| Abstract: | Examined the effects of early family unit conditions on later parenting behavior in laboratory mice (Mus musculus) and challenged previous studies that claim to show enhancing effects of biparental care on offspring parental responsiveness by raising mice with a male parent either present (MPP) or absent (MPA) during preweaning development. The results of these studies are confounded because MPP mice also have a 2nd litter present (SLP) and MPA mice do not (SLA). Thus, the findings may have been due to the presence of a 2nd litter and not to the presence of the male parent. In this experiment, the author shows that when offspring raised in different family units are tested as virgins with stimulus pups, more SLP mice are parental than SLA mice, and fewer SLP mice bite newborn pups than do SLA mice. Thus, results of previous studies are due to 2nd litter exposure and not biparental care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
