Coall D A, Tickner M, McAllister L S, Sheppard P
School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2016 Apr 19;371(1692):20150146. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0146.
Developmental environments are crucial for shaping our life course. Elements of the early social and biological environments have been consistently associated with reproduction in humans. To date, a strong focus has been on the relationship between early stress, earlier menarche and first child birth in women. These associations, found predominately in high-income countries, have been usefully interpreted within life-history theory frameworks. Fertility, on the other hand--a missing link between an individual's early environment, reproductive strategy and fitness--has received little attention. Here, we synthesize this literature by examining the associations between early adversity, age at menarche and fertility and fecundity in women. We examine the evidence that potential mechanisms such as birth weight, childhood body composition, risky health behaviours and developmental influences on attractiveness link the early environment and fecundity and fertility. The evidence that menarche is associated with fertility and fecundity is good. Currently, owing to the small number of correlational studies and mixed methodologies, the evidence that early adversity predicts fecundity and fertility is not conclusive. This area of research is in its infancy; studies examining early adversity and adult fertility decisions that can also examine likely biological, social and psychological pathways present opportunities for future fertility research.
发育环境对于塑造我们的人生轨迹至关重要。早期社会和生物环境的因素一直与人类的生育相关。迄今为止，重点一直放在早期压力、女性初潮提前和首次生育之间的关系上。这些关联主要在高收入国家被发现，并已在生命史理论框架内得到有益的解释。另一方面，生育力——个体早期环境、生殖策略和健康状况之间的缺失环节——却很少受到关注。在这里，我们通过研究早期逆境、初潮年龄与女性生育力和生殖力之间的关联来综合这一文献。我们研究了出生体重、儿童期身体组成、危险健康行为以及发育对吸引力的影响等潜在机制将早期环境与生殖力和生育力联系起来的证据。初潮与生育力和生殖力相关的证据确凿。目前，由于相关研究数量较少且方法混杂，早期逆境预测生殖力和生育力的证据并不确凿。这一研究领域尚处于起步阶段；研究早期逆境和成人生育决策，同时还能研究可能的生物学、社会和心理途径，为未来的生育研究提供了机会。
