Dog and Monica were wondering about the motivation for older men-younger women pairings. I've found readings in evolutionary psychology to be helpful as one source of explanations for this type of partnership. As I understand it, traits are selected in terms of their evolutionary advantage (how many descendants an individual has). There are 2 important factors in survival of one's offspring: (1) the fertility and healthiness of the partner and (2) the nurturance given to offspring by one or both parents. Age is an important indicator of fertility in women, but is less important in men, who can father offspring at advanced ages in contrast to women. Peak fertility in women is at around 25 years. So, evolutionary psychology would predict that men of all ages would be attracted to women who appear to be close to this "optimum" age. Qualities that would be predicted to attract women to male partners include indicators of reproductive fitness such as a healthy appearance, as well as indicators that they would be a good "provider", such as having power/status/wealth. On a different note, I think it's important to acknowledge women's own perspectives on wanting to have children, before you "pathologise" these reasons. Many commentators have noted that Western society is "anti-children", in the sense that people are having smaller families, delaying childrearing and viewing children as an economic burden. It may be quite reasonable for some young people to want to have children, because they genuinely value children and want to be parents. It's my view that with sex education, drugs education and individual clinical work you have much more chance of being a persuasive influence if you first try to understand that person's perspective, such as acknowledging what they see as positives in a particular behaviour choice. How do you know that young women want to "relive their childhoods", as opposed to the simpler explanation that they want to have a child because they like children?
Older men may be more likely than younger men to have the latter qualities.
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