Bruce J. Ellis, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
John & Doris Norton Endowed Chair in Fathers, Parenting, and Families
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Scholarly Interests and Activities
Selected Publications
Courses
Fathers, Parenting, and Families Initiative
Press Releases (public summaries of research)
Web-Based Presentations
[MAILING ADDRESS]
PO Box 210078
Tucson, AZ 85721-0078
[CAMPUS ADDRESS]
Family and Consumer Sciences Bldg.
650 N Park Ave Tucson, AZ 85721-0078
Phone: (520) 626-5703 Fax: (520) 621-3401
Email:bjellis@email.arizona.edu
Scholarly Interests and Activities
As an overarching goal of my career, I seek to integrate evolutionary biology and developmental psychology—to create a new field of study, which David Bjorklund and I have called evolutionary developmental psychology (Ellis & Bjorklund, 2005). Along these lines, my research focuses on generating and testing evolutionary models of developmental experience. At one level, this focus involves theory development: advancing new models of how evolution has shaped the child’s brain to respond to specific features of family environments and the larger ecological context (Ellis, 2004; Boyce & Ellis, 2005; Ellis, Jackson, & Boyce, 2006; Bjorklund, Ellis, & Rosenberg, 2007; Ellis, Figueredo, Brumbach, & Schlomer, submitted). At another level, my focus involves theory testing: examining the impact of family relationships and socioecological conditions on children’s biological stress responses, timing of pubertal development, and first sexual experience and pregnancy (e.g., Ellis et al., 1999, 2003; Ellis & Garber, 2000; Ellis, Essex, & Boyce, 2005; Ellis & Essex, 2007; Tither & Ellis, 2008; Brumbach, Figueredo, & Ellis, in press).
Much of my theoretical and empirical work examines links between childhood experience and pubertal development. This work stands on the shoulders of a landmark theory, first presented in 1991 by Jay Belsky and colleagues, linking childhood experience, interpersonal orientation, and reproductive strategy. This theory posited that levels of stress and support in extra-familial environments influence family dynamics (marital relationships, parent-child relationships), thereby shaping children’s early emotional and behavioral development and, through it, subsequent sexual development and behavior in adolescence and beyond. Moreover, the theory asserted that this environmentally sensitive developmental system evolved as a means of matching individuals to their environments, and that this matching process functions to promote survival and reproductive success across varying ecological contexts. I have taken the lead role in a series of prospective, longitudinal investigations that have tested core propositions derived from this theory, particularly regarding relations between family environments and pubertal timing (Ellis et al., 1999, 2003; Ellis & Garber, 2000; Ellis & Essex, 2007; Tither & Ellis, 2008). I have also conducted a comprehensive review of the literature evaluating the status of the theory (Ellis, 2004), and this review paper won the George A. Miller Award from the American Psychological Association for the year’s best theoretical paper in psychology.
Based on my theoretical and empirical work, my colleagues and I have advanced a series of revisions and extensions of Belsky’s original theory, including a reanalysis of family environments to distin-guish between harsh-conflictual and warm-supportive family dynamics and their relative effects on pubertal maturation (Ellis et al., 1999); development of a complementary theory of paternal investment that emphasizes the unique effects of fathers and other adult males in regulation of daughters’ sexual development (Ellis et al., 1999, 2003; Ellis & Garber, 2000; Ellis, 2004; Ellis & Essex, 2007; Tither & Ellis, 2008); development of an alternative theory of the function of pubertal timing as a mechanism for calibrating the length of childhood to match the quality of family environments (Ellis, 2004; Ellis & Essex, 2007); reconceptualization of childhood stress as constituting two fundamental dimensions of variation—harshness and unpredictability—that ultimately guide reproductive development (Ellis et al., in press; Brumbach, Figueredo, & Ellis, in press); incorporation of the importance of changes in childhood conditions during sensitive age periods as a critical factor in early pubertal development (Tither & Ellis, 2008); and development of a mediational model linking socioeconomic status, psychosocial stress in families, fat deposition in middle childhood, and onset of puberty (Ellis & Essex, 2007; Braithwaite, Ellis et al., submitted).
My current work on childhood experience and pubertal development focuses on two fundamental issues: causation and mechanism. Although evolutionary theories of developmental experience posit that family environments have a causal influence on pubertal timing, alternative behavior genetic models suggest that this “influence” is spurious—a non-causal artifact of high genetic loading for traits associated with early pubertal development in dysfunctional families. To distinguish between these competing explanations, I have developed a genetically- and environmentally-controlled sibling-comparison methodology. Central to this design are comparisons between full biological sisters, discrepant in age, who experienced the dissolution of their biological parents’ union while growing up, and then lived primarily with their mother following the dissolution. If such siblings are 7 years apart in age, for example, then the childhood environment of the older sibling is characterized by 7 more years of residence in a biologically intact, father-present family, whereas the childhood environment of the younger sibling is characterized by 7 more years of residence in a biologically disrupted family without the birth father in the home. My ongoing research, begun in New Zealand and continuing in the US, is examining the effects of these differences between sisters in exposure to family disruption/father absence (a non-shared environmental factor) on sexual development. In the New Zealand study (Tither & Ellis, 2008), this differential exposure had substantial effects on age at menarche, and I am now conducting a pilot study in the US for the purpose of revising/resubmitting (Jan. 2009) a major NIH-R01 grant proposal using this methodology. The US data clearly link differential father exposure to risky sexual behavior in daughters.
My work on identifying mediating mechanisms is primarily focused on growth in body fat (Ellis & Essex, 2007; Braithwaite, Ellis et al., in press) and alterations in stress physiology. Several current projects are investigating activity of the stress response systems (autonomic and adrenocortical), with the goal of mapping the mediating pathways that link family environments to sexual development. I am a currently a co-investigator on an NSF grant (PI: Rob Quinlan) that is testing this mediational model in a rural community on the island of Dominica. In addition, I am also a co-investigator on the competitive renewal of an NIH-R01 grant at UC Berkeley (P.I: W. Thomas Boyce; Nov. 2008 submission) that will examine these questions in a community sample of 300 children who were extensively assessed on stress reactivity in the first grade. Taken together, these diverse investigations should enable me and my collaborators to thoroughly examine relations between family environments, activation of the stress response systems, and sexual development and behavior across a range of contexts and populations.
An important foundation of these investigations is my ongoing work on the role of family environments in regulating biological reactivity to stress. My colleagues and I have proposed that stress reactivity is an indicator of openness or susceptibility to environmental influence, both positive and negative, and thus reflects biological sensitivity to context. In a recent theoretical paper on this topic (Boyce & Ellis, 2005), we hypothesized a curvilinear, U-shaped relation between early exposures to adversity and the development of biological sensitivity to context in children, with high context-sensitivity emerging in both highly stressful and highly protected early family environments. The curvilinearity hypothesis received provisional support in two studies of early development and psychopathology (Ellis, Essex, & Boyce, 2005). Although this work has achieved high citation impact (see also Ellis, Jackson, & Boyce, 2006), our theory of biological sensitivity to context remains to be fully tested. Thus, another important goal of the funded projects described above is to further develop and evaluate the core propositions of the theory, including the curvilinearity hypothesis.
In sum, my theoretical and empirical work attempts to connect three broad constructs: family environments, stress physiology, and sexual development. Guided by evolutionary theory, the fundamental goal of this work is to characterize major dimensions of stress experienced by children, and how different levels and types of family stress (e.g., absence of warmth vs. presence of conflict, chronically harsh vs. unpredictable home environments, early vs. middle childhood exposures) affect stress response systems and pubertal and sexual development.
Core research areas: Adolescent development and transition to adulthood ; Social and Emotional development in early childhood ; Romantic and sexual relationships.
*Graduate students under the direction of Ellis.
*Schlomer, G.L., Ellis, B.J., & Garber, J. (in press). Mother-child conflict and sibling relatedness: A test of hypotheses from parent-offspring conflict theory. Journal of Research in Adolescence.
*Brumbach, B.H., Figueredo, A.J., & Ellis, B.J. (in press). Effects of harsh and unpredictable environments in adolescence on the development of life history strategies: A longitudinal test of an evolutionary model. Human Nature.
*Jackson, J.J., & Ellis, B.J. (in press). Synthesizing life history theory with sexual selection: Toward a comprehensive model of alternative reproductive strategies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences commentary.
*Tither, J.M., & Ellis, B.J. (2008). Impact of fathers on daughters’ age at menarche: A genetically- and environmentally-controlled sibling study. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1409-1420.
Ellis, B.J., & Boyce, W.T. (2008). Biological sensitivity to context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 183-187.
Park, I.J.K., Garber, J., Ciesla, J.A., & Ellis, B.J. (2008). Convergence among multiple methods of measuring the family environment: Relation to depression in mothers and their children. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 123-134.
Ellis, B.J., & Essex, M.J. (2007). Family environments, adrenarche, and sexual maturation: A longitudinal test of a life history model. Child Development, 78, 1799-1817.
Bjorklund, D.F., Ellis, B.J., & Rosenberg, J.S. (2007). Evolved probabilistic cognitive mechanisms: An evolutionary approach to gene x environment x development interactions. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 35, 1-36.
*Healey, M.D., & Ellis, B.J. (2007). Birth order, conscientiousness, and openness to experience: Tests of the family-niche model of personality using a within-family methodology. Evolution & Human Behavior, 28, 55-59.
Ellis, B.J., *Jackson, J.J., & Boyce, W.T. (2006). The stress response systems: Universality and adaptive individual differences. Developmental Review, 26, 175-212.
Boyce, W. T., & Ellis, B.J. (2005). Biological sensitivity to context: I. An evolutionary-developmental theory of the origins and functions of stress reactivity. Development & Psychopathology, 17, 271-301.
Ellis, B.J., Essex, M.J., & Boyce, W.T. (2005). Biological sensitivity to context: II. Empirical explorations of an evolutionary-developmental theory. Development & Psychopathology, 17, 303-328.
Ellis, B.J., & Bjorklund, D.F. (Eds.) (2005). Origins of the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and child development. New York: Guilford Press.
Ellis, B.J. (2004). Timing of pubertal maturation in girls: An integrated life history approach. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 920-958.
Ellis, B.J., Bates, J.E., Dodge, K.A., Fergusson, D.M., Horwood, J.L., Pettit, G.S., & Woodward, L. (2003). Does father absence place daughters at special risk for early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy? Child Development, 74, 801-821.
Keenan, T., & Ellis, B.J. (2003). Children’s performance on a false belief task is impaired by activation of an evolutionarily-canalized response system. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 236-256.
Ellis, B.J., Simpson, J.A., & Campbell, L. (2002). Trait-specific dependence in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality, 70, 611-659.
Ellis, B.J., & Ketelaar, T. (2002). Clarifying the foundations of evolutionary psychology: A reply to Lloyd and Feldman. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 157-164.
Ellis, B.J., & Garber, J. (2000). Psychosocial antecedents of variation in girls' pubertal timing: Maternal depression, stepfather presence, and marital and family stress. Child Development, 71, 485-501.
Ellis, B.J., & Malamuth, N.M. (2000). Love and anger in romantic relationships: A discrete systems model. Journal of Personality, 68, 525-556.
Ketelaar, T., & Ellis, B.J. (2000). Are evolutionary explanations unfalsifiable? Evolutionary psychology and the Lakatosian philosophy of science. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 1-21.
Ellis, B.J., & Ketelaar, T. (2000). On the natural selection of alternative models: Evaluation of explanations in Evolutionary Psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 56-68.
Ellis, B.J., McFadyen-Ketchum, S., Dodge, K.A., Pettit, G.A., & Bates, J.E. (1999). Quality of early family relationships and individual differences in the timing of pubertal maturation in girls: A longitudinal test of an evolutionary model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 387-401.
Ellis, B.J. (1998). The partner-specific investment inventory: An evolutionary approach to individual differences in investment. Journal of Personality, 66, 383-442.
Undergraduate Teaching:
Graduate Teaching:
Press Releases (public summaries of research)
Ellis, B.J. (November, 14, 2008). Children Vary in their Susceptibility to Rearing Experiences: Implications for Early Childhood Education. Invited Presentation, Evolution Institute workshop on Early Childhood Education, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL. http://evolution.binghamton.edu/evos/MiamiWorkshop.html#WorkshopPresentations
Ellis, B.J. (November, 8, 2007). Impact of Fathers on Daughters’ Age at Menarche: A Genetically- and Environmentally-Controlled Sibling Study. Invited Presentation, 4th annual conference of the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers, Cincinnati, OH. http://www.eh.uc.edu/streaming%5Fmedia/bcerc/2007/EllisBruce/