Data from: Differential effects of early life adversity on male and female rhesus macaque lifespan

Early life adversity predicts shorter adult lifespan in several animal
taxa. Yet, work on long-lived primate populations suggests the evolution
of mechanisms that contribute to resiliency and long lives despite early
life insults. Here, we tested associations between individual and
cumulative early life adversity and lifespan on rhesus macaques at the
Cayo Santiago Biological Field Station using 50 years of demographic data.
We performed sex-specific survival analyses at different life stages to
contrast short-term effects of adversity (i.e., infant survival) with
long-term effects (i.e., adult survival). Female infants showed
vulnerability to multiple adversities at birth, but affected females who
survived to adulthood experienced a reduced risk later in life. In
contrast, male infants showed vulnerability to a lower number of
adversities at birth, but those who survived to adulthood were negatively
affected by both early life individual and cumulative adversity. Our study
shows profound immediate effects of insults at birth on female infant
cohorts and suggests that affected female adults are more robust. In
contrast, adult males who experienced harsh conditions early in life
showed an increased mortality risk at older ages as expected from
hypotheses within the life course perspective. Our analysis suggests
sex-specific selection pressures on life histories and highlights the need
for studies addressing the effects of early life adversity across multiple
life stages.