Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta

Abigail E Page; Emily H Emmot; Mark Dyble; Dan Smith; Nikhil Chaudhary; Sylvain Viguier; Andrea B Migliano

doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0026

Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta

Abigail E Page, Emily H Emmot, Mark Dyble, Dan Smith, Nikhil Chaudhary, Sylvain Viguier, Andrea B Migliano

Bristol Medical School (PHS)

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Abstract

Non-maternal carers (allomothers) are hypothesized to lighten the mother's workload, allowing for the specialized human life history including relatively short interbirth intervals and multiple dependent offspring. Here, using in-depth observational data on childcare provided to 78 Agta children (a foraging population in the northern Philippines; aged 0–6 years), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes and decreases maternal childcare. We found that allomother caregiving was associated with reduced maternal childcare, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Children-only playgroups consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While grandmothers were rarely available, their presence was negatively associated with maternal presence and childcare, and grandmothers performed similar childcare activities to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing maternal childcare in the Agta. Our findings suggest that flexibility in childcare sources, including children-only playgroups, may have been the key to human life-history evolution. Overall, our results reinforce the necessity of a broad conceptualization of social support in human childcare.

Original language	English
Article number	20200026
Pages (from-to)	20200026
Number of pages	1
Journal	Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume	376
Issue number	1827
Early online date	3 May 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0026
Publication status	Published - 21 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Ethics. This research was approved by UCL Ethics Committee (UCL Ethics code 3086/003) and carried out with permission from local government and Agta leaders. Informed consent was obtained from all participants after group and individual consultation, with an explanation of the research objectives in the indigenous language. A small compensation (usually a thermal bottle or cooking utensils) was given to each household. Data accessibility. The datasets and analysis script supporting this article have been uploaded as part of the supplementary material. As the Agta are a small and vulnerable population and the data of a personal nature every effort has been made to anonymize this data and all personal information has been removed. Authors’ contributions. A.E.P. conceptualized this study, designed the field methodology and conducted focal follows with S.V. A.E.P. conducted data processing and analysis, while the analysis process was continually reviewed by E.H.E., M.D. and D.S. A.E.P. drafted and refined the manuscript which was critically revised with by E.H.E. M.D., D.S., N.C., S.V. and A.B.M. helped draft the manuscript. A.B.M. oversaw and ran the project. Competing interests. We declare we have no competing interests. Funding. A.E.P. received funding from the MRC and DFID (grant no. MR/P014216/1). A.B.M. received funding from the Leverhulme Trust (grant no. RP2011-R 045). Acknowledgements. The authors would like to acknowledge all the Agta families who participated in this study and whose goodwill and patience made the study possible. We would also like to thank the Evolutionary Demography laboratory for comments on earlier drafts.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s).

Keywords

childcare
grandmothers
playgroups
support
allomothering
hunter-gatherers

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title = "Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta",

abstract = "Non-maternal carers (allomothers) are hypothesized to lighten the mother's workload, allowing for the specialized human life history including relatively short interbirth intervals and multiple dependent offspring. Here, using in-depth observational data on childcare provided to 78 Agta children (a foraging population in the northern Philippines; aged 0–6 years), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes and decreases maternal childcare. We found that allomother caregiving was associated with reduced maternal childcare, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Children-only playgroups consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While grandmothers were rarely available, their presence was negatively associated with maternal presence and childcare, and grandmothers performed similar childcare activities to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing maternal childcare in the Agta. Our findings suggest that flexibility in childcare sources, including children-only playgroups, may have been the key to human life-history evolution. Overall, our results reinforce the necessity of a broad conceptualization of social support in human childcare.",

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note = "Funding Information: Ethics. This research was approved by UCL Ethics Committee (UCL Ethics code 3086/003) and carried out with permission from local government and Agta leaders. Informed consent was obtained from all participants after group and individual consultation, with an explanation of the research objectives in the indigenous language. A small compensation (usually a thermal bottle or cooking utensils) was given to each household. Data accessibility. The datasets and analysis script supporting this article have been uploaded as part of the supplementary material. As the Agta are a small and vulnerable population and the data of a personal nature every effort has been made to anonymize this data and all personal information has been removed. Authors{\textquoteright} contributions. A.E.P. conceptualized this study, designed the field methodology and conducted focal follows with S.V. A.E.P. conducted data processing and analysis, while the analysis process was continually reviewed by E.H.E., M.D. and D.S. A.E.P. drafted and refined the manuscript which was critically revised with by E.H.E. M.D., D.S., N.C., S.V. and A.B.M. helped draft the manuscript. A.B.M. oversaw and ran the project. Competing interests. We declare we have no competing interests. Funding. A.E.P. received funding from the MRC and DFID (grant no. MR/P014216/1). A.B.M. received funding from the Leverhulme Trust (grant no. RP2011-R 045). Acknowledgements. The authors would like to acknowledge all the Agta families who participated in this study and whose goodwill and patience made the study possible. We would also like to thank the Evolutionary Demography laboratory for comments on earlier drafts. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Author(s).",

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Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta. / Page, Abigail E; Emmot, Emily H; Dyble, Mark et al.
In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 376, No. 1827, 20200026, 21.06.2021, p. 20200026.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

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T2 - juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta

AU - Page, Abigail E

AU - Emmot, Emily H

AU - Dyble, Mark

AU - Smith, Dan

AU - Chaudhary, Nikhil

AU - Viguier, Sylvain

AU - Migliano, Andrea B

N1 - Funding Information: Ethics. This research was approved by UCL Ethics Committee (UCL Ethics code 3086/003) and carried out with permission from local government and Agta leaders. Informed consent was obtained from all participants after group and individual consultation, with an explanation of the research objectives in the indigenous language. A small compensation (usually a thermal bottle or cooking utensils) was given to each household. Data accessibility. The datasets and analysis script supporting this article have been uploaded as part of the supplementary material. As the Agta are a small and vulnerable population and the data of a personal nature every effort has been made to anonymize this data and all personal information has been removed. Authors’ contributions. A.E.P. conceptualized this study, designed the field methodology and conducted focal follows with S.V. A.E.P. conducted data processing and analysis, while the analysis process was continually reviewed by E.H.E., M.D. and D.S. A.E.P. drafted and refined the manuscript which was critically revised with by E.H.E. M.D., D.S., N.C., S.V. and A.B.M. helped draft the manuscript. A.B.M. oversaw and ran the project. Competing interests. We declare we have no competing interests. Funding. A.E.P. received funding from the MRC and DFID (grant no. MR/P014216/1). A.B.M. received funding from the Leverhulme Trust (grant no. RP2011-R 045). Acknowledgements. The authors would like to acknowledge all the Agta families who participated in this study and whose goodwill and patience made the study possible. We would also like to thank the Evolutionary Demography laboratory for comments on earlier drafts. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s).

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N2 - Non-maternal carers (allomothers) are hypothesized to lighten the mother's workload, allowing for the specialized human life history including relatively short interbirth intervals and multiple dependent offspring. Here, using in-depth observational data on childcare provided to 78 Agta children (a foraging population in the northern Philippines; aged 0–6 years), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes and decreases maternal childcare. We found that allomother caregiving was associated with reduced maternal childcare, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Children-only playgroups consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While grandmothers were rarely available, their presence was negatively associated with maternal presence and childcare, and grandmothers performed similar childcare activities to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing maternal childcare in the Agta. Our findings suggest that flexibility in childcare sources, including children-only playgroups, may have been the key to human life-history evolution. Overall, our results reinforce the necessity of a broad conceptualization of social support in human childcare.

AB - Non-maternal carers (allomothers) are hypothesized to lighten the mother's workload, allowing for the specialized human life history including relatively short interbirth intervals and multiple dependent offspring. Here, using in-depth observational data on childcare provided to 78 Agta children (a foraging population in the northern Philippines; aged 0–6 years), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes and decreases maternal childcare. We found that allomother caregiving was associated with reduced maternal childcare, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Children-only playgroups consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While grandmothers were rarely available, their presence was negatively associated with maternal presence and childcare, and grandmothers performed similar childcare activities to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing maternal childcare in the Agta. Our findings suggest that flexibility in childcare sources, including children-only playgroups, may have been the key to human life-history evolution. Overall, our results reinforce the necessity of a broad conceptualization of social support in human childcare.

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KW - grandmothers

KW - playgroups

KW - support

KW - allomothering

KW - hunter-gatherers

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DO - 10.1098/rstb.2020.0026

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

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SN - 0962-8436

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IS - 1827

M1 - 20200026

ER -

Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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