A Longitudinal Assessment of Associations between Adolescent Environment, Adversity Perception, and Economic Status on Fertility and Age of Menarche

Abstract

Purpose: Perceptions of environmental adversity and access to economic resources in adolescence can theoretically affect the timing of life history transitions and investment in reproductive effort. Here we present evidence of correlations between variables associated with subjective extrinsic mortality, economic status, and reproductive effort in a nationally representative American population of young adults.

Methods: We used a longitudinal database that sampled American participants (N ≥ 1,579) at four points during early adolescence and early adulthood to test whether perceptions of environmental adversity and early economic status were associated with reproductive effort.

Results: We found that subjectively high ratings of environmental danger and low access to economic resources in adolescence were significantly associated with an earlier age of menarche in girls and earlier, more robust fertility in young adulthood.

Conclusion: While energetics and somatic condition remain as possible sources of variation, the results of this study support the hypothesis that perceptions of adversity early in life and limited access to economic resources are associated with differences in reproductive effort and scheduling. How these factors may covary with energetics and somatic condition merits further investigation.

Fig 1. A schematic of the Add Health study design (reproduced from [33]).

Fig 2. Correlates to age at menarche.

(A) Kaplan-Meier survival estimation of percent of population who have not reached menarche by perceived safety of adolescent neighborhood. (B) Comparison of mean age at menarche by perceived safety of adolescent neighborhood, t(3,604) = 3.304, p = .0005. For both A & B graphics, N = 425 in unsafe neighborhood, N = 3,181 in safe neighborhood. (C) Comparison of age at menarche by household family income in early life, β = 0.0015, p<0.01, N = 2702.

Fig 3. Correlates to number of children in early adulthood.

(A) Comparison of number of children in early adulthood by expectation of living to age 35 reported as mean, +1 standard deviation from the mean, and -1 standard deviation from the mean, β = -0.046, p<0.0001, N = 2,365. (B) Number of children in early adulthood by perceived safety of early environment, β = -0.467, p<0.0001, N = 3,844. (C) Number of children in early adulthood by family income quintile in adolescence, β = -0.004, p<0.0001, N = 2,859.