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Infant Abandonment

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Infant survival; Parental investment; Parenting decisions

Definition

Terminating investment in an offspring by abandoning the offspring.

Introduction

It has been well established that parenting is a complex behavior. Parental investment theory posits that this complexity is partially due to the lack of resources in the environment and the high cost of parental investment (e.g., physical energy during gestation, breastfeeding, and postnatal protection of the offspring; Trivers 1972). These factors may collectively compel parents to (both consciously and unconsciously) make harsh decisions about whether it may be more beneficial to invest in themselves or in their offspring. Evolutionary theory suggests that it may indeed be favorable for parents to, under certain circumstances, terminate investment in a given offspring to either (a) invest more in the other more viable offspring or (b) invest in the parents’ own growth and development so that they may have more viable...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada

    Prarthana Franklin & Katerina Schiralli

Authors
  1. Prarthana Franklin
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  2. Katerina Schiralli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katerina Schiralli .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada

    Steven Arnocky

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Franklin, P., Schiralli, K. (2019). Infant Abandonment. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_771-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_771-1

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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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