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Resumo

Previous studies try to account for variance in adolescent sexual precociousness, sexual mobility, and childbearing by reference either to sociological risk factors (e.g., poverty, social class, opportunitiesjbr sexual activity, or the absence of constraints on sexual activity) or to an evolved, domain‐specific cognitive mechanism. However, these forms of behavioral variation may reflect an evolved mental mechanism that creates behavioral plasticity and adaptability by assigning emotional weights to choice alternatives in all behavioral domains. Because it should act as a selective mechanismfor choice alternatives, this emotional mechanism should create enhanced ability to avoid predation (social exploitation) and to obtain access to resources, given the properties of specific environments. Sexual precociousness, sexual mobility, and childbearing thus should be determined by ecological contingencies that bear on how girls may best empower themselves. The findings of the present study support this ecological contingency hypothesis and show no effect for sociological and evolutionary psychology predictors. What we now characterize stress‐induced morbidity thus may consist of adaptive responses to environments in which children find themselves subject to predation and denial of access to resources.

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