Carol M Worthman
Biographic Data
| ID | 107478 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carol M Worthman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carol M |
| FAMILY NAME | Worthman |
| SIGNATURE | WORTHMAN C M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Emory University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5397-2298 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 71 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 423 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 71 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Divergent understandings of stress and effects of yoga and breath practice on body and emotion: A cross-cultural comparative study
Popular practice of yoga has spread worldwide, alongside fitness, health, and contemplative pursuits. Concurrently, mental distress and disorders are major contributors to the burden of non-communicable diseases. Practices of yoga-meditation are widely touted and often pursued as antidotes for stress. A qualitative mixed methods study incorporating freelisting and cultural consensus analysis was designed to determine the extent to which members o…
Women’s mental health: Current Status and Evolutionary Perspectives
Women’s mental health is commonly regarded as worse than that of men across most cultures and countries, although the pronounced female disparity for affective disorders, particularly depression and anxiety, is reversed for other mental conditions such as addiction, alcoholism, or autism. Here we probe this puzzle within a life-history adaptationist framework, focusing on the high prevalence of mood disorders among women with the goal to evaluate…
A network analysis of 'thinking a lot: Connections to childhood trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder among men who have sex with men in Vietnam
The landscapes of lives II: How social actors navigate dynamic action landscapes
Our previous companion article situated practices in a socio-ecological framework to propose action landscapes as person-specific fields of possible practices that are place- and time-contingent. Here we expand this approach to social actors as they navigate complex, fluid social worlds to pursue meaningful lives. Embodiment, social homeostasis, and social interactions shape actors' abilities to enact specific practices and meet adversity. The ex…
The landscapes of lives I: An action landscape approach to practices and the interface of individual and society
Practices occupy the intersection of human behavior with its personal and societal dimensions, operating in social theory as bridges between high-order cultural features and on-the-ground dynamics that reciprocally shape the conditions of everyday life and animate human experience. Yet precisely how this bridging occurs remains underspecified. We address that gap in this and a companion article (Worthman, Cummings, and Lende 2023). This article s…
Maternal depression, alcohol use, and transient effects of perinatal paraprofessional home visiting in South Africa: Eight-year follow-up of a cluster randomized controlled trial
Emory-Tibet Science Initiative: Changes in Monastic Science Learning Motivation and Engagement During a Six-Year Curriculum
Led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the initiative taken by the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community to connect with western science and scientists presents a unique opportunity to understand the motivations and engagement behaviors that contribute to monastic science learning. In this study, we draw on quantitative data from two distinct surveys that track motivations and engagement behaviors related to science education among monastic students. …
Elevated trauma exposure and mental health burden among men who have sex with men in Vietnam
The purpose of this study was to characterize trauma exposure and mental health burden among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Hanoi, Vietnam. Participants comprise 100 HIV-positive and 98 high-risk, HIV-negative MSM, ranging from 18 to 29 years of age. Data were collected using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Traumatic Events Inventory, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and PTSD Symptom Scale. A subset of parti…
Boundary Crossing by a Community of Practice: Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries Engage Science Education
As a globalized world struggles with division and disinformation, engaging across difference has emerged as a major challenge to communication and collaborative action needed to address growing global challenges. As such, the initiative by Tibetan Buddhist leaders to incorporate western science in curricula for monastic education may serve as an important case study that illuminates the conditions and processes at work in genuine cultural outreac…
Telomere length analysis from minimally‐invasively collected samples: Methods development and meta‐analysis of the validity of different sampling techniques
Mental health in HIV prevention and care: A qualitative study of challenges and facilitators to integration in Vietnam
Multidisciplinary research priorities for the Covid-19 pandemic: A call for action for mental health science
Found in Translation: Collaborative Contemplations of Tibetan Buddhism and Western Science
Development of an inclusive scientific community necessitates doing more than simply bringing science to diverse groups of people. Ideally, the sciences evolve through incorporation of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and worldviews. Efforts to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, and socioeconomic groups among science scholars are currently underway. Examination of these efforts yields …
Current Officers and Members of Standing Committees
Pre-registration is less costly and is possible online at www.humbio.org through March 20, 2019. Non-members who register for the meeting are also welcome to attend
Puberty and the Evolution of Developmental Science
In recent decades, theoretical and methodological advances have operated synergistically to advance understanding of puberty and prompt increasingly comprehensive models that engage with the temporal, psychosocial, and biological dimensions of this maturational milepost. This integrative overview discusses these theoretical and methodological advances and their implications for research and intervention to promote human development in the context…
Shared and local pathways in suffering and resilience: Keeping the body in mind
Interpersonal violence and suicidality among former child soldiers and war-exposed civilian children in Nepal
Sexual IPV is associated with suicidal ideation and plans among conflict-affected young women, independent of depression. Reducing suicide risk among women should include screening, care, and prevention programs for sexual IPV. Programs involving teachers may be particularly impactful for reducing suicidality among IPV survivors
SPA 2016 and 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
When can parents most influence their child's development? Expert knowledge and perceived local realities
Designing mental health interventions informed by child development and human biology theory: A social ecology intervention for child soldiers in N epal
The anthropological study of human biology, health, and child development provides a model with potential to address the gap in population‐wide mental health interventions. Four key concepts from human biology can inform public mental health interventions: life history theory and tradeoffs, redundancy and plurality of pathways, cascades and multiplier effects in biological systems, and proximate feedback systems. A public mental health interventi…
The signs of stress: Embodiments of biosocial stress among type 2 diabetic women in New Delhi, India
Sleep budgets in a globalizing world: Biocultural interactions influence sleep sufficiency among Egyptian families
Inside-Out and Outside-In? Global Development Theory, Policy, and Youth
Humanity is young: In 2006, over a third (2.2 billion) were under age 18 and almost half were under age 25. In addition, nearly the majority of young people ages 15-24 lives on less than $2 per day, 15 percent are undernourished, and 14.4 percent are unemployed. Although 85 percent of young people live in developing countries, only a fraction of adolescent development and mental health research is focused there. Efforts to shift the emphasis of s…
Sex differences in child nutritional and immunological status 5–9 years post contact in fringe highland Papua New Guinea
OBJECTIVES: This study examines sex differences in vulnerability among children experiencing rapid culture change that may reflect distinct microecologies driven by differential parental investment and/or sex-specific life history strategies. Apparent female growth canalization may be a life history strategy favoring growth over maintenance but also may reflect sex-differentiated selection for resilience based on unequal treatment during early li…
The Ecology of Human Development: Evolving Models for Cultural Psychology
The Whiting model aimed to provide a blueprint for psychocultural research by generating testable hypotheses about the dynamic relationships of a culture with the psychology and behavior of its members. This analysis identifies reasons why the model was so effective at generating hypotheses borne out in empirical research, including its foundational insight that integrated nature and nurture, its reconceptualization of the significance of early e…
Death, Hope, and Sex: Life-History Theory and the Development of Reproductive Strategies [and Comments and Reply]
Intergroup Aggression in Chimpanzees and Humans [and Comments and Replies]
Receding horizons of health: Biocultural Approaches to Public Health Paradoxes
Hormones, Sex, and Gender
Anthropologists study human diversity but are sharply divided over the roles of culture and biology in that diversity. The division is clearly represented in distinctions between sex and gender as biological and cultural categories, respectively. The disciplinary divide is further reflected in the contrast between the study of sex differences and hormones by biological anthropologists and the critique by cultural anthropologists of the value of b…
The Ecology of Human Development: Evolving Models for Cultural Psychology
The Whiting model aimed to provide a blueprint for psychocultural research by generating testable hypotheses about the dynamic relationships of a culture with the psychology and behavior of its members. This analysis identifies reasons why the model was so effective at generating hypotheses borne out in empirical research, including its foundational insight that integrated nature and nurture, its reconceptualization of the significance of early e…
The signs of stress: Embodiments of biosocial stress among type 2 diabetic women in New Delhi, India
Social Change in Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Mate Selection, and Premarital Pregnancy Rates in a Kikuyu Community
Cultural and community determinants of subjective social status among Cherokee and White youth
Cultural identity, community context, and local reference groups are crucial determinants of SSS. Both White and Cherokee youth in Appalachia exhibit SSS rankings consistent with socioeconomic and cultural marginalization. On a local scale, however, living in high poverty areas or minority communities may buffer individuals from some negative social comparisons regarding subjectively perceived SES. Meanwhile, social monitoring in small minority c…
Interactions of Physical Maturation and Cultural Practice in Ontogeny: Kikuyu Adolescents
When can parents most influence their child's development? Expert knowledge and perceived local realities
Sleep budgets in a globalizing world: Biocultural interactions influence sleep sufficiency among Egyptian families
Moving from ethnography to epidemiology: Lessons learned in Appalachia
When creating ethnographically-based instruments, it is important to strike a balance between detailed, participant-driven procedures and the analytic needs of hypothesis testing. Ethnographically-based instruments have utility for predicting health outcomes in longitudinal studies
Inside-Out and Outside-In? Global Development Theory, Policy, and Youth
Humanity is young: In 2006, over a third (2.2 billion) were under age 18 and almost half were under age 25. In addition, nearly the majority of young people ages 15-24 lives on less than $2 per day, 15 percent are undernourished, and 14.4 percent are unemployed. Although 85 percent of young people live in developing countries, only a fraction of adolescent development and mental health research is focused there. Efforts to shift the emphasis of s…
Lifecourse Priorities Among Appalachian Emerging Adults: Revisiting Wallace's Organization of Diversity
We examine how social demographics (gender, age, or race-ethnicity), census tract characteristics, and family environment during childhood relate to variability in the lifecourse priorities of 344 Cherokee and white youth during emerging adulthood (age 19-24). Analyses were performed using recursive partitioning and random forest methods to examine determinants of prioritizing education, family formation, economic establishment, self characterist…
Cultural Models, Parent Behavior, and Young Child Experience in Working American Families
SYNOPSIS Objective . We evaluated the resolution of conflicts between cultural models of parenting related to child security and child enrichment in the daily scheduling practices of families with young children, given the competing pressures of work and family. Design . Parents in 35 families provided 7 days of detailed prospective daily schedule data for themselves and their preschool-aged focal child using the Daily Life Architecture method. I…
Socialization Ambiguity in Samoan Adolescents: A Model for Human Development and Stress in the Context of Culture Change
Rapid globalization is forcing youth around the world to confront new developmental challenges, and conceptual models are needed that can capture this experience and its developmental implications. Exposure to nontraditional lifestyles opens up new socialization opportunities and raises the possibility of stress‐inducing dissonance between participating socializing agents and the messages they deliver. Socialization ambiguity is introduced as a m…
Shared and local pathways in suffering and resilience: Keeping the body in mind
The landscapes of lives I: An action landscape approach to practices and the interface of individual and society
Practices occupy the intersection of human behavior with its personal and societal dimensions, operating in social theory as bridges between high-order cultural features and on-the-ground dynamics that reciprocally shape the conditions of everyday life and animate human experience. Yet precisely how this bridging occurs remains underspecified. We address that gap in this and a companion article (Worthman, Cummings, and Lende 2023). This article s…
Family and community influences on educational outcomes among appalachian youth
Recent research has shown how quantifiable aspects of community context affect a wide range of behaviors and outcomes. Due partially to the historical development of this field, currently published work focuses on urban rather than rural areas. We draw upon data from a longitudinal study of families and health in Appalachia—the Great Smoky Mountains Study (GSMS), and an ethnographically based interview tool—the Life Trajectory Interview for Youth…
Cultural Models and Fertility Timing among Cherokee and White Youth in Appalachia: Beyond the Mode
Much anthropological research and theory concerns how group differences in behavior, subjective experience, and ways of seeing the world (i.e., cultural differences) are created and maintained. Both within and outside the United States, there are dramatic group differences in fertility. In the United States, American Indian groups exhibit some of the highest and earliest fertility. We used ethnographic data as well as structured card-sort and que…
The landscapes of lives II: How social actors navigate dynamic action landscapes
Our previous companion article situated practices in a socio-ecological framework to propose action landscapes as person-specific fields of possible practices that are place- and time-contingent. Here we expand this approach to social actors as they navigate complex, fluid social worlds to pursue meaningful lives. Embodiment, social homeostasis, and social interactions shape actors' abilities to enact specific practices and meet adversity. The ex…
Maternal depression, alcohol use, and transient effects of perinatal paraprofessional home visiting in South Africa: Eight-year follow-up of a cluster randomized controlled trial
Elevated trauma exposure and mental health burden among men who have sex with men in Vietnam
The purpose of this study was to characterize trauma exposure and mental health burden among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Hanoi, Vietnam. Participants comprise 100 HIV-positive and 98 high-risk, HIV-negative MSM, ranging from 18 to 29 years of age. Data were collected using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Traumatic Events Inventory, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and PTSD Symptom Scale. A subset of parti…
The Effects of Infant Cries and Odors on Sympathy, Cortisol, and Autonomic Responses in New Mothers and Nonpostpartum Women
Objective. To determine the biological correlates of maternal responsiveness in new mothers, comparisons were made between new mothers and nonpostpartum women on their affective, hormonal, and heart rate responses to infant cries and odors. Design. Eighty-six new mothers were divided into 3 groups: a cry group who listened to prerecorded cries of newborn infants (n = 27), an odor group who smelled the T-shirts previously worn by newborn infants (…
Nursing Frequency, Gonadal Function, and Birth Spacing Among !Kung Hunter-Gatherers
Mothers among !Kung hunter-gatherers nurse briefly and frequently, with brief intervals between nursing bouts (mean ± standard error, 13.19 ± 1.28 minutes). The low levels of 17β-estradiol and progesterone in the serum of the mother are correlated with infant's age and with interbout interval, but not with total nursing time. Maternal gonadal function is apparently suppressed by a timing-dependent, prolactin-mediated effect of breast stimulation.…
Reproduction in the vervet monkey ( Cercopithecus aethiops ): II. Annual menstrual patterns and seasonality
Menstrual patterns and progesterone levels were monitored for 5 years from a cohort of 28 female vervet monkeys that were individually caged indoors. Three distinct cycle types (short, normal, and prolonged) were defined according to cycle length. Mean length of the normal cycle (32.5 days) and menses duration (4.8 days) are in agreement with previous reports. Prolonged cycles (> 50 days) contributed 20% of the total, with a decreased incidence d…
Social Change in Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Mate Selection, and Premarital Pregnancy Rates in a Kikuyu Community
Interactions of Physical Maturation and Cultural Practice in Ontogeny: Kikuyu Adolescents
Reproduction in the vervet monkey ( Cercopithecus aethiops ): III. The menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycles of 17 multiparous vervet monkeys were studied. Based on estradiol, progesterone, and LH profiles, ovulation is predicted to occur on day 13 of the 32.4‐day menstrual cycle. Estradiol peaked on the day preceding the LH peak in 75% of cycles. Average luteal phase length (progesterone greater than 4 nmol/l) was 18 days, with progesterone rising above 4 nmol/l on the day of the LH peak. Vaginal cytology and perianal skin colorati…
Disease and Fertility . Joseph A. McFalls, Jr. and Marguerite Harvey McFalls
Intergroup Aggression in Chimpanzees and Humans [and Comments and Replies]
Salivary testosterone concentration of Aymara men native to 3600 m
This paper explores the possibility that variation in the normal physiological range of testosterone concentration modulates men's adaptation to hypobaric high-altitude hypoxia through stimulating haemoglobin production and/or causing respiratory disturbances and exacerbated hypoxaemia during sleep. These effects of testosterone are observed clinically at sea level and have potentially opposing consequences at high altitude, the former perhaps en…
Attenuation of nursing-related ovarian suppression and high fertility in well-nourished, intensively breast-feeding Amele women of lowland Papua New Guinea
Intense, sustained nursing lengthens inter-birth intervals and is causally linked with low natural fertility. However, in traditional settings, the effects of such nursing on fertility are difficult to disentangle from those of nutrition. Results from an prospective, direct observational study of reproductive function in well-nourished Amele women who nurse intensively and persistently but who also have high fertility are here presented. Endocrin…
Precision of recumbent anthropometry
In some studies recumbent anthropometric measures are more appropriate than standing measures. There is little published information, however, on the precision of recumbent measures. To estimate the interobserver precision of recumbent anthropometry, 22 men and 29 women volunteers 35–64 years of age were each measured on the same day by four trained nurses previously inexperienced in anthropometry. Fourteen recumbent measurements were taken, incl…
Death, Hope, and Sex: Life-History Theory and the Development of Reproductive Strategies [and Comments and Reply]
Fecal steroid analysis of ovarian cycles in free‐ranging baboons
This paper reports field and laboratory tests of serial sampling, solid phase extraction, and microradioimmunoassay methods for the collection, preservation, and analysis of fecal steroids. The field study was conducted in a troop of 87 yellow baboons ( Papio cynocephalus ) in the Tana River Primate Reserve, Kenya. Serial samples of four focal females and opportunistic sampling of 18 additional females over 22 days of sampling yielded a total of …
Hormones, Sex, and Gender
Anthropologists study human diversity but are sharply divided over the roles of culture and biology in that diversity. The division is clearly represented in distinctions between sex and gender as biological and cultural categories, respectively. The disciplinary divide is further reflected in the contrast between the study of sex differences and hormones by biological anthropologists and the critique by cultural anthropologists of the value of b…
Basal metabolic rate and dietary seasonality among Tibetan nomads
The results of 51 overnight measurements of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in a sample of pastoral nomads resident permanently in Phala, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, are reported. Past studies demonstrated a culturally driven seasonality of diet, with very low summer and very high winter caloric intake. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that the ability of Phala nomads to subsist on low caloric intake for several summer months without …
Heart rate monitoring of physical activity among village, school, and homeless Nepali boys
Continuous HR monitoring, in conjunction with self-reports and direct observation of physical activity, was undertaken in three samples of 10-13-year-old Nepali boys living in different physical and socioeconomic environments. A total of 134 daytime HR profiles were recorded from 67 boys (76 from 31 villagers, 39 from 20 urban middle-class schoolboys, and 19 from 16 homeless street boys). Habitual levels of physical activity were compared using m…
Comparative study of flex heart rate in three samples of Nepali boys
Flex heart rate (HR, beats per minute) has assumed increasing importance in studies of energy expenditure and physical activity. Flex HR is defined as the mean of maximum rest and minimum exercise HR recorded during a standard test. This report examines methodological and substantive issues regarding the measurement and interpretation of population variation in flex HR values. Flex HR was determined for 80 Nepali 10-14-year-old boys living in con…
Basal metabolic rate and dietary seasonality among Tibetan nomads
The results of 51 overnight measurements of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in a sample of pastoral nomads resident permanently in Phala, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, are reported. Past studies demonstrated a culturally driven seasonality of diet, with very low summer and very high winter caloric intake. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that the ability of Phala nomads to subsist on low caloric intake for several summer months without …
Hormone measures in finger-prick blood spot samples: New field methods for reproductive endocrinology
Comparative endocrine studies have notably advanced understanding of ecological factors that contribute to variation in human reproductive function. Such research has relied on methodological advances that permit hormone determinations in samples that are easily and safely collected, stored, and transported, most recently on measurement of steroids in saliva. This report seeks to further expand the scope of endocrine research by demonstrating the…
Hormone measures in finger‐prick blood spot samples: New field methods for reproductive endocrinology
Ventilation and hypoxic ventilatory response of Tibetan and Aymara high altitude natives
Ventilation and hypoxic ventilatory response of Tibetan and Aymara high altitude natives
Newcomers acclimatizing to high altitude and adult male Tibetan high altitude natives have increased ventilation relative to sea level natives at sea level. However, Andean and Rocky Mountain high altitude natives have an intermediate level of ventilation lower than that of newcomers and Tibetan high altitude natives although generally higher than that of sea level natives at sea level. Because the reason for the relative hypoventilation of some …
The Weanlingʼs Dilemma Reconsidered: A Biocultural Analysis of Breastfeeding Ecology
Infant feeding practices exert recognized effects on infant survival and command close attention from pediatricians, nutritionists, public health workers, demographers, social scientists, and parents. Despite considerable research and public health efforts, models to inform decision-making about timing of supplementation in policy and practice remain unsatisfactory. In the present review, new models are derived through analysis of the weanling's …
Biological and behavioral factors influence group differences in prolactin levels among breastfeeding Nepali women
Biological and behavioral factors influence group differences in prolactin levels among breastfeeding Nepali women
This study of two natural fertility Nepali groups, the Tamang and Kami, identifies biological and behavioral factors associated with population differences in fertility. Previous research had established that Tamang experience longer interbirth intervals than Kami despite similarly intense nursing practices, and bear considerably higher energy expenditure due to workload. This cross-sectional study of 71 breastfeeding women includes prolactin det…
Evolutionary process and the ecology of human immune function
Evolutionary principles inform central design features of human immune defenses and provide key insights into this complicated host defense system. This article explores the selection pressures and adaptive responses that have elaborated the immune system over the course of evolution and discusses their implications for understanding contemporary immune development and function. Special attention is given to the challenges posed by diverse, rapid…
Medicine (43 works) · Psychology (40 works) · Sociology (30 works) · Biology (22 works) · Developmental psychology (18 works) · Demography (17 works) · Psychiatry (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Population (14 works) · Social Psychology (13 works)