An Investigation of the Effects of Food Scarcity on Reinforcement Pathology among Parents and Offspring.

项目概要/摘要 随着美国肥胖率持续上升，识别和了解肥胖症至关重要 这种情况的重要危险因素。贫困经历预示着成人和儿童的肥胖 童年贫困会独立增加成人肥胖的风险。拟议的研究将调查 稀缺性对食物的相对强化值（RRV）的影响，延迟贴现（DD），并将压力检查为 潜在的调解人。我们实验室的一项试点研究表明，食物短缺的严重印象会增加 成人食物的 RRV。这项研究还表明，男性和女性患有严重的食物 当资源有限时，不安全感往往会更加努力地获取食物。目前的研究 该提案将复制并扩展这些发现，特别关注肥胖的发展 追求四个具体目标。我们将考察儿童、青少年及其父母的各个群体， 少数族裔参与者和性别数量均衡的团体。该研究将调查差异 每个年龄段对食物强化方面的稀缺反应，使我们能够确定哪个时期 发展对范式以及父母对稀缺反应的影响最为敏感 后代 RRV 和 DD。我们将研究财务短缺对食品的 RRV 和延误的严重影响 在有或没有长期财政短缺的参与者之间进行折扣（即接收政府 协助）在实验室研究中。参与者将接受政府援助的筛选 去年家庭中的人员，并在分层样本中招募。在实验室里，他们将经历 稀缺性操纵和测量食物 RRV 和 DD 的完整任务。据预测，当启动时 对于稀缺性，长期经济匮乏的参与者的食物和DD的RRV将表现出更大的增加。 这种关系预计会在整个生命周期中得到加强。据预测，青少年父母 就对稀缺性的反应而言，二元关系将是最相关的。最后，我们将探讨压力作为 这些关系的潜在机制。据预测，长期稀缺的参与者将会更多 可能会对稀缺性产生更高的压力反应，并且那些这样做的人会表现出相应的增加 DD。总体而言，拟议的研究可能会阐明儿童贫困-成人之间的潜在机制。 肥胖关系并为该领域的干预措施提供有价值的信息。

Project Summary/Abstract As obesity continues to rise in the United States, it is critically important to identify and understand important risk factors for this condition. Experiences of poverty predict obesity in both adults and children and childhood poverty independently increases one's risk for adult obesity. The proposed study will investigate the effect of scarcity on the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of food, delay discounting (DD), and examine stress as a potential mediator. A pilot study in our laboratory established that acute impressions of food scarcity increase RRV of food among adults. This study also showed that males and females suffering from severe food insecurity tended to work harder for the food when primed for limited resources. The study in the current proposal will replicate and extend these findings with a particular focus on the development of obesity by pursuing four specific aims. We will examine a cross section of children, adolescents, and their parents, with all groups having a balanced number of minority participants and sexes. The study will investigate differential reactions to scarcity in terms of food reinforcement at each age group and allow us to establish which period of development is most sensitive to the paradigm as well as the impact of parents' reactions to scarcity on offspring RRV and DD. We will examine the acute effects of financial scarcity on RRV of food and delay discounting among participants with and without chronic financial scarcity (i.e. receiving government assistance) in a laboratory study. Participants will be screened for receipt of government assistance by any person in the household in the last year and recruited in a stratified sample. In the laboratory, they will undergo a scarcity manipulation and complete tasks measuring RRV of food, and DD. It is predicted that when primed for scarcity, participants with chronic financial scarcity will show a greater increase in RRV of food and DD. This relationship is expected to strengthen across the lifespan. It is also predicted that adolescent-parent dyads will be the most interrelated in terms of reactions to scarcity. Finally, we will explore stress as a potential mechanism for these relationships. It is predicted that participants with chronic scarcity will be more likely to have a higher stress response to scarcity and that those who do will show a corresponding increase in DD. Overall, the proposed study is likely to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the childhood poverty-adult obesity relationship and provide valuable information for interventions in this area.