angst? Parent–offspring conflict theory has informed a wide range of research in nonhuman animals as well as in humans. Both research areas have focused on early maternal–infant conflict, such as prenatal conflict and weaning conflict; however, recent research in humans (as well as research in animals on cooperative breeders) has also highlighted conflict over mate choice. In this chapter we examine these sources of conflict.

Keywords

parent–offspring conflictparental investmentmaternal–infant conflictconflict over mating
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology , pp. 160 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcock, J., Maley, C. C., & Aktipis, C. A. (2014). Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms. BioEssays, 36, 940–949.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allen-Blevins, C. R., Sela, D. A., & Hinde, K. (2015). Milk bioactives may manipulate microbes to mediate parent–offspring conflict. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2015, 106–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, K. G., Kaplan, H., & Lancaster, J. (1999). Paternal care by genetic fathers and stepfathers I: Reports from Albuquerque men. Evolution and Human Behavior, 20(6), 405–431.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2007a). Sexual selection under parental choice: The role of parents in the evolution of human mating. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28(6), 403–409.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2007b). Elements of parental choice: The evolution of parental preferences in relation to in-law selection. Evolutionary Psychology, 5(1), 70–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2008a). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: The case of family background. Evolutionary Psychology, 6(3), 456–468.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2008b). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: The case of beauty. Evolutionary Psychology, 6(2), 303–315.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2009). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: The case of short-term mating strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(8), 895–899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2010). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: The case of mating age. Evolutionary Psychology, 8(3), 365–375.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2011a). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: Testing the tradeoffs hypothesis. Evolutionary Psychology, 9(4), 470–495.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2011b). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: A replication and extension study. Journal of Integrated Social Sciences, 2(1), 13–26.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M. (2017). The nature of parent–offspring conflict over mating: From differences in genetic relatedness to disagreement over mate choice. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 3(1), 62–71.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M., Chari, I., Lefkides, C., Theophanous, I., & Khalil, M. (2016). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: The case of divorce. Personality and Individual Differences, 99, 286–294.Google Scholar
Apostolou, M., & Papageorgi, I. (2014). Parental mate choice manipulation tactics: Exploring prevalence, sex and personality effects. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(3), 588–620.Google Scholar
Ball, H. (2008). Evolutionary paediatrics: A case study in applying Darwinian medicine. In Elton, S. & O’Higgins, P. (Eds.), Medicine and evolution: Current applications, future prospects (pp. 127–152). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Barrett, L., Halliday, J., & Henzi, S. P. (2006). The ecology of motherhood: The structuring of lactation costs by chacma baboons. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 875–886.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, L., & Henzi, S. P. (2000). Are baboon infants Sir Phillip Sydney’s offspring? Ethology, 106, 645–658.Google Scholar
Bartoš, L., Bartošová, J., Pluháček, J., & Olléová, M. (2012). Effect of ecological adaptation on suckling behaviour in three zebra species. Behaviour, 149, 1395–1411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bovet, J., Raiber, E., Ren, W., Wang, C., & Seabright, P. (2018). Parent–offspring conflict over mate choice: An experimental study in China. British Journal of Psychology, 109(4), 674–693.Google Scholar
Brown, W. M., & Consedine, N. S. (2004). Just how happy is the happy puppet? An emotion signaling and kinship theory perspective on the behavioral phenotype of children with Angelman syndrome. Medical Hypotheses, 63(3), 377–385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bugos, P. E., & McCarthy, L. M. (1984). Ayoreo infanticide: A case study. In Hausfater, G. & Hrdy, S. B. (Eds.), Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives (pp. 503–520). New York, NY: Aldine.Google Scholar
Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100(2), 204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buunk, A. P., Park, J. H., & Dubbs, S. L. (2008). Parent–offspring conflict in mate preferences. Review of General Psychology, 12(1), 47–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buunk, A. P., & Solano, A. C. (2010). Conflicting preferences of parents and offspring over criteria for a mate: A study in Argentina. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(4), 391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caro, S. M., Griffin, A. S., Hinde, C. A., & West, S. A. (2016). Unpredictable environments lead to the evolution of parental neglect in birds. Nature Communications, 7, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2002). Variation in homicide risk during infancy: United States, 1989–1998. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 51, 187–189.Google Scholar
Cowlishaw, G. (1978). Infanticide in aboriginal Australia. Oceania, 48, 262–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.Google Scholar
Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1999). The truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian view of parental love. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Duijts, L., Ramadhani, M. K., & Moll, H. A. (2009). Breastfeeding protects against infectious diseases during infancy in industrialized countries: A systematic review. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 5, 199–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Euler, H. A. (2011). Grandparents and extended kin. In Salmon, C. A. & Shackelford, T. K. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of evolutionary family psychology (pp. 181–210). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fowden, A. L., & Moore, T. (2012). Maternal–fetal resource allocation: Co-operation and conflict. Placenta, 33, e11–e15.Google Scholar
Fox, R. (1967). Kinship and marriage: An anthropological perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, S. H., Horwitz, S. M., & Resnick, P. J. (2005). Child murder by mothers: A critical analysis of the current state of knowledge and a research agenda. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162(9), 1578–1587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haig, D. (1993). Maternal–fetal conflict in human pregnancy. Quarterly Review of Biology, 68, 495–532.Google Scholar
Haig, D. (2010). Transfers and transitions: Parent–offspring conflict, genomic imprinting, and the evolution of human life history. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (suppl. 1), 1731–1735.Google Scholar
Haig, D. (2014). Troubled sleep: Night waking, breastfeeding and parent–offspring conflict. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2014(1), 32–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haig, D., & Wharton, R. (2003). Prader‐Willi syndrome and the evolution of human childhood. American Journal of Human Biology, 15(3), 320–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, S. L. (2016). Jealousy protest: Ontogeny in accord with the 9-month period of human gestation. Evolutionary Psychology, 14(2), 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman-Giddens, M. E., Smith, J. B., Mittal, M., Carlson, M., and Butts, J. D. (2003). Newborns killed or left to die by a parent: A population-based study. JAMA, 289(11), 1425–1429.Google Scholar
Hinde, K., & German, J. B. (2012). Food in an evolutionary context: Insights from mother’s milk. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 92(11), 2219–2223.Google Scholar
Hinde, K., Skibiel, A. L., Foster, A. B., Del Rosso, L., Mendeoza, S. P., & Capitanio, J. P. (2015). Cortisol in mother’s milk across lactation reflects maternal life history and predicts infant temperament. Behavioral Ecology, 26(1), 269–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jasienska, G. (2009). Reproduction and lifespan: Trade-offs, overall energy budgets, intergenerational costs, and costs neglected by research. American Journal of Human Biology, 21, 524–532.Google Scholar
Kotler, J. (2016). Weaning and maternal–fetal conflict. In Shackelford, T. K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V. A. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science. New York, NY: Springer.Google Scholar
Maestripieri, D. (2002). Parent–offspring conflict in primates. International Journal of Primatology, 23, 923–951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maestripieri, D. (2004). Genetic aspects of mother–offspring conflict in rhesus macaques. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 55, 381–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masciuch, S., & Kienapple, K. (1993). The emergency of jealousy in children 4 months to 7 years of age. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 421–435.Google Scholar
McDade, T. W. (2001). Parent–offspring conflict and the cultural ecology of breast-feeding. Human Nature, 12(1), 9–25.Google Scholar
McKerracher, L. J., Collard, M., Altman, R. M., Sellen, D., & Nepomnaschy, P. A. (2016). Energy-related influences on variation in breastfeeding duration among indigenous Maya women from Guatemala. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 162, 616–626.Google Scholar
Mehr, S. A., & Krasnow, M. M. (2017). Parent–offspring conflict and the evolution of infant-directed song. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, 674–684.Google Scholar
Mock, D. W., Drummond, H., & Stinson, C. H. (1990). Avian siblicide. American Scientist, 78(5), 438–449.Google Scholar
Mock, D. W., & Parker, G. A. (1997). The evolution of sibling rivalry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morandini, V., & Ferrer, M. (2015). Sibling aggression and brood reduction: A review. Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 27, 2–16.Google Scholar
Mull, D. S., & Mull, J. D. (1987). Infanticide among the Tarahumara of the Mexican Sierra Madre. In Scheper-Hughes, N. (Ed.), Child survival: Anthropological perspectives on the treatment and maltreatment of children (pp. 113–132). Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Newburg, D. S., Ruiz-Palacios, G. M., Altaye, M., Chaturvedi, P., Meinzen-Derr, J., Guerrero, M. D. L., & Morrow, A. L. (2004). Innate protection conferred by fucosylated oligosaccharides of human milk against diarrhea in breastfed infants. Glycobiology, 14(3), 253–263.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niemeyer, C. L., & Anderson, J. R. (1983). Primate harassment of matings. Ethology and Sociobiology, 4, 205–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overpeck, M. D., Brenner, R. A., Trumble, A. C., Trifiletti, L. B., & Berendes, H. W. (1998). Risk factors for infant homicide in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 339(17), 1211–1216.Google Scholar
Packard, J. M., Mech, L. D., & Ream, R. R. (1992). Weaning in an arctic wolf pack: Behavioral mechanisms. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 70(7), 1269–1275.Google Scholar
Paul, M., & Bhadra, A. (2017). Selfish pups: Weaning conflict and milk theft in free-ranging dogs. PLoS One, 12(2), e0170590.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paul, M., Majumder, S. S., & Bhadra, A. (2014). Selfish mothers? An empirical test of parent–offspring conflict over extended parental care. Behavioural Processes, 103, 17–22.Google Scholar
Pavé, R., Kowalewski, M. M., Peker, S. M., & Zunino, G. E. (2010). Preliminary study of mother–offspring conflict in black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya). Primates, 51(3), 221–226.Google Scholar
Pavé, R., Kowalewski, M. M., Zunino, G. E., & Giraudo, A. R. (2015). How do demographic and social factors influence parent–offspring conflict? The case of wild black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya). American Journal of Primatology, 77(8), 911–923.Google Scholar
Perilloux, C., Fleischman, D. S., & Buss, D. M. (2011). Meet the parents: Parent–offspring convergence and divergence in mate preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 253–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pluháček, J., Bartoš, L., & Bartošová, J. (2010). Mother–offspring conflict in captive plains zebra (Equus burchellii): Suckling bout duration. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 122, 127–132.Google Scholar
Rehling, A., Spiller, I., Krause, E. T., Nager, R. G., Monaghan, P., & Trillmich, F. (2012). Flexibility in the duration of parental care: Zebra finch parents respond to offspring needs. Animal Behaviour, 83, 35–39.Google Scholar
Reik, T. (2002). Love and lust: On the psychoanalysis of romantic and sexual emotions. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Rohwer, S., Herron, J. C., & Daly, M. (1999). Stepparental behavior as mating effort in birds and other animals. Evolution and Human Behavior, 20(6), 367–390.Google Scholar
Salmon, C. A. (1999). On the impact of the sex and birth order on contact with kin. Human Nature, 10, 183–197.Google Scholar
Salmon, C. (2015). Parental investment and parent–offspring conflict. In Buss, D. M. (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 542–560). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Salmon, C. A., & Hehman, J. A. (2022). Evolutionary perspectives on infant–mother conflict. In Hart, S. L. & Bjorklund, D. (Eds.), Evolutionary perspectives on infancy. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Schlomer, G. L., Del Giudice, M., & Ellis, B. J. (2011). Parent–offspring conflict theory: An evolutionary framework for understanding conflict within human families. Psychological Review, 118, 496–521.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlomer, G. L., Ellis, B. J., & Garber, J. (2010). Mother–child conflict and sibling relatedness: A test of hypotheses from parent–offspring conflict theory. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(2), 287–306.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D. P. (2015). Fundamentals of human mating strategies. In Buss, D. M. (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 258–291). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Sellen, D. W. (2001). Comparison of infant feeding patterns reported for nonindustrial populations with current recommendations. Journal of Nutrition, 131(10), 2707–2715.Google Scholar
Sellen, D. W. (2009). Evolution of human lactation and complementary feeding: Implications for understanding contemporary cross-cultural variation. In Breast-feeding: Early influences on later health (pp. 253–282). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Smorti, M., Tschiesner, R., & Farneti, A. 2012. Grandparents–grandchildren relationship. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 895–898.Google Scholar
Trehub, S. E., Unyk, A. M., & Henderson, J. L. (1994). Children’s songs to infant siblings: Parallels with speech. Journal of Child Language, 21, 735–744.Google Scholar
Trehub, S. E., Unyk, A. M., & Trainor, L. J. (1993a). Adults identify infant-directed music across cultures. Infant Behavior and Development, 16, 193–211.Google Scholar
Trehub, S. E., Unyk, A. M., & Trainor, L. J. (1993b). Maternal singing in cross-cultural perspective. Infant Behavior and Development, 16, 285–295.Google Scholar
Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In Campbell, B. G. (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man: 1887–1971 (pp. 136–179). Chicago, IL: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Trivers, R. L. (1974). Parent–offspring conflict. American Zoologist, 14, 249–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tully, K. P., & Ball, H. L. (2013). Trade-offs underlying maternal breastfeeding decisions: A conceptual model. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 9, 90–98.Google Scholar
van den Berg, P., Fawcett, T. W., Buunk, A. P., & Weissing, F. J. (2013). The evolution of parent–offspring conflict over mate choice. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(6), 405–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Noordwijk, M. A., Kuzawa, C. W., & van Schaik, C. P. (2013). The evolution of the patterning of human lactation: A comparative perspective. Evolutionary Anthropology, 22, 202–212.Google Scholar
Veile, A., & Miller, V. (2019). Duration of breast feeding in ancestral environments. In Shackelford, T. K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V. A. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science. New York, NY: Springer.Google Scholar
Wells, J. C. (2003). Parent–offspring conflict theory, signaling of need, and weight gain in early life. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 78, 169–202.Google Scholar
Winberg, J. (2005). Mother and newborn baby: Mutual regulation of physiology and behavior – a selective review. Developmental Psychology, 47, 217–229.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×