RT Journal Article
T1 Too Many Males or Too Many Females? Classroom Sex Ratio, Life History Strategies and Risk-Taking Behaviors
A1 Salas-Rodríguez, Javier
A1 Gómez-Jacinto, Luís
A1 Hombrados-Mendieta, Isabel
A1 Del-Pino-Brunet, Natalia
K1 Evolutionary psychology
K1 Classroom sex ratio
K1 Life history strategy
K1 Risk-taking behaviors
K1 Multilevel modeling
K1 Adolescents
AB Prior research finds that sex ratio, defined as the proportion of males and females in a given context, is related to engagementin risk-taking behaviors. However, most research operationalizes sex ratio at a local context (e.g., regional or county), whichfails to reflect with precision the sex ratios contexts of individuals at a closer level. Furthermore, the relationship between sexratio and risk-taking behaviors may be affected by individuals’ life history strategy, with previous studies showing fast lifehistory strategies linked to risk-taking behaviors, compared to slow life history strategies. The present study analyzes therelationship between classroom sex ratio and risk-taking behaviors and the interaction between classroom sex ratio and lifehistory strategy in adolescents. The sample comprised 1214 participants nested in 57 classrooms, 49.75% females, 91.5%Spanish and a mean age of 16.15 years (SD = 1.23, range 14–21). Results from multilevel modeling showed a negativerelation between classroom sex ratio and risk-taking behaviors in female adolescents with faster life history strategy. Bycontrast, classroom sex ratio in male adolescents related positively to risk-taking behaviors but did not interact with lifehistory strategy. These findings underscore the importance of studying proximate sex ratio on risk-taking behaviors inadolescents and underline its potential influence in the development and expression of life history strategies
PB Springer
YR 2022
FD 2022-06-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/24591
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/24591
LA eng
NO Salas-Rodríguez, J., Gómez-Jacinto, L., Hombrados-Mendieta, I. et al. Too Many Males or Too Many Females? Classroom Sex Ratio, Life History Strategies and Risk-Taking Behaviors. J Youth Adolescence (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01635-z
NO This research was supported by the Andalucía ERDF 2014-20 OP [UMA18-FEDERJA-071] and the Research Grants ofthe Reina Sofia Centre on Adolescence and Youth. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga/CBUA.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 21 ene 2026