Community adversity forecasts delay discounting trajectories among African American emerging adults.

• In Event: The effect of family and community stress on youth executive functioning and psychopathology

Abstract

Delay discounting refers to the degree to which individuals devalue delayed consequences— an index of delayed gratification and impulsive decision making. During adolescence and emerging adulthood, youth tend to decline in discounting behavior as they develop greater capacity for self-regulation and executive control (Steinberg et al., 2009). There are, however, individual differences in discounting that have been linked to a range of risky and reckless behaviors in adolescence including substance use, gambling, and risky driving (Mishra & Lalumière, 2017). Despite the importance of this construct, we know very little about the factors that predict individual differences in changing trajectories of delay discounting. This is particularly true for the emerging adulthood years when considerable numbers of young people experience considerable vulnerability for engaging in high risk behaviors. Some data and theoretical speculations implicate aspects of the community environment in promoting discounting behavior. According to theory, as young people encounter dangerous, disorganized communities, they are reinforced for making quick choices and not expecting rewards to be available in the future (Oshri et al., 2018). Informed by this background we advanced hypotheses regarding the influence of community resources and problems on discounting trajectories among 505 African American emerging adult men recruited from resource-poor rural communities. Using prospective data, we hypothesized that the ratio of resources to problems that men reported in their community would forecast changes in their discounting trajectories from age 19-24.

Hypotheses were tested with latent change analysis using Mplus with 3 waves of data from emerging adult African American men participating in the African American Men’s Project (AMP). At three time points (age 19, 21, 22) men completed a measure of their community problems and resources (Forehand, Biggar, & Kotchick, 1998) and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (Kirby & Marakovi, 1996), a measure of discounting. We regressed linear change parameters for discounting on the ratio of community resources to problems.

Latent change analyses indicated that over time men’s discounting behavior declined. Reports of living in more adverse communities (more problems relative to resources) was associated with (a) heightened discounting behavior at baseline (the intercept) and (b) a slower rate of decline over time (the slope). Results indicate that the systems associated with discounting continue to develop during emerging adulthood. Study findings also are consistent with theoretical propositions that suggest that unpredictable, disorganized environments tend to reinforce impulsive decision making and may offer less reinforcement for engaging in cognitive strategies that emphasize delaying gratification.

Group Authors

i. Steven M. Kogan, Ph.D., smkogan@uga.edu, Department of HDFS and Center for Family Research, UGA
ii. Sihong Liu
iii. Assaf Oshri

Authors

• Steven M. Kogan, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Sihong Liu, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Assaf Oshri, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author