Family still matters: Human social motivation across 42 countries during a global pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals-fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care-might have been affected. To address this question, we gathered data on fundamental social motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, N = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; M age  = 24.43, SD = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, N = 6917; 2249 male, 4218 female; M age  = 28.59, SD = 11.31). Samples include data collected online (e.g., Prolific, MTurk), at universities, and via community sampling. We found that Disease Avoidance motivation was substantially higher during the pandemic, and that most of the other fundamental social motives showed small, yet significant, differences across waves. Most sensibly, concern with caring for one's children was higher during the pandemic, and concerns with Mate Seeking and Status were lower. Earlier findings showing the prioritization of family motives over mating motives (and even over Disease Avoidance motives) were replicated during the pandemic. Finally, well-being remained positively associated with family-related motives and negatively associated with mating motives during the pandemic, as in the pre-pandemic samples. Our results provide further evidence for the robust primacy of family-related motivations even during this unique disruption of social life.

Fundamental social motives measured across forty-two cultures in two waves.

How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives-self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care-are high in fitness relevance and everyday salience, yet understudied cross-culturally. Here, we gathered data on these motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) in two cross-sectional waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered in both waves. Wave 1 was collected from mid-2016 through late 2019 (32 countries, N = 8,998; 3,302 male, 5,585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91). Wave 2 was collected from April through November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic (29 countries, N = 6,917; 2,249 male, 4,218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). These data can be used to assess differences and similarities in people's fundamental social motives both across and within cultures, at different time points, and in relation to other commonly studied cultural indicators and outcomes.

Mate value, intrasexual competition and sociosexual desire drive Brazilian women's well-being.

Well-being (vs. ill-being) might function as an internal guide for approaching (vs. avoiding) situations, strategies, and achievements that ancestrally led to higher (vs. lower) reproductive success. Indeed, coupled individuals report higher well-being than singles, while depressive individuals report lower mate value and higher sociosexuality. Here we investigate associations between well-being, depression and evolutionary reproduction-related aspects (mate value, intrasexual competition, age, and sociosexuality). Overall, 1,173 predominantly heterosexual Brazilian women (mean = 31.89; standard deviation = 11.10) responded to online instruments measuring self-perceived happiness, life-satisfaction, depression, mate value, intrasexual competition, age, and sociosexuality. Multiple regression models indicated that higher well-being was positively predicted by mate value and negatively by intrasexual competition and sociosexual desire, while the opposite was true for depression. Although intrasexual competition and unrestricted sociosexuality can, under some circumstances, increase individual reproductive success, they are risky and suboptimally effective strategies, thus leading to feelings of ill-being. Contrarily, affective long-term bonds, higher mate-value, and lower intrasexual competition might increase feelings of well-being, because this would lead to a safer route towards ancestral reproductive advantages.

Caracterização das relações entre depressão pós-parto, modelos culturais de self, etnoteorias e práticas maternas em uma amostra paulistana atendida pelo sistema público de saúde / Characterization of the relationship among postpartum depression, cultural models, maternal ethnotheories and practices in a sample attended by the public health system of São Paulo city

Como a literatura dificilmente investiga variáveis culturais e situacionais em conjunto, o presente trabalho procurou conjugar tais variáveis (depressão pós-parto, fatores ecossociais, modelos culturais de self, etnoteorias e práticas de cuidado) a fim de caracterizar uma amostra de mães paulistanas atendidas pelo sistema público de saúde do Butantã. Estas mães já faziam parte do projeto temático e longitudinal da FAPESP (No. 06/59192) que deu origem a este trabalho. Partiu-se da premissa de que etnoteorias (metas de socialização e crenças sobre práticas) e práticas de cuidado maternas, além de serem influenciadas pelo contexto ecossocial e modelos culturais de self, também poderiam ser afetadas por uma variável situacional materna mais específica: depressão pós-parto (DPP). Dividiu-se a amostra (N=91) em função da intensidade da DPP: (1) Menor intensidade (escores 0-24): N=46; e (2) Maior intensidade (escores 24-67): N=45. Foram utilizadas: (1) Entrevistas estruturadas; (2) Escala de Depressão Pós-parto de Edimburgo; (3) Escala de Apoio Social; (4) Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil; (5) Escala de Metas de Socialização; (6) Escala de Crenças sobre Práticas; (7) Escala de Importância Atribuída às Atividades Realizadas; e (8) Escala de Atividades Realizadas. As mães foram de modo geral autônomo-relacionais e strictu sensu mais interdependentes em suas metas e mais autônomas em suas crenças e práticas de cuidado.(AU)

As literature hardly investigates cultural and situational variables together, we conjugate these variables (postpartum depression, ecosocial factors, cultural models, and maternal ethnotheories and practices of care) in order to characterize a sample of mothers who were attended by public health system of Butantã (city of São Paulo). Those mothers had already taken part of FAPESP´s thematic and longitudinal project (No. 06/59192) which gave rise to this work. The starting point was that maternal ethnotheories (socialization goals and beliefs about practices) and practices of care besides being influenced by ecosocial context and cultural models, they could also be affected by a specific maternal situational variable: postpartum depression (PPD). The sample was divided (N=91) according to intensity of PPD: (1) Lower intensity (scores 0-24): N=46; e (2) Higher intensity (scores 24-67): N=45. It was applied: (1) Structured interviews; (2) Brazilian Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; (3) Brazil Economic Classification Criterion; (4) Brazilian Social Support Scale; (5) Brazilian Socialization Goals Scale; (6) Brazilian Parenting Ethnotheories Scale; (7) Brazilian Scale of Importance Assigned to Accomplished Parental Practices; and (8) Brazilian Scale of Accomplished Parental Practices.(AU)