The evolved development niche: Longitudinal effects of caregiving practices on early childhood psychosocial development

• Every animal has an evolved developmental niche for its young.
• Humans are not following their evolved developmental niche (EDN).
• The EDN for young children includes breastfeeding, positive touch, responsiveness, and social support (among other characteristics).
• We tested the influence on young children of these characteristics over time in a longitudinal dataset.
• Children's prosociality, behavior problems and cognitive development were examined.
• Results indicate that the EDN matters for child psychosocial and cognitive development.

Using an evolutionary developmental systems approach, we examined the effects of early care on children's psychosocial development. Our framework for early care is the set of parenting practices that emerged with the social mammals more than 30 million years ago, which were slightly altered in what we call the human evolved developmental niche (EDN). Using an existing dataset of 682 families, we assessed four characteristics of EDN care—maternal responsivity, breastfeeding, touch, and maternal social support—and examined their effects longitudinally (prenatal to age 3) on children's prosociality (cooperation and social engagement), behavior problems (internalizing/externalizing), and cognitive ability (intelligence, auditory comprehension, and verbal expression) over three years. The EDN variables significantly and differentially affected child outcomes at different time points, even after controlling for maternal education, age, and income-to-needs ratio. Most significant findings were also retained when maternal responsivity was controlled. In summary, EDN-consistent behaviors in infancy provide necessary support for positive social and cognitive development in early childhood.