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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
The family in a changing world : A prolegomenon to an evolutionary analysis
1Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University, S-110 Henderson Building, 16802, University Park, PA.
Abstract:
Increasing numbers of young mothers in the work force, more and more children requiring extrafamilial care, high rates of divorce, lower rates of remarriage, increasing numbers of female-headed households, growing numbers of zero-parent families, and significant occurrences of child maltreatment are just some of the social indicators indicative of the family in a changing world. These trends and their consequences for children are described and then examined from the perspectives of microeconomic theory, the relative-income hypothesis, sex-ratio theory, and one form of modernization theory. The paper concludes with a preliminary examination of the added explanatory power provided by evolutionary theory.
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