A life history perspective on maternal emotional investments during infancy

Objective Life history approaches to parental investment have typically highlighted trade-offs humansmake by measuring variations in the transfer of resources such as knowledge, wealth, or social status.Such transfers often occur later in the life of offspring, yet parents make investments in their offspringfrom conception. Mother-infant emotional bonding is associated with infant development, thus mayreflect an early form of maternal investment. Bonding may also guide long-term investmentmotivations, thus have both direct and indirect effects on offspring quality. We use two measures ofbonding to assess whether access to emotional support from allocarers affects maternal emotionalinvestment trade-offs, and measures of a mother’s available emotional resources to assess whetheremotional investment is costly.Methods A longitudinal survey study tracked 67 Western women from pregnancy to 6 monthspostpartum. Multiple regression models assessed whether: 1) emotional support positively predictsmaternal investment; 2) maternal investment positively predicts a decline in maternal emotionalresources. Moderation analysis assessed whether 3) emotional support acts as a buffer against declinesin emotional resources.Results Level of overall emotional support from allocarers positively predicted bonding strength, as didsupport from own family and friends. However, support from the infant’s father negatively predictedbonding strength and time taken to bond, while support from the father’s family negatively predictedthe time taken to bond. Bonding strength positively predicted falls in overall emotional resources andemotional intelligence; level of overall support received moderated a variety of dimensions of thisrelationship.Conclusions Maternal emotional investments appear contingent on circumstance, with bondingincurring a cost when access to emotional support from allocarers is low. Mothers make higheremotional investments in association with higher support from friends and kin, but may offset costswhen support is available from their infant’s paternal kin.