Skip to main content

Children and Sibs Share Same Proportion of Genes

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Genetic relatedness; Kin relations

Definition

Individuals share approximately the same amount of genes with their biological children and with their full siblings.

Introduction

Biological parents share an average of 50% of the same genes with their children and stepparents share 0% of the same genes with their stepchildren. Adoptive parents can either share some genes with their adoptive children (in the case of within-family adoption) or not. In addition, individuals share approximately 50% of their genes with their full siblings, 25% of their genes with their half siblings, and 0% of their genes with their step-siblings. In the case of within-family adoption, siblings can be genetically related, but in the case of outside family adoption, they tend to be unrelated.

Although individuals share approximately the same proportion of genes with both their biological children and their full siblings, these relationships are substantially different from each other. Sibling...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Del Giudice, M., & Belsky, J. (2011). Parent-child relationships. In C. A. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook on evolutionary family psychology (pp. 65–82). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollet, T. V., & Hoben, A. D. (2011). An evolutionary perspective on siblings: Rivals and resources. In C. A. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook on evolutionary family psychology (pp. 128–148). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, C. A., & Hehman, J. A. (2014). The evolutionary psychology of sibling conflict and siblicide. In T. K. Shackelford & R. D. Hansen (Eds.), The evolution of violence (pp. 137–157). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, C. A., & Hehman, J. A. (2015). Evolutionary perspectives on the nature of sibling conflict: the impact of sex, relatedness, and co-residence. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 1, 123–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2008). Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Segal, N. L., Norman, P. L., Graham, J. L., & Miller, S. A. (2015). Do parents favor their adoptive or biological children? Predictions from kin selection and compensatory models. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 379–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanskanen, A. O., Danielsbacka, M., Jokela, M., & Rotkirch, A. (2016). Sibling conflicts in full- and half-sibling households in the UK. Journal of Biosocial Science, 48, 1–17. doi:10.1017/S0021932016000043.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Volk, A. A. (2011). Adoption: Forms, functions, and preferences. In C. A. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook on evolutionary family psychology (pp. 113–127). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antti O. Tanskanen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M. (2017). Children and Sibs Share Same Proportion of Genes. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1173-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1173-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics