Interaction of Current and Childhood Environment on Risky Decision-Making: An Experimental and Longitudinal Life-History Theory Approach

当前环境和童年环境对风险决策的相互作用：实验和纵向生活史理论方法

• 批准号: 1057482
• 负责人: Jeffry Simpson
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-01 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1057482&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Interaction; Current; Childhood; Environment; Risky

Project Abstract This research investigates how an individual's childhood environment combines with his or her current young-adult environment to influence his/her risk-taking in adulthood. Are risky decisions made by young adults influenced by specific events that are salient in that person's current environment, such as whether someone nearby has recently died prematurely? Do they depend on the person's childhood environment, such as whether she or he was economically deprived? This research provides answers to these questions by integrating knowledge about the effects of specific environmental cues derived from life history theory (LHT) with new, interdisciplinary models of risky decision-making. This research will test the idea that it is the combination of early risk factors (e.g., childhood poverty) and young adult environment (e.g., exposure to violence or economic uncertainty) that best explain risky behavior in young adults. The research involves two types of studies. The first is a series of laboratory experiments on risky decision-making. The experiments carefully manipulate cues for mortality and/or feelings of economic uncertainty to see if the same cues have different consequences for risky decision making (e.g., taking riskier gambles) among people who come from different risk backgrounds. The second type of study is a complementary longitudinal study. Specifically, the PIs will analyze data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. This ongoing study contains: (a) data from parents on their children's (i.e., the target participants') childhood environment, (b) data on the adult targets' current environment (at age 23), and (c) data on the adult targets' tendency to engage in real-life risk behaviors (e.g., financial spending records, health and drug-related behavior, criminal records). This longitudinal study, in combination with the experiments, will allow the PIs to determine whether and how current and childhood environments work together to influence the enactment of different kinds of risky behaviors in adulthood. At a theoretical level, this research will: (1) integrate theory and research on environmental influences on risky decision-making and behavior from developmental, social, economic, and personality psychology, (2) link psychological work to theory and research in anthropology and evolutionary biology, and (3) provide rigorous tests of the proposed ideas using both lab experiments and longitudinal data. In addition to promoting graduate training among a diverse group of graduate research assistants, this research has the potential to yield important insights about important everyday decisions -- decisions with direct implications for financial and mental well-being, health, and public policy. For example, if this research supports the idea that it is the combination of early exposure to risk and current economic uncertainty that promotes risky decision making (and clarifies better exactly which risky decisions are most likely to fit this pattern), scientists and policy makers will be in a better position to design and target more effective interventions for risky behaviors, ranging from unsafe sex or drug use to susceptibility to gambling or other economically risky behaviors.

项目摘要 本研究探讨一个人的童年环境如何与他或她目前的成人环境相结合，以影响他/她在成年后的冒险行为。 年轻人做出的冒险决定是否会受到其当前环境中突出的特定事件的影响，例如附近是否有人最近过早死亡？是否取决于一个人的童年环境，例如他或她是否在经济上被剥夺？这项研究提供了这些问题的答案，通过整合来自生活史理论（LHT）与新的，跨学科的风险决策模型的特定环境线索的影响的知识。这项研究将测试这是早期风险因素（例如，儿童贫困）和年轻成人环境（例如，暴露于暴力或经济不确定性），最能解释年轻人的危险行为。 研究包括两种类型的研究。 第一个是一系列关于风险决策的实验室实验。 这些实验仔细地操纵了死亡率和/或经济不确定性的感觉的线索，以查看相同的线索是否对风险决策有不同的后果（例如，在来自不同风险背景的人中进行风险更高的赌博）。 第二种类型的研究是补充性纵向研究。具体来说，PI将分析明尼苏达州风险和适应纵向研究的数据。这项正在进行的研究包括：（a）父母关于其子女的数据（即，目标参与者的）童年环境，（B）关于成年目标的当前环境（在23岁时）的数据，以及（c）关于成年目标从事现实生活中的危险行为的倾向的数据（例如，财务支出记录、健康和药物相关行为、犯罪记录）。这种纵向研究，结合实验，将允许PI确定当前和童年环境是否以及如何共同影响成年后不同类型的危险行为的制定。 在理论层面上，这项研究将：（1）从发展，社会，经济和人格心理学中整合关于环境对风险决策和行为影响的理论和研究，（2）将心理学工作与人类学和进化生物学的理论和研究联系起来，（3）使用实验室实验和纵向数据对所提出的想法进行严格的测试。 除了在不同的研究生研究助理群体中促进研究生培训外，这项研究还可能对重要的日常决策产生重要的见解-这些决策直接影响到财务和心理健康，健康和公共政策。 例如，如果这项研究支持这样一种观点，即早期暴露于风险和当前经济不确定性的结合促进了风险决策（并更好地澄清哪些风险决策最有可能符合这一模式），科学家和政策制定者将处于更有利的地位，为风险行为设计和瞄准更有效的干预措施，从不安全的性行为或吸毒到易受赌博或其他经济风险行为的影响。