Testosterone levels are negatively associated with fatherhood [corrected] in males, but positively related to offspring count in fathers.

ABSTRACT: Variation in testosterone (T) is thought to affect the allocation of effort between reproductive and parenting strategies. Here, using a large sample of elderly American men (n = 754) and women (n = 669) we examined the relationship between T and self-reported parenthood, as well as the relationship between T and number of reported children. Results supported previous findings from the literature, showing that fathers had lower T levels than men who report no children. Furthermore, we found that among fathers T levels were positively associated with the number of children a man reports close to the end of his lifespan. Results were maintained when controlling for a number of relevant factors such as time of T sampling, participant age, educational attainment, BMI, marital status and report

SUBMITTER: Pollet TV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3616053 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature