Hostname: page-component-66644f4456-vbzrr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-12T19:18:04.991Z Has data issue: true hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Decomposing environmental unpredictability in forecasting adolescent and young adult development: A two-sample study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2017

Sarah Hartman ,
Sooyeon Sung ,
Jeffry A. Simpson ,
Gabriel L. Schlomer  and
Jay Belsky
Sarah Hartman*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Sooyeon Sung
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Jeffry A. Simpson
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Gabriel L. Schlomer
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Albany
Jay Belsky
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sarah Hartman, Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Hart 3321, Davis, CA 95616; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To illuminate which features of an unpredictable environment early in life best forecast adolescent and adult functioning, data from two longitudinal studies were examined. After decomposing a composite unpredictability construct found to predict later development, results of both studies revealed that paternal transitions predicted outcomes more consistently and strongly than did residential or occupational changes across the first 5 years of a child's life. These results derive from analyses of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which included diverse families from 10 different sites in the United States, and from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, whose participants came from one site, were disproportionately economically disadvantaged, and were enrolled 15 years earlier than the NICHD Study sample. The finding that results from both studies are consistent with evolutionary, life history thinking regarding the importance of males in children's lives makes this general, cross-study replication noteworthy.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , October 2018 , pp. 1321 - 1332
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1997). Manual for the Young Adult Self-Report and Young Adult Behavior Checklist. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. (2001). ASEBA School-Age Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Adler, N. E., Boyce, W. T., Chesney, M. A., Folkman, S., & Syme, S. L. (1993). Socioeconomic inequalities in health: No easy solution. Journal of the American Medical Association, 269, 3140–3145. doi:10.1001/jama.1993.03500240084031Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Schlomer, G. L., & Ellis, B. J. (2012). Beyond cumulative risk: Distinguishing harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy. Developmental Psychology, 48, 662. doi:10.1037/a0024454Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647–670. doi:10.2307/1131166Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L. D., Houts, R. M., Friedman, S. L., DeHart, G., Cauffman, E., … Susman, E. (2007). Family rearing antecedents of pubertal timing. Child Development, 78, 1302–1321. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01067.xGoogle Scholar
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., Houts, R. M., & Halpern-Felsher, B. L. (2010). The development of reproductive strategy in females: Early maternal harshness → earlier menarche → increased sexual risk taking. Developmental Psychology, 46, 120. doi:10.1037/a0015549Google Scholar
Bianchi, S. M., & Milkie, M. A. (2010). Work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 705–725. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00726.xGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cauffman, E., & Woolard, J. (1999). Future Outlook Inventory. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Chen, E., Matthews, K. A., & Boyce, W. T. (2002). Socioeconomic differences in children's health: How and why do these relationships change with age? Psychological Bulletin, 128, 295–329. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.128.2.295Google Scholar
Chisholm, J. S., Ellison, P. T., Evans, J., Lee, P. C., Lieberman, L. S., Pavlik, Z., … Worthman, C. M. (1993). Death, hope, and sex: Life-history theory and the development of reproductive strategies [and comments and reply]. Current Anthropology, 34, 1–24. doi:10.1086/204131Google Scholar
Comings, D. E., Muhleman, D., Johnson, J. P., & MacMurray, J. P. (2002). Parent-daughter transmission of the androgen receptor gene as an explanation of the effect of father absence on age of menarche. Child Development, 73, 1046–1051. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00456Google Scholar
Crowder, K., & Teachman, J. (2004). Do residential conditions explain the relationship between living arrangements and adolescent behavior? Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 721–738. doi:10.1111/j.0022-2445.2004.00049.xGoogle Scholar
Del Giudice, M., Gangestad, S. W., & Kaplan, H. S. (2015). Life history theory and evolutionary psychology. In Buss, D. M. (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Draper, P., & Harpending, H. (1982). Father absence and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Anthropological Research, 38, 255–273. doi:10.1086/jar.38.3.3629848Google Scholar
Duncan, O. (1961). A socioeconomic index for all occupations. In Reiss, A. J. Jr. (Ed.), Occupations and social status (pp. 109–138). New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, B. J. (2004). Timing of pubertal maturation in girls: An integrated life history approach. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 920. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.6.920Google Scholar
Ellis, B. J., Figueredo, A. J., Brumbach, B. H., & Schlomer, G. L. (2009). Fundamental dimensions of environmental risk. Human Nature, 20, 204–268. doi:10.1007/s12110-009-9063-7Google Scholar
Ellison, P. T. (2003). Energetics and reproductive effort. American Journal of Human Biology, 15, 342–351. doi:10.1002/ajhb.10152Google Scholar
Engelbregt, M. J., Houdijk, M. E., Popp-Snijders, C., & Delemarre-van de Waal, H. A. (2000). The effects of intra-uterine growth retardation and postnatal undernutrition on onset of puberty in male and female rats. Pediatric Research, 48, 803–807. doi:10.1203/00006450-200012000-00017Google Scholar
Halpern-Felsher, B. L., Biehl, M., Kropp, R. Y., & Rubinstein, M. L. (2004). Perceived risks and benefits of smoking: Differences among adolescents with different smoking experiences and intentions. Preventive Medicine, 39, 559–567. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.02.017Google Scholar
Harden, K. P. (2014). Genetic influences on adolescent sexual behavior: Why genes matter for environmentally oriented researchers. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 434. doi:10.1037/a0033564Google Scholar
Hartman, S., Widaman, K. F., & Belsky, J. (2015). Genetic moderation of effects of maternal sensitivity on girl's age of menarche: Replication of the Manuck et al. study. Development and Psychopathology, 27, 747–756. doi:10.1017/S0954579414000856Google Scholar
Henderson, S. H., & Taylor, L. C. (1999). Chapter IV. Parent-adolescent relationships in nonstep-, simple step-, and complex stepfamilies. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64, 79–100. doi:10.1111/1540-5834.00048Google Scholar
Hofferth, S. L. (2006). Residential father family type and child well-being: Investment versus selection. Demography, 43, 53–77. doi:10.1353/dem.2006.0006Google Scholar
James, J., Ellis, B. J., Schlomer, G. L., & Garber, J. (2012). Sex-specific pathways to early puberty, sexual debut, and sexual risk taking: Tests of an integrated evolutionary–developmental model. Developmental Psychology, 48, 687. doi:10.1037/a0026427Google Scholar
Kulin, H. E., Bwibo, N., Mutie, D., & Santner, S. J. (1982). The effect of chronic childhood malnutrition on pubertal growth and development. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 36, 527–536.Google Scholar
MacDonald, K. (1997). Life history theory and human reproductive behavior. Human Nature, 8, 327–359. doi:10.1007/BF02913038.Google Scholar
Mendle, J., Turkheimer, E., D'Onofrio, B. M., Lynch, S. K., Emery, R. E., Slutske, W. S., & Martin, N. G. (2006). Family structure and age at menarche: A children-of-twins approach. Developmental Psychology, 42, 533. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.3.533Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Belsky, J., & Silva, P. A. (1992). Childhood experience and the onset of menarche: A test of a sociobiological model. Child Development, 63, 47–58. doi:10.2307/1130900Google Scholar
Moorehouse, M. J. (1991). Linking maternal employment patterns to mother-child activities and children's school competence. Developmental Psychology, 27, 295. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.27.2.295Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2011). Mplus user's guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Author.Google Scholar
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network. (2001). Nonmaternal care and family factors in early development: An overview of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22, 457– 492. doi:10.1016/S0193-3973(01)00092-2Google Scholar
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network. (2005). Child care and child development: Results of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Nettle, D. (2010). Dying young and living fast: Variation in life history across English neighborhoods. Behavioral Ecology, 21, 387–395. doi:10.1093/beheco/arp202Google Scholar
Quinlan, R. J. (2003). Father absence, parental care, and female reproductive development. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24, 376–390. doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(03)00039-4Google Scholar
Roff, D. A. (2002). Life history evolution (Vol. 7). Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Rushton, J. P. (1996). Race, evolution, and behavior: A life history perspective. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985). Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4, 219. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.4.3.219Google Scholar
Schlomer, G. L., Bauman, S., & Card, N. A. (2010). Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57, 1–10. doi:10.1037/a0018082Google Scholar
Simmons, L. A., Havens, J. R., Whiting, J. B., Holz, J. L., & Bada, H. (2009). Illicit drug use among women with children in the United States: 2002–2003. Annals of Epidemiology, 19, 187–193. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2008.12.007Google Scholar
Simpson, J. A., Griskevicius, V., Kuo, S. I., Sung, S., & Collins, W. A. (2012). Evolution, stress, and sensitive periods: The influence of unpredictability in early versus late childhood on sex and risky behavior. Developmental Psychology, 48, 674. doi:10.1037/a0027293Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment and Human Development, 7, 349–367. doi:10.1080/14616730500365928Google Scholar
Stearns, S. C. (1992). The evolution of life histories (Vol. 249). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stevens, G., & Featherman, D. L. (1981). A revised socioeconomic index of occupational status. Social Science Research, 10, 364–395. doi:10.1016/0049-089X(81)90011-9Google Scholar
Strathman, A., Gleicher, F., Boninger, D. S., & Edwards, C. S. (1994). The consideration of future consequences: Weighing immediate and distant outcomes of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 742. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.4.742Google Scholar
Tither, J. M., & Ellis, B. J. (2008). Impact of fathers on daughters’ age at menarche: A genetically and environmentally controlled sibling study. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1409. doi:10.1037/a0013065Google Scholar
Tucker, C. J., Marx, J., & Long, L. (1998). “Moving on”: Residential mobility and children's school lives. Sociology of Education, 71, 111–129. doi:10.2307/2673244Google Scholar
Warren, M. P., Brooks-Gunn, J., Fox, R. P., Lancelot, C., Newman, D., & Hamilton, W. G. (1991). Lack of bone accretion and amenorrhea: Evidence for a relative osteopenia in weight-bearing bones. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 72, 847–853. doi:10.1210/jcem-72-4-847Google Scholar
Wittenberger, J. F., & Tilson, R. L. (1980). The evolution of monogamy: Hypotheses and evidence. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 11, 197–232. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.11.110180.001213Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. G. (1980). Essentials of psychology and life. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.Google Scholar