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Maternal and Offspring Condition

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Nutritional status; Physical shape; Socioeconomic status; Health; Fitness

Definition

The Trivers-Willard (TW) hypothesis predicts that parent and offspring condition should effect the ratio of male/female offspring, but the validity and the exact causal mechanisms of this hypothesized relationship are still unclear.

Introduction

According to the Trivers-Willard (TW) hypothesis, offspring sex composition and parental investment postpartum may, under certain conditions, be biased toward either male or female offspring. Maternal and offspring condition play a decisive role in the following three assumptions underlying the TW hypothesis: First, maternal and offspring condition are correlated during the parental investment phase. Second, early offspring condition is correlated with offspring condition later in life. And third, males profit more than females from slight advances in condition in their reproductive success (Trivers and Willard 1973).

The question as to what indicators...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Sebastian Schnettler

Authors
  1. Sebastian Schnettler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastian Schnettler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Gary L Brase

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Schnettler, S. (2017). Maternal and Offspring Condition. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1912-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1912-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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