Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies

Note

Because societies in harsher environments tend to be more cooperative, the researchers hypothesize that children and adolescents in such societies will hold more non-food producing roles such as childcare and domestic work. Presumably this gives adults more opportunity to increase their productivity. The model showed that none of the "harsh environment" variables they examined predicted any sort of child behavior, except for a slight correlation between cold temperatures and more time at play. However, the researchers noted that only the Dukha in Mongolia experienced temperatures below 0, and when they were removed from the analysis, this correlation disappeared.