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How to measure reproductive success?
Author(s) -
Strassmann Beverly I.,
Gillespie Brenda
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.10154
Subject(s) - measure (data warehouse) , hum , computer science , history , data mining , performance art , art history
Abstract To date there have been few empirical comparisons between alternative methods for measuring reproductive success (RS). We consider the pros and cons of alternative measures of RS to provide guidance for the design of field studies in human behavioral ecology. We compare cross‐sectional measures that count offspring alive at the time of the interview and retrospective measures that require data on offspring age at death or censoring. We consider analyses that include adult women (yielding age‐specific estimates of RS) as well as analyses restricted to postreproductive women (yielding data on lifetime RS). These methods are applied to reproductive data for the Dogon of Mali, West Africa. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 15:361–369, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.