Matrilateral effect of grandparental care and discriminative investment against granddaughters in modern Russian families | Sibirskie Istoricheskie Issledovaniia – Siberian Historical Research. 2022. № 1. DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/35/8

Matrilateral effect of grandparental care and discriminative investment against granddaughters in modern Russian families

In this article theoretical questions of discriminant investment in grandchildren, depending on the side of the kin and on the sex of the child, are discussed. Authors analyzed two theories that explain the phenomenon of preferential investment in grandchildren: (1) investment in more certain kin based on a premise of less certain genetic relatedness with the children and grandchildren along paternal lineages (2) preferential grandparental investment according to the asymmetric inheritance of the sex chromosomes by grandchildren. The preferential investment hypothesis studied in contemporary Russia is based on self-reported grandparental provision of childcare. The data related to research task was collected in 2016-18 in Moscow region. 317 Russian citizens comprise the sample size. The results show no support for the type of sex discrimination of grandchildren that was predicted by sex chromosomal relatedness theories but do provide support for the paternity uncertainty theory and following investment in more certain kin. Maternal grandparents provide significantly greater amount of help in raising grandchildren than paternal grandparents. In the second part of analyses, convincing evidence for discrimination against granddaughters and preferential investment in grandsons by both maternal and paternal grandparents has been found. In addition, according to our findings in contemporary Russia kin behavior exhibits cross-generational rotation of recipient of kin investment: the grandparental investment refers to daughter's family, but mainly targets grandsons.

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Keywords

child care, grandparental investment, kin selection, paternity uncertainty, relationship certainty, matrilaterality, grandparents, grandchildren

Authors

Name	Organization	E-mail
Semenova Olga V.	Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences	m4248296@yandex.ru
Butovskaya Marina L.	National Research University Higher School of Economics; Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences	marina.butovskaya@gmail.com

Всего: 2

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