Predicted Unpredictability: Temporal Discounting as an Appropriate Response to Growing Up in Resource-scarce and Neglectful Environments - Unpredictability Schemas as a Potential Mediator

Abstract

A growing body of literature suggests that adverse environments can produce a larger spectrum of outcomes than suggested by the traditional deficit approach. The present study investigated experiences of resource-scarce and neglectful environments, two aspects of deprivation, as predictors for temporal discounting in the decision-making of youth. Informed by the contextually appropriate response perspective (CARP), unpredictability schemas were investigated as a mediator between adverse experiences and temporal discounting. Regression and mediation analyses were conducted on questionnaire data of 534 youth from a middle school and five after-school clubs in Salt Lake City, USA. The 49% female sample had a mean age of 13.6 (range 12-18), it was socioeconomically and ethnically diverse but predominantly White and Hispanic. Results indicated evidence for childhood neglect and resource scarcity as predictors of unpredictability schemas. While childhood neglect predicted the use of temporal discounting, resource scarcity did not. There was no evidence for an unpredictability schema as a mediator, which was not aligned with predictions based on the CARP. Direct implications for the CARP are minor. Future studies should utilize the potential of the perspective and add to the evidence so that more impactful conclusions can be drawn. Several strengths, limitations, and recommendations for future research on the CARP are discussed. Investigating adversity exposure from multiple viewpoints is essential to find an adequate balance of impairment, strengths, and rationality in our view of adversity-exposed youth. Finding mechanisms of environmental adaptation is crucial to building policies and interventions that reduce socioeconomic gradients in adaptive developmental outcomes.