Early unpredictability predicts impulsivity and emotion dysregulation from childhood through adolescence

• In Event: Unpredictable Environmental Input and Socioemotional and Cognitive Development

Abstract

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that adversity can be partitioned into specific types, and that these different types of adversity have unique influences on development (Epel et al., 2018; Humphreys & Zeanah, 2015; McLaughlin, Sheridan, & Lambert, 2014). For example, adversity may be broken down into dimensional measures of exposure to threat versus deprivation (Humphreys & Zeanah, 2015; McLaughlin et al., 2014). Evolutionary-developmental theory also suggests that early experiences can be conceptualized as being high or low on unpredictability and/or harshness. This work in parsing apart effects of specific early experiences is important in part because certain types of adversity may be more potent predictors of different behavioral, cognitive, or socioemotional problems, which would inform personalized interventions. Unpredictability in particular may signal to the developing child that there is a lack of stability in the environment, and unpredictability may have unique associations with behavior problems beyond the level of harshness, threat or deprivation. The current study aims to understand the contribution of unpredictability versus other types of early experiences best predict cognitive-behavioral and socioemotional problems from childhood through adolescence using data from a socioeconomically high-risk prospective longitudinal study. The data for these analyses are from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS; n = 2,587; 48.5% female), which is a birth cohort from 20 US cities oversampled for unwed mothers. Childhood adversity from 0-5 years of age included parent report of four types of adversity: greater unpredictability (moving homes, job changes, people moving in and out of home, father in and out of jail), threat (harsh parenting), deprivation (disengaged parenting), and low socioeconomic status (income-to-needs ratio). Parents reported on child impulsivity and emotion dysregulation at 5, 9, and 15 years using the Child Behavior Checklist. Impulsivity and emotion dysregulation were chosen as outcomes due to their associations with later mental and physical health problems. Linear regression analyses controlling for sex, maternal age and education, and low birthweight, were conducted with all four types of adversity from 0-5 years predicting child emotion dysregulation and impulsivity at 5 and 9. Analyses suggest that greater unpredictability from 0-5 years predicts greater impulsivity (β = .07, p < .001) but not emotion dysregulation (p = .09) at age 5. However, unpredictability from birth to 5 years predicts both greater impulsivity (age 9: β = .11, p < .001; age 15: β = .08, p < .001; Table 1 and Figure 1a) and emotion dysregulation (age 9: β = .07, p < .001; age 15: β = .07, p < .001; Table 1 and Figure 1b) at age 9 and at age 15, independent of harsh and disengaged parenting and income-to-needs ratio. Harsh parenting was associated with greater impulsivity and emotion dysregulation at all three time points.

Author

• Jenalee Doom, University of Denver
  Presenting Author