Religious Involvement Is Associated With Higher Fertility and Lower Maternal Investment, but More Alloparental Support Among Gambian Mothers
These results suggest that higher fertility among religious mothers may be supported by high levels of investment from biological and affinal kin. Matrilineal kin, other siblings, and affinal kin seem to be the most responsive to a woman's religiosity. Our findings cast doubt on interpretations of women's religious behaviors as signals of fidelity, and instead suggest they may be part of strategies to enable collective allomaternal resources and higher relative fertility.
Authors
- Laure Spake (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2243-7356)
- Rebecca Sear (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4315-0223)
- Andrew M. Prentice (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5389-451X)
- Radim Chvaja (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1560-1197)
- Mary K. Shenk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2002-1469)
- Anthony Cerami (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7634-0955)
- Jainaba Badjie
- John H. Shaver (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9522-4765)
- Anushé Hassan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3649-3049)
- Richard Sosis
Institutions
- Binghamton University (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- Baylor University (US)
- University of Ostrava (CZ)
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
- MRC Unit the Gambia (GM)
- European Research University
- Brunel University of London (GB)
- University of Otago (NZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Journal of Human Biology
- Published
- 2024-08-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24144
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.72
Funders
- John Templeton Foundation
- Templeton Religion Trust
- Medical Research Council