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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: slhartman@ucdavis.edu.
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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 

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