Há relação entre risco de atraso no desenvolvimento infantil e investimento parental?

Abstract

Parental Investment (PI) is conceptualized by Trivers as the efforts allocated by parents to offspring, increasing the chances of the offspring's survival and, consequently, the reproductive success of the parent. The modulation of PI results from the selection of environmental assessment mechanisms throughout human evolution. Variation in PI may be adaptive for parents, serving as a psychological mechanism selected over human evolution, sparing parents from costs when seemingly not enhancing the survival chances of their offspring. Conditions affecting costs and benefits of investing in a particular offspring vary throughout the offspring's development and the reproductive life of parents. PI adjustment occurs throughout development. Parental investment in children with developmental delays may be seen as a paradox, considering that PI evolved to maximize parents' reproductive success. This research aims to compare parental investment in children with typical development and those at risk of developmental delays and examine relationships between parental investment, exploring whether these relationships differ between parents of typically developing children and children at risk of developmental delays. This is a descriptive correlational quantitative study with a cross-sectional design. The following instruments were administered: Questionnaire on Demographic Information, Survey of Well-being of Young Children (SWYC-BR), Social Support Perception Scale (SSPS), Parental Investment Scale (PIS), and Child Parental Investment Scale (CPIS). The sample consisted of 223 parents or primary caregivers of at least one child aged between 3 and 65 months. Our research indicated high parental investment in children; however, when comparing typical children with those at risk of developmental delays, significant differences in received parental investment were noted. This study provides insights into variables influencing parental investment, including received support, family and socioeconomic contexts, i.e., correlated factors, aiding in the development of public policies directly targeting the population to enhance social support, favoring appropriate parental investment for child development. As expected by Trivers' Parental Investment theory (1972), children with typical development show higher parental investment compared to children with developmental delays. We observed a decrease in parental investment, in some dimensions, with increased indicators of developmental delay. However, our analyses cannot be generalized, considering that other aspects and factors related to development may influence parental investment.