Primate evidence on the late health effects of early-life adversity.

Conti, Gabriella; Hansman, Christopher; Heckman, James J; Novak, Matthew F X; Ruggiero, Angela; Suomi, Stephen J · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2012

other · Level V

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Abstract

This paper exploits a unique ongoing experiment to analyze the effects of early rearing conditions on physical and mental health in a sample of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). We analyze the health records of 231 monkeys that were randomly allocated at birth across three rearing conditions: mother rearing, peer rearing, and surrogate peer rearing. We show that the lack of a secure attachment relationship in the early years engendered by adverse rearing conditions has detrimental long-term effects on health that are not compensated for by a normal social environment later in life.

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