In Centuries of Childhood Philippe Ariès studied the evolution of par
ental investment among the materially and socially privileged families of France from the
sixteenth to the nineteenth century. His general hypothesis, interpreted in the vocabulary
of modern research, was that both the financial and emotional costs of elite childrear
ing were rising during this period Once greater emotional involvement led to high
investments in infant survival, infant mortality declined, survivorship rose, and privi
leged families were forced to adopt fertility control in order to avoid the production
of too many very costly children. In this article Ariès' verbal "model" is tested using
quantitative data from both French and other European elite groups.
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