Evolution of Human Parental Care and Recruitment of Juvenile Help - Research Paper Example

Cooperation between parents and juveniles The costs incurred in the raising of a child are high, and this is the reason parents opt for smaller families. The costs involved in this process tend to be high due to the investment in them and that they are free from any work. The cost of raising children in the pre industrial age was not as high since the children gave back to the society (Karen 54). Children receive assistance from their parents, and as so, their parents benefit from the assistance of their own children.

The juvenility as such has a twofold nature of receiving and giving back. Juveniles both depend on their parents and at the same time help the parents. Young juveniles provide valuable childcare assistance to their siblings in many societies. The dependence and help from juveniles are some features that determine the modern human beings. Even, though, juveniles receive a lot of assistance from others, they also give back to by exchanging labor and resources with others more so those who assist them.

Enlisting of juvenile help by the restructuring of parental investment to involve juveniles gives the humans an advantage (Royal society (Great Britain) 156). They are associated advantage to be able to both increase reproduction and increased offspring survival by incorporating interdependence at various ages. In the quantity-quality, trade off the determination of the quality of an offspring stems from the parental care given. The quantity or quality of resources allocated by the parent to the offspring is dependent on the ability of the parent to harness energy from the environment.

The quantity-quality theory argues that if there are extra parental inputs these can affect the quantity or quality of the offspring by either direct allocation to the offspring quality and include food provision, childcare, all nursing, financial or other transfers. Extra parental inputs can also decrease the energy that the mother employs in providing and other activities leaving a metabolic stability for lactation and reproduction. Notwithstanding the physiological constraints in offspring production, quality of offspring is not necessarily a purpose of quantity.

A juvenile who is not sexually mature to fit into the production class and not competing for mates does not fore go many costs. If the juvenile contributes in any way, directly or indirectly, and results in the reduction of the mothers energy employed the juvenile receives immediate fitness benefit and does not have to wait to maturity in order to benefit. According to Karen (88) division of labor celebrated as an age association as efficiency improves when inequities in return rates differ between tasks and individuals.

When there is an adjustment of the level of investment by parents based on the availability of helpers, where help is sensitive to help accorded by juveniles then there can arise some changes. When the parents get helpers, they may increase their levels of investment and retain the same level of care to the offspring’s and transferring the saved energy to the task of reproduction. The number of children might increase without necessarily reducing the survivorship or child quality unless the number of the helpers also decreases.

If, on the other hand, the number of helpers increases due to the recruitment of juveniles, the parents then placed in a position to produce more children