Male Parental Investment and the Development of Children's Social Competencies:Understanding the Moderating Effects of Marital Quality

A vast literature shows that the quality of personal relationships, especially personal relationships with parents for children, is a major predictor of psychosocial functioning and development. The present literature review attempts to better understand parental influences on the development of children's social competencies from an evolutionary perspective, by focusing on male parental investment in children, and its influences on the child's social competencies. Extant research suggests that male parental investment is more highly correlated with, and predictive of the development of the childs socio-competitive competencies than female parental investment. This review also explores the effects of marital quality on the links between parent-child relationship behaviors and child outcomes.