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Ketterman, A. B. (A. B. ). (2021). Prevalence and Predictors of "Nesting": Solutions to Adaptive Challenges Faced during Pregnancy. Retrieved from https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/2020_Summer_Fall_Ketterman_fsu_0071N_16523
Throughout ancestral times, women faced significant adaptive challenges during pregnancy, and thus evolution may have selected for psychological mechanisms designed to help women prepare for birth and motherhood. Previous researchers have conceptualized such mechanisms as comprising a form of “nesting,” which may consist primarily of a tendency to be highly selective in one’s social relationships and to prepare a safe physical space for childbirth (Anderson & Rutherford, 2013). The current study was aimed at replicating and extending previous evidence for nesting. Consistent with previous work, results demonstrated that pregnant women engaged in more nesting than nonpregnant women, and that degree of nesting increased across week of gestation. Among pregnant women, high levels of germ aversion and having relatively high socioeconomic status (SES) were both associated with high levels of nesting. High levels of progesterone were not responsible for observed variability in nesting. Although we measured a number of life history-related variables, none of those variables predicted nesting within pregnant women. The present work suggests that nesting is a pervasive phenomenon among pregnant women. Future directions are discussed.
evolutionary psychology, pregnancy, social support
Date of Defense
March 22, 2021.
Submitted Note
A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references.
Advisory Committee
Jon K. Maner, Professor Directing Thesis; Thomas E. Joiner, Committee Member; Andrea L. Meltzer, Committee Member.
Publisher
Florida State University
Identifier
2020_Summer_Fall_Ketterman_fsu_0071N_16523
Ketterman, A. B. (A. B. ). (2021). Prevalence and Predictors of "Nesting": Solutions to Adaptive Challenges Faced during Pregnancy. Retrieved from https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/2020_Summer_Fall_Ketterman_fsu_0071N_16523