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New paper in Evolution and Human Behaviour by Pettay et al. in press

Family dynamics and age-related patterns in marriage probability

Jenni E. Pettay⁎, Simon N. Chapman, Mirkka Lahdenperä, Virpi Lummaa
Evolution and Human Behavior (in press)

In cooperatively breeding species, extended living in natal families after maturity is often associated with limited
breeding possibilities and the ability to gain indirect fitness from helping relatives, with family dynamics, such as
parental presence and relatedness between family members, playing a key role in determining the timing of own
reproduction. How family dynamics affect marriage and the onset of reproduction in humans is complex and less
well-understood. While paternal absence can be associated with both earlier puberty and reproductive behaviour,
or with delayed reproduction if marriage requires parental resources, in step-parent families, half-siblings
could further decrease the benefits from helping and delaying own reproduction compared to families with only
full-siblings. Such costs and benefits are likely age-dependent, but have not been addressed in previous studies.
Using data from pre-industrial agrarian Finland, we investigated if parental loss and remarriage affected marriage
probabilities of their differently-aged sons and daughters. We found that parental composition had divergent
effects across adulthood: loss of a parent resulted in a higher probability to marry in early adulthood,
whereas parental presence increased later adulthood marriage probability. Whilst the death of either parent was
linked to an overall lowered marriage probability, remarriage of the widowed parent, especially mother, could
mitigate this effect somewhat. Additionally, the presence of underage full-siblings lowered marriage probability,
suggesting postponement of one's own reproduction in favour of helping parental reproduction. Overall, our
results support the idea that humans are cooperative breeders, and show the importance of considering both
relatedness and age when investigating family dynamics.

Read full article

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Tarja Repo / STT

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Photo by Jonathan Webb, edited by Esko Pettay

Virpi Lummaa interviewed in the Guardian: What is the menopause and when does it strike?

It’s a natural part of the female life cycle – so why don’t we talk more about the menopause, its debilitating effects and possible mitigation?

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New paper will appear soon in Evolution and Human Behaviour by R. Lynch, V. Lummaa & J. Loehr: see the early version!

Self sacrifice and kin psychology in war: threats to family predict decisions to volunteer for a women's paramilitary organization

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Virpi Lummaa Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian jäseneksi

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“Grandmother Hypothesis” Gets Some Support - The Scientist 7.2.2019

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New paper out in Nature by Robert Lynch et al.

Karelia-project's newest paper by Robert Lynch, Virpi Lummaa, Kathrik

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Simon's newest paper is published online in Current Biology

ScienceNews 7.2.2019

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Virpi in WEF Annual Meeting 2019 in Davos

Virpi Lummaa is participating in the World Economic Forum Annual meeting in Davos, speaking about her research e.g. in the session ERC IdeaLab: Healthy Ageing.

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Welcome to the multidisciplinary seminar HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURAL CHANGE 1-2.11.2018

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Prof. Virpi Lummaa

Academy Professor
virpi.lummaa (at) utu.fi

Dr. Anne Hemmi

Research Coordinator
hemmi (at) utu.fi

University of Turku
Department of Biology
Natura
Vesilinnantie 5
20014 University of Turku
Finland

Academy of Finland
University of Turku