Life history theory researchers often assume reproductive, parenting and health behaviours pattern across a fast-slow continuum, with ‘fast’ life histories (typified by short lifespans, early maturation and investing in quantity over quality of children) favoured in poor quality environments and/or when resources are scarce. Some researchers further reduce this down to a simplistic ‘fast’ versus ‘slow’ dichotomy. Some of these ideas, with different theoretical motivations, are echoed in the ‘diverging destinies’ and ‘weathering’ frameworks developed in the social sciences. Whether clustering of reproductive, parenting and health traits exists has rarely been empirically tested, however. Using latent class analysis on data on mothers from the UK’s Millennium Cohort (MCS) and Born in Bradford (BiB) studies, we explored whether reproduction and parenting traits clustered into ‘diverging destinies’, whether ‘weathering’ effects tied together health and reproduction, and whether all three domains were combined into either ‘fast’ vs ‘slow’ life histories, or into three groups more indicative of a fast-slow continuum. We leveraged ethnic diversity in these samples to examine four groups of mothers separately: 1. MCS White British/Irish (n = 15,423); 2. MCS Pakistani-origin (n = 923); 3. BiB White British (n = 3937); 4. BiB Pakistani-origin (n = 4351), and explored whether faster ‘weathering’ was evident amongst Pakistani-origin mothers.

Both two and three class models emerged as potential descriptions of latent subgroups, potentially providing support for fast and slow life histories or a continuum of traits. However, response profiles provided only limited support for theoretical predictions of which traits should cluster together, with inconsistent and restricted clustering of traits both within and between the domains of reproduction, parenting, and health. In addition, trait clustering was more pronounced amongst White mothers and we found no clear evidence supporting faster ‘weathering’ amongst Pakistani-origin mothers; the observed clustering instead suggested that cultural constraints may influence linkages between traits. Our results therefore provide some limited support for models which suggest certain traits cluster together in predictable ways, but it is also clear that theoretical frameworks should not emphasise very rigid clustering of large numbers of traits and should allow for contextual influences on clustering.

生活史理论研究人员通常假设生殖、养育和健康行为模式跨越快-慢连续体，“快”生活史（以短寿命、早熟和投资数量而不是儿童质量为代表）在质量差的环境和/或者当资源稀缺时。一些研究人员进一步将其简化为简单的“快”与“慢”二分法。其中一些具有不同理论动机的想法在社会科学中发展起来的“不同的命运”和“风化”框架中得到了回应。然而，是否存在生殖、育儿和健康特征的聚类很少经过实证检验。对来自英国千禧队列 (MCS) 和出生于布拉德福德 (BiB) 研究的母亲数据使用潜在类别分析，我们探讨了繁殖和育儿特征是否聚集成“不同的命运”，“风化”效应是否与健康和繁殖联系在一起，以及所有三个领域是否被合并为“快”与“慢”的生活史，或者分为更具指示性的三组的快慢连续体。我们利用这些样本中的种族多样性来分别检查四组母亲：1. MCS 白人英国人/爱尔兰人（n = 15,423）；2. MCS 巴基斯坦裔 (n = 923)；3. BiB 白人英国人 (n = 3937)；4. BiB 巴基斯坦血统 (n = 4351)，并探讨了巴基斯坦血统的母亲是否明显“风化”得更快。或分为三组更能说明快慢连续体。我们利用这些样本中的种族多样性来分别检查四组母亲：1. MCS 白人英国人/爱尔兰人（n = 15,423）；2. MCS 巴基斯坦裔 (n = 923)；3. BiB 白人英国人 (n = 3937)；4. BiB 巴基斯坦血统 (n = 4351)，并探讨了巴基斯坦血统的母亲是否明显“风化”得更快。或分为三组更能说明快慢连续体。我们利用这些样本中的种族多样性来分别检查四组母亲：1. MCS 白人英国人/爱尔兰人（n = 15,423）；2. MCS 巴基斯坦裔 (n = 923)；3. BiB 白人英国人 (n = 3937)；4. BiB 巴基斯坦血统 (n = 4351)，并探讨了巴基斯坦血统的母亲是否明显“风化”得更快。

二类和三类模型都作为潜在子群的潜在描述出现，可能为快速和慢速生活史或特征连续体提供支持。然而，反应概况仅对哪些特征应该聚集在一起的理论预测提供了有限的支持，在繁殖、育儿和健康领域内部和之间的特征聚集不一致且受限。此外，特征聚类在白人母亲中更为明显，我们没有发现明确的证据支持巴基斯坦裔母亲的“风化”速度更快；观察到的聚类反而表明文化限制可能会影响特征之间的联系。因此，我们的结果为表明某些特征以可预测的方式聚集在一起的模型提供了一些有限的支持，