Early life environmental unpredictability and overeating: Based on life history theory

The reliability and validity of the brief measures of perceived childhood harshness and unpredictability: A revised Chinese version for emerging adults

BACKGROUND

Childhood harshness and unpredictability significantly shape life history strategies, as well as downstream psychological and behavioral patterns. However, prior research involving Chinese populations has suffered from inconsistent metrics and limited measurement items.

OBJECTIVE

We adapted the English version of Maranges et al.'s (2022) Harshness and Unpredictability Scale in Childhood, translating it into Chinese and assessing its reliability and validity.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Six groups of different college student samples have been collected and the Chinese version of the Harshness and Unpredictability scales has been revised in two separate studies.

METHODS

We evaluated the factor structure using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, determined internal consistency, item discrimination, concurrent validity, and assessed gender measurement invariance through multiple CFAs. The test-retest reliability was subsequently established by assessing participants after a designated interval.

RESULTS

Both scales passed psychometric tests, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and exhibited strong internal consistency and item discrimination. Gender invariance in the measurements was also confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese version of the Childhood Harshness and Unpredictability Scale demonstrates high reliability and validity, making it suitable for deeper examinations into the relationship between early environments and life history strategies in Chinese contexts.

The relationship between unpredictability in childhood and depression among college students: the mediating roles of coping style and resilience

BACKGROUND

According to previous studies, unpredictability in childhood could significantly increase the risk of depression in adulthood. Only a few studies have explored the relationship between these two variables in China. This paper aims to explore the relationship between unpredictability in childhood and depression and examine the mediating roles of coping styles and resilience.

METHODS

We investigated 601 college students, who had an average age of 19.09 (SD = 2.78) years. Participants completed questionnaires regarding unpredictability in childhood, coping style, resilience, and depression. We analyzed survey data using the bias-corrected bootstrap method.

RESULTS

The findings revealed a significant positive association between unpredictability in childhood and depression among college students. Mature coping style, immature coping style, and resilience were found to mediate this relationship independently. Furthermore, the study unveiled a serial mediation process, wherein both mature and immature coping styles, followed by resilience, sequentially mediate the relationship between unpredictability in childhood and depression, underscoring the complex interplay between these variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicated that the risk of depression among college students who have experienced unpredictable childhood should be valued. Attention to coping styles and resilience should be paid to decrease depression among college students who have experienced unpredictable childhood.

The effect of childhood harshness and unpredictability on Internet addiction among college students: The mediating effect of self-control

College students are inevitably online and at risk of becoming addicted. Life history theory provides an explanatory framework for individual differences in Internet addiction, and childhood harshness and unpredictability may be important antecedents. However, it is unclear whether and how childhood harshness and/or unpredictability affect Internet addiction during college. In this study, we recruited 483 Chinese college students and assessed their childhood harshness, unpredictability, self-control, and Internet addiction. The results of path analysis showed that childhood unpredictability was positively associated with Internet addiction among college students and was partially mediated by self-control. The effect of harshness on Internet addiction showed a suppression effect, i.e., the direct effect of harshness on Internet addiction was negative and the indirect effect through self-control was positive. This suggests that the high risk of Internet addiction stems from harshness and unpredictability in childhood, but that the effects of these factors are independent and distinct. Self-control plays an important role in this process, but many internal mechanisms remain to be tested in future research.

Childhood unpredictability and sleep quality in adulthood: the mediating roles of life history strategy and perceived stress

Background

Early environmental risk have been found to be related to lifelong health. However, the impact of childhood unpredictability, a type of early environmental risk, on health, especially on sleep quality in adulthood, has not been adequately studied. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between childhood unpredictability and sleep quality in adulthood and to explore the possible mediating roles of life history strategy and perceived stress.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 472 participants from a university in Zhejiang Province, China. The questionnaire inquired about demography, childhood unpredictability, life history strategy (Mini-K), perceived stress (14-item Perceived Stress Scale), and Sleep Quality (Pittsburgh Global Sleep Quality Index).

Results

Higher childhood unpredictability was significantly associated with worse sleep quality in adulthood. Moreover, the link between higher childhood unpredictability and worse sleep quality in adulthood was explained by the chain mediation of life history strategy and perceived stress.

Conclusion

In line with the life history theory, individuals who have experienced higher unpredictability in childhood tend to develop a faster life history strategy and become more sensitive to stress in adulthood, and subsequently suffer a decrease in sleep quality.

Harsh, unpredictable childhood environments are associated with inferior frontal gyrus connectivity and binge eating tendencies in late adolescents

Harsh, unpredictable childhood environments (HUCE) are associated with obesity older in life, but knowledge of how HUCE affect binge eating tendencies is lacking. Five hundred and one late adolescents aged 16-22 were recruited to finish resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, behavioral measures including retrospective recall of childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability, binge eating tendencies and demographics. Three hundred and seventy-six of participants further completed the computerized visual probe task designed to evaluate attentional engagement towards high and low calorie food. As right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was the key nodes that related to both early life adversity and binge eating tendencies, it was treated as the interest region in the dynamic functional connectivity analyses. Results found that HUCE are associated with significant but modest decreases in connectivity of right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)- bilateral medial frontal gyrus, right IFG - bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and right IFG - left superior frontal gyrus connectivity, as well as attentional engagement to high-calorie food and binge eating tendencies. A machine-learning method named linear support vector regression (SVR) and leave one out cross-validation (LOOCV) procedure used to examine the robustness of the brain-behavior relationship further confirm the findings. Mediation analyses suggested that right IFG - left IPL connectivity mediates the association of HUCE and binge eating tendencies. Findings suggest right IFG - left IPL connectivity may serve as a crucial neurobiological underpinning of HUCE to regulate binge eating behaviors. As such, these results contribute to a novel perspective and hypotheses in elucidating developmental neuro-mechanisms related to binge eating.

Childhood environmental unpredictability and hoarding: Mediating roles of attachment and security

Life history theory provides a unified perspective for understanding human behaviors as adaptive strategies to specific environmental conditions. Within this theoretical framework, hoarding emerges as a behavior reflecting an evolved strategy in response to unpredictable environmental challenges, serving as a buffer against resource scarcity and enhancing survival prospects. This study aimed to explore the key roles of childhood environmental unpredictability, attachment, and sense of security in the development of hoarding. 662 participants completed scales on childhood environmental unpredictability, Revised Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-R), sense of insecurity, and Savings Inventory-Revised (SI-R). The results showed that childhood environmental unpredictability was significantly positively correlated with hoarding. Attachment anxiety and sense of security individually mediate the effect of childhood environmental unpredictability on hoarding. Additionally, 'attachment anxiety--sense of security' and 'attachment avoidance--sense of security' serve as chain mediators in this relationship separately. This study offers insights into the cognitive-behavioral model of hoarding, highlighting the importance of life history theory in examining childhood environmental unpredictability's relationship with hoarding. It also integrates insights from the psychosocial acceleration theory into our comprehension of hoarding's development. Future research directions are also discussed.

Avoiding threats, but not acquiring benefits, explains the effect of future time perspective on promoting health behavior

Promoting health behavior among the public is always a pressing issue. The present research systematically investigated the association between future time perspective and adherence to health behavior including dietary habits, physical activities, and substance use in a Chinese college student sample (N = 519). Results showed that individuals with stronger future time perspective were more likely to adhere to health behavior. Moreover, building upon the health belief model and the protection motivation theory, the present research further explored the underlying mechanisms. Results revealed that it is perceived threats of not carrying out health behavior, but not perceived benefits of carrying out health behavior, that asymmetrically explained the association between stronger future time perspective and greater adherence to health behavior. These findings contribute to both the future time perspective literature and the health behavior literature.

Childhood environment and adulthood food addiction: Testing the multiple mediations of life history strategies and attitudes toward self

Food addiction is associated with both physical and mental health conditions, such as obesity and depression, and is considered a public health problem. Based on life history (LH) theory, this study aimed to test the association between unpredictable childhood environment and food addiction in adulthood and to examine LH strategies and attitudes toward self as psychological mediators of this association. A random sample of 1010 adults, aged from 18 to 88 years (44.8% male; Mage = 38.52, SDage = 14.53), voluntarily participated in an anonymous telephone survey conducted in Macao, China. The results of a path analysis showed the significant and positive direct effect of childhood unpredictability on food addiction and its negative association with slow LH strategy, which in turn was negatively correlated with food addiction. In addition, slow LH strategy and self-judgment, rather than self-kindness, acted as serial mediators in the association between childhood unpredictability and food addiction. These findings support the applicability of LH theory to understanding food addiction, as well as pointing to the potential risk effect of self-judgment for food addiction in adulthood. Self-judgment reduction may be a potential supplementary approach for future food addiction intervention.

Associations of harsh, unpredictable environment, amygdala connectivity and overeating for children

OBJECTIVE

In harsh and unpredictable environments, individuals tend to engage in activities that yield immediate rewards as delayed benefits can be unavailable. Substantial evidence suggests that a harsh and unpredictable childhood environment is associated with overeating. However, the neuromechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate amygdala connectivity in relation to environmental harshness and unpredictability (EHU) from an evolutionary perspective and examine their relationship with overeating in children.

METHODS

Eighty-five children aged 8 to 12 years were scanned using a magnetic resonance imaging machine to assess resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the two subregions of the amygdala (i.e., centromedial amygdala [CMA]; basolateral amygdala [BLA]). Self-reports of EHU and parental reports of overeating, including food responsiveness and enjoyment of food, were obtained cross-sectionally. Furthermore, findings indicated that children completed high- and low-calorie food portion choice tasks in the absence of hunger at 12 months of follow-up.

RESULTS

EHU was positively associated with parental reports of overeating, including food responsiveness and enjoyment, as well as children's selection of high-calorie food portion sizes. Moreover, static RSFC analyses revealed that EHU was negatively associated with bilateral BLA-left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) connectivity, while dynamic RSFC analyses found that EHU was negatively associated with right CMA, left inferior parietal lobule, and right CMA-right precuneus connectivity. Particularly, the left BLA-left IFG connectivity mediated the association between EHU and parental reports of food responsiveness.

CONCLUSION

EHU was negatively associated with amygdala connectivity, which is implicated in the intrinsic processing of emotional regulation. Furthermore, deficits in emotional regulation resulted in increased energy intake. These insights provide a new perspective for understanding the developmental neuromechanisms underlying obesity.

Childhood Environmental Unpredictability and Prosocial Behavior in Adults: The Effect of Life-History Strategy and Dark Personalities

Purpose

Childhood environments have an impact on an individuals’ behavior and cognition. We explored the relationship and possible mechanisms between childhood environmental unpredictability (CEU) and prosocial behavior (PSB) in adults.

Participants and Methods

We recruited Chinese college students (N = 1035) and adopted a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling.

Results

The results showed that CEU negatively predicted PSB in adults. Life-history strategy and dark personality chains mediated this relationship. Higher CEU facilitated faster development of life-history strategies in individuals, and dark personalities, via fast life-history strategies, further influenced PSB in adults. The mediating pathways of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism were significant, while psychopathy was not. Women were more prosocial than men, and there was no sex difference in the influence mechanism of CEU on PSB.

Conclusion

This study has practical significance as it emphasizes the importance of shaping a stable childhood environment and that individuals’ prosociality can be improved by intervening in the mediation.

Trajectory of problematic smartphone use among adolescents aged 10-18 years: The roles of childhood family environment and concurrent parent-child relationships

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Adolescence is a period of high incidence of problematic smartphone use. Understanding the developmental trajectory of problematic smartphone use in adolescence and its influencing factors could guide the choice of timing for prevention and intervention. This study fitted the growth trajectory of problematic smartphone use among adolescents and examined its associations with the childhood family environment and concurrent parent-child relationships.

METHODS

Using a cohort sequential design, we investigated 2,548 Chinese adolescents and their parents three times in three years. Multiple group multiple cohort growth models were used to fit the growth trajectory.

RESULTS

The quadratic growth trajectory of problematic smartphone use in adolescents aged 10-18 years showed a clear increasing trend, with a possible decreasing trend in late adolescence or early adulthood. Early life socioeconomic status, childhood family unpredictability, and the concurrent parent-child relationship had unique impacts on the development of problematic smartphone use during adolescence.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Early adolescence is a favorable time for problematic smartphone use prevention and intervention. A supportive family environment should be maintained throughout the different developmental stages of children and adolescents.

Coronavirus stress and overeating: the role of anxiety and COVID-19 burnout

BACKGROUND

This study examined the role of anxiety and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) burnout in the relationship between coronavirus stress and overeating among Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Chinese college students (N = 2926; M_age = 19.90, SD = 1.47, range = 18-25 years old; 54.34% female) completed self-reported online questionnaires regarding coronavirus stress, anxiety, COVID-19 burnout, and overeating.

RESULTS

Anxiety showed partially indirect effect on the association between coronavirus stress and overeating. COVID-19 burnout exacerbated the indirect pathway between coronavirus stress and overeating via anxiety.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

This is the first study, to our knowledge, that examines the underlying mechanisms of the coronavirus stress and overeating behavior association among Chinese college students. The results support several existing theories on stress and problematic eating behaviors and provide practical implications for prevention and intervention programs of overeating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Testing links between unfavorable living conditions, fast life-history strategy adoption, and overeating: a four-wave longitudinal study

Although overeating increases risk for chronic illness and premature mortality, evolutionary life-history theorists posit that such behaviors arise as a potential outcome of using fast life-history strategies to function in environments that are harsh or unpredictable. To test this premise, we examined links between harsh, unpredictable living conditions (HULC), the adoption of fast life-history (LH) strategies, and overeating among early adolescents using a four-wave longitudinal design. Participants were 2547 Chinese adolescents (1202 girls, 1345 boys) who completed baseline questionnaires assessing experiences of HULC, preferences for use of fast LH strategies, and overeating. Measures were re-administered in follow-ups 7, 13, and 20 months later. Analyses indicated HULC predicted increased use of fast LH strategies within each gender. However, fast LH strategy adoption contributed to increases in overeating only among girls. Findings supported specific tenets of life-history theory and underscored gender as an important consideration in understanding links between living conditions, the adoption of fast LH strategies, and risk for overeating. Interventions focused on reducing poverty and increasing stable, nurturing family, and community environments may aid in reducing overeating and obesity for adolescents.

The Association of Restrained Eating and Overeating during COVID-19: A Cross-Lagged Model

Widespread overeating has been found during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The present study investigated whether pre-pandemic restrained eating (RE) predicted overeating during the pandemic, and further explored the behavioral (mortality threat, negative affect) mechanisms underlying this association. An eight-month longitudinal survey was conducted with a large sample of 616 undergraduates from Southwest university. From September 2019 to April 2020, three measurements were conducted. RE was tested before the pandemic (T1), and data of mortality threat, negative affect, and overeating were collected at the middle (T2) and end of (T3) the COVID-19 crisis in China. The correlation results showed that baseline RE was positively associated with mortality threat, negative affect, and overeating at T2 and T3. Moreover, negative affect and mortality threat were positively correlated with overeating. Results from longitudinal mediation showed that baseline RE would positively predict T3 overeating through T2 negative affect, but not T2 mortality threat. This study supports and extends the counterregulatory eating hypothesis that RE positively predicts future overeating, especially through negative emotions. These findings further reveal the core psychological mechanism underlying this positive RE-overeating relation in the context of COVID-19, indicating that the individuals with higher RE could not cope with negative affect adequately, contributing to more overeating.

Trait self-control and disinhibited eating in COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived mortality threat and negative affect

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads globally, people are at risk of developing disinhibited eating behaviors. This study aimed to examine whether perceived mortality threat and negative affect mediate the relationship between trait self-control and disinhibited eating during the pandemic. A longitudinal survey was administered to a sample of college students (N = 634) before the outbreak (September 2019, T1), during the mid-term (February 2020, T2), and in the later stage of the pandemic (April 2020, T3). Self-report measures of trait self-control (T1), perceived mortality threat (T2, T3), negative affect (T2, T3), and disinhibited eating (T2, T3) were successively completed. Trait self-control was found to be negatively associated with negative affect, perceived mortality threat, and disinhibited eating during the mid-term and later stage of the pandemic. Disinhibited eating was positively associated with negative affect and perceived mortality threat. The longitudinal mediation results demonstrated that trait self-control (T1) could negatively predict disinhibited eating (T3) through negative affect (T2) rather than through perceived mortality threat. These findings suggest that trait self-control is of great importance in regulating psychological discomfort and disinhibited eating during stressful periods and that negative affect might be the main psychological mechanism underlying the relationship between self-control ability and disinhibited eating.

Slow Life History Strategies and Increases in Externalizing and Internalizing Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is but one of many instances of environmental adversities that have recurred in human history. Biobehavioral resource allocation strategies, known as fast (reproduction-focused) versus slow (development-focused) life history (LH) tradeoff strategies, evolved to deal with environmental challenges such as infectious diseases. Based on 141 young people and their mothers observed prior to (ages 9 and 13) and during (age 20) COVID-19, we investigated longitudinal relations involving slow LH strategies. The results support the adaptive role of slow LH strategies in reducing COVID-related increases in externalizing problems. In addition, the effect of early adversity on COVID-related increases in externalizing was mediated, and the effect on COVID-related increases in internalizing was moderated, by slow LH strategies.