Understanding the Impacts of Environmental Unpredictability and Volatility on Typical and Atypical Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

While it is clear that adverse environmental experiences can shape development, conceptual models have expanded to include experiences other than child maltreatment. Indeed, environmental unpredictability and volatility may have profound consequences, influencing behavioral and neurobiological development. Here, a group of inter-related talks provide powerful insights regarding how unpredictability and volatility canalize youth behavior. Three leading scholars will: 1)Leverage Multi-Method/Informant Assessments; 2)Centralize different time-scales of unpredictability and volatility; and 3)Detail how these environmental experiences influence individuals’ bioecologies through multiple developmental pathways.

The first paper examines how early unpredictable parenting influences effortful control and brain development. In this longitudinal project, infant exposure to unpredictability related to low effortful control 8-years later. The mediating role of white matter integrity will be probed in forthcoming analyses. The second paper focuses on how month-to-month income volatility may shape adolescents’ psychosocial development. Using a 9-month longitudinal study with sampling every month, investigators found associations between month-to-month income and economic hardship, perceived stress, and youth problem behaviors. Mediation analyses are underway to examine the pathways through which this volatility shapes youth behavioral development. The third paper focuses on volatility after the COVID-19 pandemic. For this work, COVID-related volatility was associated with changes in youth affect and cortisol rhythms. Importantly, these effects were moderated by socioeconomic status—lower-SES youth reported greater increases in negative moods compared to higher-SES peers. The discussant, a prominent researcher studying the impact of early adversity, will integrate these different results, noting ways these findings advance basic scientific knowledge and potentially inform public policy.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Jamie L Hanson, University of Pittsburgh

Discussant

• Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon

Individual Presentations

• Evaluating the developmental consequences of infant exposure to unpredictable of maternal sensory signals - Presenting Author: Catherine H Demers, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Laura Glynn, Chapman University; Non-Presenting Author: Steven J Granger, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Curt Sandman, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Hal Stern, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Michael Yassa, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Tallie Z Baram, UC Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Elysia Davis, University of Denver

• Month-to-Month Income Volatility and Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Extending the Family Stress Model to Include Youth Perspectives - Presenting Author: Portia Miller, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Daniesha S. Hunter-Rue, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Nabila Jamal-Orozco, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Jamie L Hanson, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh

• COVID-19, the transition to virtual schooling, and impacts on adolescent stress and wellbeing - Presenting Author: Sarah Collier Villaume, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Jacquelyn Stephens, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Ednah Nwafor, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Emma Kristine Adam, Northwestern University