A 10-year perspective of motherless-mother monkey behavior

Abstract

Reviews previous reports that the maternal behavior of rhesus monkey females who themselves were reared without mothers ("motherless mothers") is generally inadequate and often abusive. The maternal competency of 50 such Ss was examined with respect to the variables of rearing environment, age at 1st social contact, sex of offspring, age at 1st delivery, parity, and duration of exposure to previous offspring. Results suggest that physical contact with conspecifics, either with peers prior to adulthood or with their own infants immediately after birth, greatly reduced the probability that motherless mothers would be inadequate maternally. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1976 American Psychological Association.