New research conducted among female college students provides evidence that difficult childhood environments are associated with the development of specific personality traits that promote riskier sexual behaviors in adulthood. The study was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Evolutionary psychologists utilize a framework known as Life History Theory to explain how organisms allocate their energy and resources. This theory proposes that all living things must make trade-offs between investing in their own growth and survival or investing in reproduction. These trade-offs create a spectrum of strategies ranging from “fast” to “slow.”
A fast life history strategy is typically observed in environments that are harsh or unpredictable. In such contexts, the future is uncertain, which makes immediate reproduction an adaptive priority over long-term planning. Conversely, a slow life history strategy is favored in stable, resource-rich environments. This approach prioritizes personal development, delayed gratification, and heavy investment in a smaller number of offspring.
Prior research has established a connection between childhood adversity and accelerated reproductive behaviors. However, the specific psychological mechanisms that drive this relationship have remained less clear. The authors of the new study sought to investigate whether adult personality traits function as the bridge connecting a woman’s early environment to her mating effort.
“There has been debate in the Life History literature about the usefulness of using psychosocial traits to predict mating effort in humans as this cannot be done in animal analogs, which are the bases for Life History Theory,” said study author Lisa M. Bohon, a professor
at California State University, Sacramento.
“In addition, there is dispute over the dimensionality of Life History traits. Some argue that there is one dimension with fast and slow endpoints. We, and others, believe that life history is bidimensional, so that a person can be high or low in both dimensions, or have a mixed strategy. Finally, we were interested in combining the disparate findings in this field by looking at childhood ecology and psychosocial personality traits in one model.”
The researchers focused specifically on the concept of the “microsystem.” This term refers to the immediate environment in which a child develops, including their relationships with parents and exposure to local hazards.
They hypothesized that a disordered microsystem would predict the development of personality traits associated with a fast life history strategy. They further predicted that these traits would mediate the relationship between childhood ecology and adult mating behaviors.
To test these hypotheses, the researchers recruited 875 female undergraduate students from a university in Northern California. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 46 years old, with an average age of approximately 20. The study utilized a comprehensive online survey to gather retrospective data on childhood experiences and current psychological functioning.
Participants completed the Adverse Childhood Experiences Inventory to document history of abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction before the age of 10. They also answered questions regarding parental disengagement, assessing how emotionally connected they felt to their mothers and fathers. Additional measures evaluated the level of crime in their childhood neighborhoods and the presence of adults in the home who were not related to them.
The researchers assessed adult personality using several established psychological scales. To measure traits associated with a fast life history, they utilized the Short Dark Triad Scale. This instrument evaluates psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The researchers also measured impulsivity, neuroticism, and resource control strategies.
Traits associated with a slow life history were assessed using measures of resilience, self-esteem, and secure attachment. The survey also included the Mini-K, a scale designed to measure general slow life history orientation. Finally, the researchers measured mating effort by asking about the age of sexual debut, the total number of lifetime sexual partners, and intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors in the future.
The data were analyzed using a statistical technique called Structural Equation Modeling. This method allows researchers to test complex relationships between multiple variables simultaneously. The results provided support for the theoretical model linking childhood adversity to adult personality and behavior.
Bohon and her colleagues found that a disordered microsystem was a significant predictor of faster life history traits. Women who reported higher levels of childhood trauma, parental disengagement, or neighborhood crime were more likely to exhibit traits such as psychopathy and impulsivity. They were also more likely to display neuroticism and a desire to control resources and people.
These personality traits explained approximately 22 percent of the relationship between the childhood environment and adult mating effort. Women with these “fast” personality characteristics tended to report a higher number of sexual partners. They also expressed a greater orientation toward short-term mating and a higher willingness to engage in risky sexual acts.
The researchers identified specific environmental factors that appeared particularly influential. Trauma experienced before age 10 emerged as a strong predictor of adult psychopathy. This finding aligns with the idea that traumatic events can fundamentally alter a person’s worldview. It suggests that early adversity may shift an individual’s focus toward immediate survival and dominance.
Parental relationships also played a distinct role in the findings. Disengagement from fathers was strongly associated with adverse outcomes. Women who reported having distant or absent fathers were younger when they first had sex and reported more sexual partners. This supports previous theories suggesting that father absence acts as a cue for an unstable reproductive environment.
The presence of unrelated adults in the childhood home was another significant factor. Participants who lived with a parent’s non-kin partner tended to show signs of a faster life history strategy. This finding is consistent with prior research indicating that the presence of unrelated adults can increase the risk of maltreatment or instability in a household.
“The most important findings were that for women childhood trauma, poor parent-child relationships, parental cohabitation, and neighborhood crime were associated with higher psychopathy (low empathy, high risk- taking and mistreatment of others), lower self-control, and higher anxiety,” Bohon told PsyPost.
“These in turn were associated with accelerated mating effort that includes high risk behaviors. Some of these childhood conditions are under the control of parents and can be addressed in the home regardless of the harshness and unpredictability of the world at large leading to enhanced outcomes for their offspring in adulthood.”
The researchers also examined the influence of the “exosystem,” which refers to broader environmental factors like financial security. While perceived resource insecurity was linked to higher mating effort, it did not strongly predict the development of specific personality traits. This suggests that the immediate social environment has a more direct impact on personality development than broader economic conditions.
“I thought socioeconomic status would be a significant factor in our model, but it was not,” Bohon said. “Only the perception of economic predictability was directly related to mating effort, but not through a faster life history strategy. I found this result hopeful, because it shows that no matter what the economic disadvantage, every child can be nurtured and can thrive, which in adulthood could positively impact her own children and community.”
The researchers also looked for evidence of a “slow” life history strategy. As expected, a supportive and predictable childhood environment was associated with positive traits such as resilience, secure attachment, and higher self-esteem.
However, these “slow” traits did not significantly predict lower mating effort in the statistical model. The pathway to increased mating effort appeared to be driven primarily by the presence of “fast” traits rather than the absence of “slow” ones.
There are some limitations to this study that should be considered. The sample consisted entirely of college students, which may limit how well the findings apply to the general population. University students often possess higher levels of conscientiousness and long-term planning skills than the average person.
Additionally, the study was cross-sectional, meaning it captured data at a single point in time. This design makes it difficult to definitively prove that the childhood environment directly caused the adult outcomes, rather than just being associated with them.
Future research could address these issues by utilizing longitudinal designs. Tracking individuals from childhood through adulthood would allow scientists to observe how these traits and behaviors develop in real time. It would also be beneficial to include a more diverse range of participants to ensure the findings hold true across different demographic groups.
“We are currently investigating the components of parenting associated with positive and negative mental and physical health, as well as other behavioral outcomes, in adulthood,” Bohon said.
The researchers emphasized that examining mating effort through an evolutionary lens is not intended to stigmatize sexuality.
“Mating effort is a normal part of human behavior and can have both positive and negative outcomes,” Bohon told PsyPost. “The outcome variables chosen for mating effort (age at sexual debut, number of lifetime partners, openness to short term mating, and openness to sexually risky behaviors such as having sex without a condom or while intoxicated) are associated with unwanted pregnancies, increased sexually transmitted diseases, anxiety, low self-control, and a transactional mindset. We chose these outcome variables because we were interested in understanding how to reduce these negative outcomes.”
The study, “Using SEM to test the associations among women’s childhood ecology, adult psychosocial life history traits, and mating effort,” was authored by Lisa M. Bohon, Sophia Sinclair, Raquel R. Medeiros-Tejomaya, Jessica Hamel, and Alexandra H.B. Hock.
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