L T Gettler
Biographic Data
| ID | 19405 |
|---|---|
| NAME | L T Gettler |
| GIVEN NAMES | L T |
| FAMILY NAME | Gettler |
| SIGNATURE | GETTLER L T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Notre Dame |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7325-8852 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 178 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Recalled Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Behavioral Traits Associated With an Accelerated Life History in Cebu, Philippines
OBJECTIVES: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long been associated with poor health in adulthood, with many researchers interpreting these findings as evidence of a "fast" life history. In this study we utilize data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) to test the expectations of this framework among inhabitants of the Cebu metropolitan area in the Philippines. METHODS: Data on development, behavior, and reproduc…
Mental Health and Physiological Biomarkers Under Legal Uncertainty
OBJECTIVES: Asylum, grounded in international law, provides protection to individuals fleeing persecution, war, or violence by ensuring legal residency, fundamental rights, and pathways to integration, while reflecting the global commitment to human dignity, justice, and solidarity. Using data from asylum seekers and non-asylum seekers within a shared context of displacement in three asylum centers in Serbia, we examined the associations between …
Field Methods for Investigating Onset and Progression of Middle Childhood Physical, Hormonal, Cognitive and Social Development
Child development is biocultural, meaning both genetics and experience with the ecocultural context shape ontogeny. Developmental systems—physical, hormonal, cognitive, social, among others—are dynamic and have points of interrelation with each other and local environments, as well as tradeoffs in their patterning. These articulations challenge our ability to discern the factors influencing our phenotypic outcomes; further, similar outcomes may n…
Paternal Autonomy Support and Youth Internalizing Problems
Fathers may best help buffer and protect children against internalizing problems by fostering healthy emotion regulation via support of autonomy
A tutorial on dyadic growth curve mediation modeling
Researchers within and beyond the psychology of men and masculinities (PMM) have underscored the importance of identifying pathways underlying men's mental health in the context of dyadic relationships. Accordingly, there is an emerging need for advancement and accessible application of corresponding longitudinal quantitative methods. Although both Dyadic Growth Curve Modeling and Growth Curve Mediation Modeling have each been used increasingly t…
Entangled Existences
BaYaka forager and Bantu fisher‐farmer adolescent engagement with intensifying market integration in the Republic of the Congo
A substantial body of anthropological research has investigated how subsistence communities engage with market‐based economies. In this study, we contribute to this body of work by examining adolescent orientations towards intensifying market integration in the Congo Basin. Adolescence is characterized by enhanced capacities for abstract reasoning, creative thought, risk‐taking, and exploration. Consequently, this life stage may represent a sensi…
Men's physical health and life history transitions in the Philippines
Associations between men's reputations for fathering and their reproductive success among BaYaka foragers in the Congo Basin
Transient refugees' social support, mental health, and physiological markers
OBJECTIVES: Refugees seeking safety across international borders are often exposed to a wide breadth of psychosocially stressful experiences that may fracture existing sources of social support and impair the generation of new social relationships, with implications for their long-term health and resilience. Using data from recently settled refugees in two asylum centers in Serbia, we examined the associations between social support, mental healt…
The Importance of Energetics in Archaeological Least Cost Analysis
Links between household and family social dynamics with sleep profiles among BaYaka foragers of the Congo Basin
Fathers' care in context
Bilingual family communication and the impact of language anxiety on cortisol reactivity
OBJECTIVES: The effects of socially evaluated tasks on stress-related behavior and physiology are often studied under artificial experimental conditions, such as contrived public speaking. Less is known about these behavioral and physiological dimensions under more routine conditions, such as family interactions. Here, we tested whether language anxiety during bilingual family conversations correlated to cortisol reactivity and speech patterns an…
Sex differences and shifts in body composition, physical activity, and total energy expenditure across a 3‐month expedition
Understanding changes in energy storage in the body and variation in energy expenditure between sexes during a 3-month expedition has critical implications for maintaining health and performance in an energetically demanding environment where resources may be scarce
Fatherhood, egalitarianism, and child health in two small‐scale societies in the Republic of the Congo
OBJECTIVES: The study goals were to (a) characterize the cultural model of fatherhood among the BaYaka, a community of egalitarian foragers in the Republic of the Congo; (b) test if BaYaka fathers' quality in relation to the cultural model predicts their children's energetic status; and (c) compare the variance in BaYaka children's energetic status to that of children of neighboring Bondongo fisher-farmers, among whom there is less cooperative ca…
Evolutionary life history theory as an organising framework for cohort studies
By tracking a group of individuals through time, cohort studies provide fundamental insights into the developmental time course and causes of health and disease. Evolutionary life history theory seeks to explain patterns of growth, development, reproduction and senescence, and inspires a range of hypotheses that are testable using the longitudinal data from cohort studies. Here we review two decades of life history theory-motivated work conducted…
Sex differences in daily activity intensity and energy expenditure and their relationship to cortisol among BaYaka foragers from the Congo Basin
OBJECTIVES: The pooling of energetic resources and food sharing have been widely documented among hunter-gatherer societies. Much less is known about how the energetic costs of daily activities are distributed across individuals in such groups, including between women and men. Moreover, the metabolic physiological correlates of those activities and costs are relatively understudied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here, we tracked physical activity, energ…
Forced migration experiences, mental well-being, and nail cortisol among recently settled refugees in Serbia
Broadening Perspectives on the Evolution of Human Paternal Care and Fathers' Effects on Children
Unlike most mammals, human fathers cooperate with mothers to care for young to an extraordinary degree. Human paternal care likely evolved alongside our unique life history strategy of raising slow-developing, energetically costly children, often in rapid succession. Adaptive frameworks generally assume that paternal provisioning played a critical role in this pattern's emergence. We draw on nonhuman primate data to propose that nonprovisioning f…
Sociosexuality, testosterone, and life history status
Testosterone moderates the effects of social support on cardiovascular disease risk factors among older US men
OBJECTIVES: Social support positively affects health through pathways such as shaping intrapersonal emotional and psychological well-being. Lower testosterone often interrelates with psychological and behavioral orientations that are beneficial to participation in emotionally supportive relationships. Yet, little research has considered the ways in which testosterone may contribute to health outcomes related to emotional support. METHODS: We draw…
The Roles of Parents in Shaping Fathering Across Generations in Cebu, Philippines
Objective: This study examined how parental caregiving and parent-child closeness are associated with future fathering among 335 Filipino men who are participants in a long-running birth cohort study.Background Few studies have multidecade longitudinal data to test the pathways through which parenting is transmitted across generations, with most relevant research conducted in the United States, Europe, and other similar settings. The roles of mot…
Evolutionary insights on male health and biology as men age
Menarcheal timing is accelerated by favorable nutrition but unrelated to developmental cues of mortality or familial instability in Cebu, Philippines
Direct Male Care and Hominin Evolution
Early members of the genus Homo experienced heightened absolute metabolic costs, partially owing to increases in body size. However, as is characteristic of modern humans, they also likely began reproducing with shortened interbirth intervals. Male investment in offspring may help explain how this life history shift occurred. Evolutionary models of hominin male investment in offspring have traditionally focused on provisioning of females and youn…
Becoming Dads
Men have the capacity to respond to the transition to fatherhood and nurturant investments in their partners and children with shifts in neuroendocrine function (such as decreased testosterone production). This capacity may be adaptive, reflecting fitness benefits accrued by some hominin males who responded to partnering and parenting with neuroendocrine shifts promoting cooperation and investment. These patterns are not uniform inter- or intracu…
Mother–infant cosleeping, breastfeeding and sudden infant death syndrome
Twenty years ago a new area of inquiry was launched when anthropologists proposed that an evolutionary perspective on infancy could contribute to our understanding of unexplained infant deaths. Here we review two decades of research examining parent-infant sleep practices and the variability of maternal and infant sleep physiology and behavior in social and solitary sleeping environments. The results challenge clinical wisdom regarding "normal" i…
Forced migration experiences, mental well-being, and nail cortisol among recently settled refugees in Serbia
Broadening Perspectives on the Evolution of Human Paternal Care and Fathers' Effects on Children
Unlike most mammals, human fathers cooperate with mothers to care for young to an extraordinary degree. Human paternal care likely evolved alongside our unique life history strategy of raising slow-developing, energetically costly children, often in rapid succession. Adaptive frameworks generally assume that paternal provisioning played a critical role in this pattern's emergence. We draw on nonhuman primate data to propose that nonprovisioning f…
Dimensions of Fatherhood in a Congo Basin Village
Fathers' direct care (e.g., carrying, sensitive caregiving, cultural transmission) can potentially improve children's health, well-being, and social development. However, between- and within-culture variation in fathers' roles in these domains remains understudied, particularly in work on small-scale societies, and we know relatively little about how these roles intersect with indirect paternal care (e.g., provisioning, resource defense) to shape…
Testosterone, physical activity, and somatic outcomes among Filipino males
Testosterone (T) facilitates male investment in reproduction in part through its anabolic effects on skeletal muscle. Traits like muscle and strength are energetically costly but are believed to enhance competitive ability in humans and other mammals. However, there are limited data on relationships between T and somatic outcomes in lean, non‐western populations. We evaluate relationships between waking and pre‐bed salivary T and adiposity, fat‐f…
Testosterone, Immune Function, and Life History Transitions in Filipino Males (Homo sapiens)
Prolactin, fatherhood, and reproductive behavior in human males
Although humans are considered unusual among mammals for the intensity of care that fathers often provide offspring, little is known about the hormonal architecture regulating human paternal investment. Prolactin has important reproductive functions in both female and male mammals and other taxa, making it a candidate regulator of human paternal behavior. Notably, prolactin is higher during periods of offspring care in some species, but it is unk…
Evolutionary perspectives on mother–infant sleep proximity and breastfeeding in a laboratory setting
Human maternal and infant biology likely coevolved in a context of close physical contact and some approximation of frequent, “infant‐initiated” breastfeeding. Still, mothers and infants commonly sleep apart from one another in many western societies, indicating a possible “mismatch” between cultural norms and infant biology. Here we present data from a 3‐night laboratory‐based study that examines differences in mother–infant sleep physiology and…
The Importance of Energetics in Archaeological Least Cost Analysis
Sex differences in daily activity intensity and energy expenditure and their relationship to cortisol among BaYaka foragers from the Congo Basin
OBJECTIVES: The pooling of energetic resources and food sharing have been widely documented among hunter-gatherer societies. Much less is known about how the energetic costs of daily activities are distributed across individuals in such groups, including between women and men. Moreover, the metabolic physiological correlates of those activities and costs are relatively understudied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here, we tracked physical activity, energ…
Second‐to‐fourth digit ratio (2D
OBJECTIVES: A low second-to-fourth (2D:4D) digit ratio, a retrospective marker of high prenatal androgens, predicts increased investment in costly sexually dimorphic traits in men in some studies, although results are mixed. Here we test the hypothesis that the association of low 2D:4D ratios with increased muscularity and decreased adiposity depends on current testosterone (T) levels, such that digit ratio will be a particularly strong predictor…
Are testosterone levels and depression risk linked based on partnering and parenting? Evidence from a large population-representative study of U.S. men and women
Developmental energetics, sibling death, and parental instability as predictors of maturational tempo and life history scheduling in males from C ebu, P hilippines
OBJECTIVES: Cross-species comparisons show that high extrinsic mortality favors the evolution of "faster" life histories. There is interest in applying this principle to human life history plasticity, based on the idea that psychosocial stressors that correlate with extrinsic mortality accelerate reproductive pace. Most prior studies have been conducted in settings in which psychosocial stressors co-occur with the maturation-accelerating influenc…
Paternal Autonomy Support and Youth Internalizing Problems
Fathers may best help buffer and protect children against internalizing problems by fostering healthy emotion regulation via support of autonomy
Entangled Existences
Links between household and family social dynamics with sleep profiles among BaYaka foragers of the Congo Basin
The Roles of Parents in Shaping Fathering Across Generations in Cebu, Philippines
Objective: This study examined how parental caregiving and parent-child closeness are associated with future fathering among 335 Filipino men who are participants in a long-running birth cohort study.Background Few studies have multidecade longitudinal data to test the pathways through which parenting is transmitted across generations, with most relevant research conducted in the United States, Europe, and other similar settings. The roles of mot…
Mother–infant cosleeping, breastfeeding and sudden infant death syndrome
Twenty years ago a new area of inquiry was launched when anthropologists proposed that an evolutionary perspective on infancy could contribute to our understanding of unexplained infant deaths. Here we review two decades of research examining parent-infant sleep practices and the variability of maternal and infant sleep physiology and behavior in social and solitary sleeping environments. The results challenge clinical wisdom regarding "normal" i…
Characterizing human–macaque interactions in Singapore
Previous studies have noted substantial human–macaque interactions involving physical contact in Bali, Indonesia; Gibraltar; and Mt. Emei, China [Fuentes, American Journal of Primatology 68:880–896, 2006; Zhao, Tibetan macaques, visitors, and local people at Mt. Emei: problems and countermeasures. In: Paterson and Wallis, editor. Commensalism and conflict: the human–primate interface. Norman, OK: American Society of Primatologists. p 376–399, 200…
Testosterone, physical activity, and somatic outcomes among Filipino males
Testosterone (T) facilitates male investment in reproduction in part through its anabolic effects on skeletal muscle. Traits like muscle and strength are energetically costly but are believed to enhance competitive ability in humans and other mammals. However, there are limited data on relationships between T and somatic outcomes in lean, non‐western populations. We evaluate relationships between waking and pre‐bed salivary T and adiposity, fat‐f…
Direct Male Care and Hominin Evolution
Early members of the genus Homo experienced heightened absolute metabolic costs, partially owing to increases in body size. However, as is characteristic of modern humans, they also likely began reproducing with shortened interbirth intervals. Male investment in offspring may help explain how this life history shift occurred. Evolutionary models of hominin male investment in offspring have traditionally focused on provisioning of females and youn…
Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males
In species in which males care for young, testosterone (T) is often high during mating periods but then declines to allow for caregiving of resulting offspring. This model may apply to human males, but past human studies of T and fatherhood have been cross-sectional, making it unclear whether fatherhood suppresses T or if men with lower T are more likely to become fathers. Here, we use a large representative study in the Philippines ( n = 624) to…
Cortisol and testosterone in Filipino young adult men
OBJECTIVES: Although cortisol (CORT) may suppress testosterone (T) production under stress, in many species males' T and CORT are co-elevated during mate acquisition or conspecific competition. It is presently unknown how CORT co-varies with T in relation to fatherhood/relationship status in men. Here we evaluate associations between waking (AM) and pre-bed (PM) salivary CORT and T, and with plasma total T and luteinizing hormone. We also test wh…
Evolutionary perspectives on mother–infant sleep proximity and breastfeeding in a laboratory setting
Human maternal and infant biology likely coevolved in a context of close physical contact and some approximation of frequent, “infant‐initiated” breastfeeding. Still, mothers and infants commonly sleep apart from one another in many western societies, indicating a possible “mismatch” between cultural norms and infant biology. Here we present data from a 3‐night laboratory‐based study that examines differences in mother–infant sleep physiology and…
Prolactin, fatherhood, and reproductive behavior in human males
Although humans are considered unusual among mammals for the intensity of care that fathers often provide offspring, little is known about the hormonal architecture regulating human paternal investment. Prolactin has important reproductive functions in both female and male mammals and other taxa, making it a candidate regulator of human paternal behavior. Notably, prolactin is higher during periods of offspring care in some species, but it is unk…
Progesterone and estrogen responsiveness to father‐toddler interaction
OBJECTIVES: We assessed the responsiveness of salivary progesterone (P4) and estradiol (E2) to father-child interaction, including testing for differences in short-term hormonal change based on paternal characteristics. We also predicted that P4 exposure during the study period would relate positively to post-interaction paternal mood. METHODS: We conducted an in-home intervention study in which fathers (n = 44) played with their toddlers. Subjec…
Salivary estradiol and testosterone in filipino men
OBJECTIVES: We used detailed saliva sampling procedures to test for diurnal changes in men's salivary estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) and assessed whether greater adiposity predicted higher E2 and T. METHODS: We drew on a subsample of young adults enrolled in a long-running birth cohort study in Metro Cebu, Philippines. Subjects provided saliva samples at four time points during the day (waking, waking +40 min, early evening, and bedtime), wh…
Applying socioendocrinology to evolutionary models
Owing to humans' unique life history pattern, particularly comparatively short interbirth intervals, early weaning, and prolonged support of multiple dependents, human females have greater reproductive value and higher lifetime fertility, on average, than do their Great Ape counterparts. As hominin females began weaning their young early and "stacking" dependents of various ages, they must have had cooperative allomaternal care partners already i…
Testosterone, Immune Function, and Life History Transitions in Filipino Males (Homo sapiens)
Developmental energetics, sibling death, and parental instability as predictors of maturational tempo and life history scheduling in males from C ebu, P hilippines
OBJECTIVES: Cross-species comparisons show that high extrinsic mortality favors the evolution of "faster" life histories. There is interest in applying this principle to human life history plasticity, based on the idea that psychosocial stressors that correlate with extrinsic mortality accelerate reproductive pace. Most prior studies have been conducted in settings in which psychosocial stressors co-occur with the maturation-accelerating influenc…
Are testosterone levels and depression risk linked based on partnering and parenting? Evidence from a large population-representative study of U.S. men and women
Becoming Dads
Men have the capacity to respond to the transition to fatherhood and nurturant investments in their partners and children with shifts in neuroendocrine function (such as decreased testosterone production). This capacity may be adaptive, reflecting fitness benefits accrued by some hominin males who responded to partnering and parenting with neuroendocrine shifts promoting cooperation and investment. These patterns are not uniform inter- or intracu…
Androgen receptor CAG repeat polymorphism and hypothalamic‐pituitary‐gonadal function in Filipino young adult males
Second‐to‐fourth digit ratio (2D
OBJECTIVES: A low second-to-fourth (2D:4D) digit ratio, a retrospective marker of high prenatal androgens, predicts increased investment in costly sexually dimorphic traits in men in some studies, although results are mixed. Here we test the hypothesis that the association of low 2D:4D ratios with increased muscularity and decreased adiposity depends on current testosterone (T) levels, such that digit ratio will be a particularly strong predictor…
Menarcheal timing is accelerated by favorable nutrition but unrelated to developmental cues of mortality or familial instability in Cebu, Philippines
When women work
OBJECTIVES: This study explores the acute endocrine reactivity of testosterone and cortisol in women engaging in everyday physical activity in a high altitude environment. METHODS: Data were collected from 35 women living in the Himalayas, with women recruited from both high (>10 000 ft.) and low altitude villages (<10 000 ft.). Saliva samples were collected at 3 time points (pre-activity, 30 and 60 minutes) and women wore the wGT3X-BT Actigraph …
Lifetime socioeconomic status and early life microbial environments predict adult blood telomere length in the Philippines
OBJECTIVES: Psychosocial stress is postulated to hasten senescence in part by accelerating the shortening of telomere length (TL). One pathway through which this may happen is via increasing inflammation and innate immune system activation-a pathway which recent studies suggest acts more strongly for those who grew up in low microbial environments. Thus, we hypothesized that: (1) Psychosocial stress will be inversely associated with TL, (2) early…
Does a man's testosterone “rebound” as dependent children grow up, or when pairbonds end? A test in Cebu, Philippines
OBJECTIVE: Cross-culturally, men's T declines in response to pairbonding and fatherhood, but less is known about what happens to T during and after life history transitions that theoretically lead to renewed mating effort. We tested whether men's T rises (or declines less with age) as their children age, or when pairbonds end, independent of changes in fatherhood-related variables such as co-residence with children. METHODS: We used demographic, …
Fatherhood and psychobiology in the Philippines
OBJECTIVES: Research on the psychobiology of partnering and fathering has focused on testosterone (T), oxytocin, and prolactin (PRL) as mechanisms that potentially mediate life history trade-offs related to those roles. Less is known about other hormones that might be responsive to life history transitions and implicated in fathering, such as estradiol (E2). We examined how E2 changed during the transition to marriage and fatherhood, its correlat…
Positive effects of refugee presence on host community nutritional status in Turkana County, Kenya
OBJECTIVES: Refugee camps are often assumed to negatively impact local host communities through resource competition and conflict. We ask instead whether economic resources and trade networks associated with refugees have benefits for host community health and nutrition. To address this question we assess the impacts of Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya, comparing anthropometric indicators of nutritional status between Turkana communities in…
The effects of collection and storage conditions in the field on salivary testosterone, cortisol, and sIgA values
Salivary T was unaffected by extended storage at -35 °C and only a weak relationship was found between storage time and salivary cort or sIgA. Findings underscore the robustness of these biomarkers under field-typical freezer storage conditions
Dimensions of Fatherhood in a Congo Basin Village
Fathers' direct care (e.g., carrying, sensitive caregiving, cultural transmission) can potentially improve children's health, well-being, and social development. However, between- and within-culture variation in fathers' roles in these domains remains understudied, particularly in work on small-scale societies, and we know relatively little about how these roles intersect with indirect paternal care (e.g., provisioning, resource defense) to shape…
Medicine (30 works) · Demography (29 works) · Psychology (29 works) · Biology (25 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (24 works) · Developmental psychology (21 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Endocrinology (15 works) · Internal Medicine (14 works) · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior (12 works)