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Relatives may help or hinder children’s survival -finds a study from historical Finland

Humans engage in cooperative childcare, meaning that raising offspring is not solely the responsibility of the parents but also involves contributions from other members of the social group. Typically, the individuals who contribute the most to child-rearing tend to be closely related to the child and their presence has been shown to be associated with child survival in numerous traditional human societies. However, while much research has focused on the role of close kin, the influence of more distant relatives on child survival remains largely unexplored. 

In a recent study Lahdenperä et al. examined the influence of kin on child mortality rates in pre-industrial Finnish populations. Utilizing extensive genealogical records (n = 32,000 children, born between 1732 and 1879), the researchers analyzed the impact of 36 different types of relatives, including both immediate and extended family members, on the mortality risk of children under the age of 5 years.

The findings revealed complex associations between these relatives, which often depended on family’s socioeconomic status or the lineage (whether the relative was from mother’s or father’s side, i.e. maternal vs. paternal). The presence and greater number of several paternal relatives were associated with an increase in child mortality and many of these associations were seen among the wealthiest families, due to inheritance practices and shared resources. For example, greater number of paternal aunts and uncles significantly increased child mortality risk. Some other relatives decreased child mortality such as the mother, sister and maternal grandmother. The presence of the maternal grandmother was associated with a decrease in child mortality the most among poorer families, who probably needed the grandmother’s contribution more than the wealthy.

This research brings new insights into the importance of close and more distant kin and suggest that relatives can provide support or other resources but also compete for limited resources and care. While the nuclear family is common in modern developed countries like Finland, it has historically been an exception. Examining the benefits and costs of relatives' presence across different contexts helps illuminate the constraints and opportunities of nuclear family structures. Understanding how relatives influenced child mortality in historical settings provides insights into human family dynamics, cooperative breeding, and familial conflicts.

Read more: 
Lahdenperä M, Salonen M, Hiraoka T, Seltmann MW, Saramäki J, Lummaa V. 2025: Close and more distant relatives are associated with child mortality risk in historical Finland. Evolutionary Human Sciences 7, 2025, e5.

Other News

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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Lummaa Group held a truly good Annual Meeting 2018 in Seili


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Visit from Silke van Daalen and Hal Caswell

We are delighted to once again host PhD candidate Silke van Daalen, who will stay with us for most of September.

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New paper accepted for publication: Human Reproductive Update

Laisk T, Tšuiko O, Jatsenko T, Hõrak P, Otala M, Lahdenperä M, Lummaa V, Tuuri T, Salumets A, Tapanainen JS:

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New Paper: Grandmotherhood across the demographic transition

Simon's latest work on the demography of grandmothers is now out in PLoS ONE. 

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Interdisciplinary seminar day with Martin Daly and Gretchen Perry

We were delighted to host Professors Martin Daly and Gretchen Perry for a day of excellent talks, with a particular focus on grandmothering and alloparental behaviour.

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Robert at HBES

Robert Lynch is at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) conference 2018 in Amsterdam

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New paper accepted for publication in Nature Reviews Genetics

The manuscript "The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection" by Stephen Corbett, Alexandre Courtiol, Virpi Lummaa, Jacob Moorad and Stephen Stea

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New Papers: Demography of grandparenthood and testing the X-linked grandmother hypothesis

Two papers out now from Simon's PhD project!

1) Changes in the Length of Grandparenthood in Finland 1790-1959, published in the Finnish Yearbook of Population Reasarch. In this paper, the team investigated how the shared time between grandparents and grandchildren changed across the demographic transition and with industrialisation. This shared time was low and stable before these major events, and began to increase rapidly after they began.

2) Limited support for the X-linked grandmother hypothesis in pre-industrial Finland, published in Biology Letters. Here, we tested whether slight differences in relatedness via the X-chromosome might lead to differences the survival of male and female grandchildren with maternal or paternal grandmothers. Though two of three predictions were supported, we concluded that the X-linked grandmother hypothesis cannot account for lineage differences by itself. 

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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