How do physiological and social factors influence family adaptations to resource disparities?
Social inequality influences parenting practices, the quality of family relationships, and the behavior, health and development of family members. Resource disparities also increase the chances of conflict and instability at the community level, which in turn elevate stress and further erode family well-being. Inequality exerts its effects, in part, through its impacts on physiological processes: Harsh environments lead to physiological and behavioral adaptations to stress that increase the chances of survival. For example, activation of the HPA axis provides for adaptive reactions to proximal stressors, though long term activation comes at a cost of poor health. In addition, early child rearing practices may be harsher among disadvantaged mothers, thereby disposing children to surviving in a challenging environment, but these harsh strategies may come at a cost. Parents also may adapt to challenging circumstances by channeling scarce resources to offspring with the best potential for
