Abstract Across most of human history, infant and child mortality rates were very high, suggesting the death of a child was a challenge faced by many ancestral parents. Prolonged grief likely harmed grievers’ fitness, yet grief is ubiquitous and often protracted, thereby presenting a puzzle for evolutionary arguments. We integrate existing theories of grief with patterns of parental bereavement to examine how human psychology has been shaped to respond to the death of a child. We contend that variation in life history strategy may explain the relative difficulty with which individuals recover from losing a child. We propose that the same physiological mechanisms underlying detachment and grief during dissolved romantic relationships may also underlie the intensity of parental attachment and bereavement. This theoretical review thus integrates evolutionary theory with extant grief research to provide a functional analysis of the immense suffering associated with the loss of a child.

中文翻译：

---

儿童死亡率和父母的悲伤：进化分析

摘要 在人类历史的大部分时间里，婴儿和儿童的死亡率都非常高，这表明儿童的死亡是许多祖父母面临的挑战。长时间的悲伤可能会损害悲伤者的健康，但悲伤无处不在，而且往往是旷日持久的，从而为进化论的争论带来了难题。我们将现有的悲伤理论与父母的丧亲模式相结合，以研究人类心理是如何被塑造以应对儿童死亡的。我们认为，生活史策略的变化可以解释个体从失去孩子中恢复过来的相对困难。我们提出，在恋爱关系破裂期间，造成分离和悲伤的相同生理机制也可能是父母依恋和丧亲之痛的基础。