Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Grandparental Investment and Genetic Relatedness

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

  • 563 Accesses

Synonyms

Grandparental involvement; Grandparental solicitude

Definition

Grandparental investment refers to all support that grandparents channel toward their grandchildren. Grandparents can invest in their grandchildren either directly or indirectly via a third party (e.g., via parents). Evolutionary theory claims that the ultimate reason why grandparental investment exists is because grandparents are genetically related to their grandchildren, and by investing resources in their grandchildren, grandparents can improve their own inclusive fitness. Thus, genetic relatedness is a crucial element behind the evolutionary idea of grandparental investment. Biological grandparents have on average a 25 % chance of having the same genes as their grandchildren.

Introduction

Humans are a cooperative breeding species, meaning that other people besides biological mothers invest large amount of time and resources in children (Hrdy 2009). These allomothers often include the child’s father, aunts,...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderson, K. G. (2011). Stepparenting, divorce, and investment in children. In C. A. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of evolutionary family psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrastil, E. R., Getz, W. M., Euler, H. A., & Starks, P. T. (2006). Paternity uncertainty overrides sex chromosome selection for preferential grandparenting. Evolution & Human Behavior, 27, 206–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coall, D. A., & Hertwig, R. (2010). Grandparental investment: Past, present, and future. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 1–59. doi:10.1017/S0140525X09991105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coall, D. A., Hilbrand, S., & Hertwig, R. (2014). Predictors of grandparental investment decisions in contemporary Europe: Biological relatedness and beyond. PLoS ONE, 9(1), e84082. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084082.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Euler, H. A. (2011). Grandparents and extended kin. In C. A. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of evolutionary family psychology (pp. 181–210). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Euler, H. A., & Weitzel, B. (1996). Discriminative grandparental solicitude as reproductive strategy. Human Nature, 7, 39–59.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, M., Sear, R., Beise, J., Ragsdale, G., Voland, E., & Knapp, L. A. (2010). Grandma plays favourites: X-chromosome relatedness and sex-specific childhood mortality. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277, 567–573.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour (I and II). Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. (2009). Mothers and others. The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaptjin, R., Thomese, F., Liefbroer, A. C., & Silverstein, M. (2013). Testing evolutionary theories of discriminative grandparental investment. Journal of Biosocial Science, 45, 1–22. doi:10.1017/S0021932012000612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pashos, A., Schwarz, S., & Björklund, D. F. (2016). Kin investment by step-grandparents – more than expected. Evolutionary Psychology, 14, 1–13. doi:10.1177/1474704916631213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Segal, N. L., Norman, P. L., Graham, J. L., & Miller, S. A. (2015). Do parents favor their adoptive or biological children? Predictions from kin selection and compensatory models. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 379–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanskanen, A. O., Rotkirch, A., & Danielsbacka, M. (2011). Do grandparents favor granddaughters? Biased grandparental investment in the UK. Evolution & Human Behavior, 32, 407–415. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.02.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanskanen, A. O., Danielsbacka, M., & Rotkirch, A. (2014). Multi-partner fertility is associated with lower grandparental investment from in-laws in Finland. Advances in Life Course Research, 22, 41–48. doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2014.04.003.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Westphal, S. H., Poortman, A.-R., & Van der Lippe, T. (2015). What about the grandparents? Children’s postdivorce residence arrangements and contact with grandparents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77, 424–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    A. O. Tanskanen

  2. Population Research Institute of Finland, Helsinki, Finland

    M. Danielsbacka

Authors
  1. A. O. Tanskanen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Danielsbacka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. O. Tanskanen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M. (2016). Grandparental Investment and Genetic Relatedness. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1183-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1183-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation