Dad’s Pheromones, for a Brighter Future!

(RIZEL)

Every 3rd Sunday of June, we greet our pops "Happy Father's Day!". There are a lot of reasons why we celebrate this special occassion- to give honor to our fathers, to show them that they are special, and of course to show that we love them. but these reasons are already cliche and old school right, everybody knows that already, you're dad might also be tired of that hallmark statetement you write in the card every year. Here are new ones-

· You’re dad can save you from STD in the future

· He can lessen the risk of you having breast cancer

· He can even make your alcohol consumption less in the future

All of these, thru his pheromones (of course also with love, concern and care. =))

Curious much? Read on…

But let me tell you, this won't apply if you're a boy. Sad. Sad. However, if you plan to have kids-especially daughters, in the future, this might help.

Do you know that early onset of puberty in girls have a lot of negative effects? These are what Ellis, McFadyen- Ketchum, Pettit, Dodge & Bates (1999) cited:

· early maturing girls are at greater risk later in life for breast cancer (e.g., Kampert, Whittemore, & Paffenbarger, 1988; Vihko & Apter, 1986)

· unhealthy weight gain (e.g., Ness, 1991;Wellens et aL, 1992)

· have higher rates of teenage pregnancy (e.g.,Manlove, 1997; Udry & Cliquet, 1982)

· more likely to have low-birthweight babies (Scholl et al., 1989)

In the psychosocial aspect, Ellis, et.al. (1999) cited Caspi & Moffitt (1991) Flannery, Rowe, & Gulley (1993) Graber, Lewinsohn, Seeley, & Brooks-Gunn(1997); Mezzich et al. (1997) Susman, Nottleman, Inoff-Germain, Loriaux, &Chrousos (1985) for the following effects of early puberty;

· tend to show more disturbances in body image

· report more emotional problems such as depression and anxiety

· engage in more problem behaviors such as alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity reproductive strategies.

We know we don’t want these, right? Now, we know that later puberty and maturity among girls undergoing adolescence would be better and would yield more positive results later in life.

Here is where your father comes in, in Ellis’ et.al. (1999) 8-year longitudinal study of 173 girls, they found out that…

· Greater father-daughter affectionate-positivity during the prekindergarten observations was associated with later pubertal timing by daughters in seventh grade.

· More time spent by the father in child care, greater supportiveness in the parental dyad, more father-daughter affectionate-positivity, predicted later pubertal timing by daughters in seventh grade.

· All of the behavioral-observation data on father-that quality of early family relationships influences timing of pubertal development in adolescence

· Girls who were in single-mother homes at age 5 tended to experience earlier puberty.

In short, you’ll become a relatively better person with an ensured future if your dad is close to you and cares for you earlier in life. Having a responsible father who is involved in child care and child rearing affects the daughter’s physiological and psychosocial development- making it more positive.

Now, let’s answer an interesting question: HOW?

Here are some of Ellis’ et.al. (1999) explanations. Here, you can just read the explanations in bold letters, the ones that are not in bold are Ellis’ et.al. lengthy explanations alongside other experiments, just included if you’re interested.

1. Stress caused by lack of closeness in the family- especially dad and mom would make puberty occur earlier.

“stress is the causal mechanism but that it is the particular kind of stress associated with either low levels of positive family relationships, a lack of paternal investment, or both that provokes earlier puberty”

2. In the absence of the biological father, stepfathers and boyfriends of the mothers, releases pheromones that would facilitate earlier onset of puberty.

“Research on a variety of mammalian species (e.g., mice, cows, pigs, tamarins) indicates that exposure to pheromones produced by unrelated adult male conspecifics accelerates female pubertal development (Izard, 1990; Sanders & Reinisch, 1990; Ziegler, Snowdon, & Uno, 1990). Consistent with findings from this animal research, Ellis and Garber's (in press) findings indicated that years of exposure to unrelated father figures (stepfathers and mothers' boyfriends), rather than years of biological father absence, best accounted for earlier pubertal timing in girls”

3. Pheromones released by the biological father absorbed by the daughters would activate their natural incest-prevention mechanism, inhibiting the girls’ early sexual development. Later on in life, these girls would “begin sex and dating at a later age (e.g., Flinn, 1988; Hetherington, 1972 cited in Ellis, et.al., 1999) and thus have less pheromonal exposure to male dating partners in early adolescence.”

“Another possible mechanism is inhibition of pubertal development through pheromonal exposure to the biological father (Hoogland, 1982; Surbey, 1990). There is some evidence in the animal research literature that the presence of closely related adult males inhibits reproductive maturation in females (and may function as an incest avoidance mechanism). In prairie dogs, for example, first ovulation is delayed in females who remain in contact with their biological fathers (Hoogland, 1982).”

References, ignore them if you’re too busy…

Ellis, B., McFadyen- Ketchum, S., Pettit, G., Dodge, K., & Bates, J. (1999). Quality of Early Family Relationships and Individual Differences in the Timing of Pubertal Maturation in Girls: A Longitudinal Test of an Evolutionary Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 77, No. 2. 387-401.

Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (1991). Individual differences are accentuated

during periods of social change: The sample case of girls at puberty.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 157-168.

Flannery, D. J., Rowe, D. C., & Gulley, B. J. (1993). Impact of pubertal

status, timing, and age on adolescent sexual experience and delinquency.

Journal of Adolescent Research, 8, 21-40.

Flinn, M. V. (1988). Parent-offspring interactions in a Caribbean village:

Daughter guarding. In L. Betzig, M. Burgerhoff Mulder, & P. Turke

(Eds.), Human reproductive behaviour (pp. 189-200). Cambridge, England

Graber, J. A., Lewinsohn, P. M., Seeley, J. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1997).

Is psychopathology associated with the timing of pubertal development?

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,

36, 1768-1776.

Hetherington, E. M. (1972). Effects of father absence on personality

development in adolescent daughters. Developmental Psychology, 7,

313-326

Hoogland, J. L. (1982, March). Prairie dogs avoid extreme inbreeding.

Science, 215, 1639-1641.

Izard, M. K. (1990). Social influences on the reproductive success and

reproductive endocrinology of prosimian primates. In T. E. Ziegler &

F. B. Bercovitch (Eds.), Socioendocrinology of primate reproduction

(pp. 159-186). New York: Wiley-Liss

Kampert, J. B., Whittemore, A. S., & Paffenbarger, R. S. (1988). Combined

effects of childbearing, menstrual events, and body size on agespecific

breast cancer risk. American Journal of Epidemiology, 128,

962-979.

Manlove, J. (1997). Early motherhood in an intergenerational perspective:

The experiences of a British cohort. Journal of Marriage and the

Family, 59, 263-279.

Mezzich, A. C, Tarter, R. E., Giancola, P. R., Lu, S., Kirisci, L., & Parks,

S. (1997). Substance use and risky sexual behavior in female adolescents.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 44, 157-166.

Ness, R. (1991). Adiposity and age of menarche in Hispanic women.

American Journal of Human Biology, 3, 41-48.

Sanders, S. A., & Reinisch, J. M. (1990). Biological and social influences

on the endocrinology of puberty: Some additional considerations. In J.

Bancroft & J. M. Reinisch (Eds.), Adolescence and puberty (pp. 50-62).

New York: Oxford University Press.

Scholl, T. 0., Hdiger, M. L., Vasilenko, P., Ill, Ances, I. G., Smith, W., &

Salmon, R. W. (1989). Effects of early maturation on fetal growth.

Annals of Human Biology, 16, 335-346

Surbey, M. (1990). Family composition, stress, and human menarche. In F.

Bercovitch & T. Zeigler (Eds.), The socioendocrinology of primate

reproduction (pp. 71-97). New York: Liss.

Susman, E. J., Nottleman, E. D., Inoff-Germain, G. E., Loriaux, D. L., &

Chrousos, G. P. (1985). The relation of relative hormonal levels and

physical development and social-emotional behavior in young adolescents.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 14, 245-264.

Udry, J. R., & Cliquet, R. L. (1982). A cross-cultural examination of the

relationship between ages at menarche, marriage, and first birth. Demography,

19, 53-63

Vihko, R. K., & Apter, D. L. (1986). The epidemiology and endocrinology

of the menarche in relation to breast cancer. Cancer Survey, 5, 561-571.

Wellens, R., Malina, R., Roche, A., Chumlea, W., Guo, S., & Siervogel, R.

(1992). Body size and fatness in young adults in relation to age at

menarche. American Journal of Human Biology, 4, 783-787.

Ziegler, T. E., Snowdon, C. T., & Uno, H. (1990). Social interactions and

determinations of ovulation in tamarins (Saguinus). In T. E. Ziegler &

F. B. Bercovitch (Eds.), Socioendocrinology of primate reproduction

(pp. 159-186). New York: Wiley-Liss.