Figure 5

Faster and slower reproductive strategies: Reproductive strategies develop in different contexts and are characterized by diverging patterns of psychological, somatic and behavioral development. More and less supportive family contexts (and broader ecologies) influence the quality and quantity of parental investment, which in turn influences psychological and behavioral development. Collectively these forces regulate the timing of pubertal development and, thereby, sexual behavior, pair bonding and eventual childbearing and parental investment. The faster strategy fits a world in which risk and uncertainty is high, whereas the slower strategy fits a world in which resources are predictably available and sufficient. The faster strategy enables the individual to reduce the risk of dying before reproducing and reflects the fact that the individual's capacity to attract and maintain a high-quality mate and provide resources to their own (eventual) offspring will be limited. The slower strategy reflects the opposite. Based on [20].