Aims:

Grounded in evolutionary life history theory (Mace and Sear, 2005), the proposed research will examine the wider rearing environment of British children as a determinant of social and physical development trajectories, using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort (ALSPAC - children born in 1991/92). A previous study on this cohort has already identified a distinction in the impact of informal friend or kin-based care vs. paid care in determining cognitive outcomes by age 7 (Gregg et al., 2005) The proposed research takes a broader focus considering a wider range of development outcomes, over a longer period, and crucially will involve a more precise categorisation of contact with kin and investments by kin, informed by evolutionary demography. Outcome variables will include childhood malaise, growth, cognitive development and pubertal timing. ALSPAC provides an unusually detailed dataset to consider these questions, providing regular time-varying data on a wide range of relevant variables. Accordingly, multivariate multilevel models for change (Singer and Willet, 2003) will be utilised to gain a uniquely sophisticated longitudinal analysis of the role of contact with kin in childhood well-being.