Early unpredictability predicts increased adolescent externalizing behaviors and substance use: A life history perspective

Abstract

According to evolutionary life history models, environmental harshness and unpredictability can both promote a fast life history strategy characterized by increased risk taking and enacting short-term, opportunistic behaviors. The current longitudinal study tests whether environmental unpredictability during childhood has stronger effects on risky behavior during adolescence than harshness, and whether there may be an early “sensitive period” during which unpredictability has particularly strong and unique effects on these outcomes. Using data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, prospective assessments of environmental unpredictability (changes in residence, cohabitation, and parental occupation) and harshness (mean socioeconomic status) from birth into adolescence were used to predict self-reported externalizing behaviors and substance use at age 16 (N = 220). Exposure to greater early unpredictability (between ages 0 and 5) predicted more externalizing behaviors as well as more alcohol and marijuana use at age 16, controlling for harshness and later unpredictability (between ages 6 and 16). Harshness predicted adolescent substance use, and later unpredictability predicted adolescent externalizing behaviors at the trend level. Early unpredictability and harshness also interacted, such that the highest levels of risk taking occurred in individuals who experienced more early unpredictability and lived in harsher environments. Age 16 externalizing behaviors, but not substance use, mediated the association between early unpredictability and externalizing/criminal behaviors at age 23. We discuss how exposure to early environmental unpredictability may alter biological and social–cognitive functioning from a life history perspective.

Adversity, Adaptive Calibration, and Health: The Case of Disadvantaged Families

“…As reviewed in Ellis et al (2009), when bioenergetic resources are adequate to support growth and development, cues to extrinsic morbidity-mortality and unpredictability gain importance. In this context, LH theory predicts that individuals will respond to extrinsic morbidity-mortality cues (e.g., exposures to violence, premature disability and death of people around you) and unpredictability (e.g., stochastic changes in ecological context, resource availability, family composition) by entraining faster life history strategies (see Belsky, Schlomer, & Ellis, 2012; Brumbach et al, 2009; Doom et al, 2015 and Simpson et al, 2012, for supporting longitudinal data). Developmental models based on LH theory emphasize that these ecological factors tend to operate indirectly on children through more proximal processes, including those mediated by family processes (e.g., harsh parental discipline vs. warm and supportive parenting behaviors, family chaos vs. routines).…”

Aggression and risk‐taking as adaptive implementations of fast life history strategy

“…These include harsh parenting (Mell, Safra, Algan, Baumard, & Chevallier, ) and parental absence (Belsky et al, ), employment and residential changes, including homelessness (Doom, Vanzomeren‐Dohm, & Simpson, ; Masten et al, ; Zuo, Huang, Cai, & Wang, ), exposure to gangs, violence, and crime (Brumbach, Figueredo, & Ellis, ; Upchurch, Aneshensel, Sucoff, & Levy‐Storms, ), and low socioeconomic status (SES) (Belsky, Schlomer, & Ellis, ), which being associated in many urban areas with drug use, crime, and dangerous neighborhoods represents unsafe more than resource shortages (Chang & Lu, ). Both directly and indirectly through child perceived stress (Belsky et al, ; Del Giudice, Ellis, & Shirtcliff, ), these indicators of early environmental unsafety have been associated with fast LH characteristics including early menarche (Belsky et al, ), early initiation of sex (Simpson, Griskevicius, Kuo, Sung, & Collins, ) and higher frequency of sexual activity (Baumer & South, ), risky substance use behavior (Brumbach et al, ), and aggressive, antisocial, and externalizing behaviors (Chang et al, ; Doom et al, ; Simpson et al, ; Zuo et al, ). Parental separation has been extensively documented as facilitating fast LH and its corresponding physical effects (e.g., early menarche; Ellis, ) and behavioral manifestations (e.g., antagonistic behavior; Ellis et al, ; Newcomber & Udry, ).…”

A life history approach to delineating how harsh environments and hawk temperament traits differentially shape children's problem‐solving skills

“…Thus, within harsh rearing contexts characterized by limited caregiver investment and resources, individuals are likely to shift toward here‐and‐now survival and early reproduction strategies (Belsky, Schlomer, & Ellis, ), defined as a ‘fast’ life history approach. Behavioral studies have documented associations between environmental harshness and increased risk‐taking behavior, including aggression (e.g., Doom, VanZomeren‐Dohm, & Simpson, ), lower inhibitory control (e.g., Mittal, Griskevicius, Simpson, Sung, & Young, ), and greater orientation toward immediate rewards (Humphreys et al., ; Sturge‐Apple et al., ). In the present study we examined whether early exposure to harsh environments (e.g., low maternal investment and economic resources) positively predicts enhanced problem‐solving for rewarding stimuli, consistent with a ‘fast’ life history strategy.…”