Intergenerational Transmission of Conjugal Stability in a Caribbean Community

Some evolutionary models of human behavior posit that father-absence during early childhood influences subsequent adult reproductive strategies. We compare evidence for intergenerational transmission of conjugal stability in Western industrial populations with multigeneration patterns of conjugal stability in a rural Caribbean community. Genealogies (N=8O3) and behavioral data for a Caribbean community suggest that father-absence during early childhood has weak influence on later conjugal stability. Father- absent females were slightly more likely to have father-absent children than were father-present females (p=.08). Women whose mother had multiple mates were more likely to have multiple mates themselves (p=.03). Father-absent males were not more likely to become absent fathers than were father-present males. Men whose mother had multiple mates were not more likely to have multiple mates. Evidence from industrial populations and behavioral observations in a Caribbean community suggest that parental supervision during adolescence influences children’s subsequent conjugal stability.