About this session

Friday, 4:40 PM - 6:10 PM

Early Unpredictability and Child Development: Theoretical Considerations and Methodological Innovations Towards an Integrative Research Framework

The negative impacts of stochastic, uncertain early environments on child development have been long established in various bodies of research, such as those examining household chaos, routines, and economic instability. These constructs are recently brought together under the umbrella of unpredictability, a construct being increasingly examined as a salient dimension of early adversity that profoundly shapes children’s health and development. As an emerging field, existing evidence on various unpredictability-related constructs is disconnected and sometimes inconsistent. An integrative framework is needed to provide an operationalizable definition of unpredictability and to establish the theoretical specificity on when, how, and what aspects of unpredictability affect specific child outcomes.
This symposium presents four studies that highlight important theoretical and methodological considerations toward building this framework. Paper 1 provides a scoping review of the assessment methodologies of unpredictability-related constructs, highlighting heterogeneity in contexts, timescales, and subjectivity/objectivity. Paper 2 represents a novel observation-based method – calculating entropy in maternal sensory signals – that reveals how moment-to-moment unpredictability during infancy manifests in BMI trajectories during adolescence, and sex differences. In Paper 3, parent- vs. child-report on unpredictability-related experiences and global beliefs are found to differentially affect child decision-making, which has implications on the important aspects to be considered when choosing assessment tools. Paper 4 establishes the concept of childcare precarity and documents its well-being implications, which extends unpredictability research into childcare contexts. Collectively, these studies highlight recent advancements in unpredictability research that have key implications for future studies and contribute to an integrated understanding of early unpredictability.

Paper #1
Title	Definitions, Approaches, and Measures of Early Life Unpredictability in the Developmental Context: A Scoping Review
Presenting author	Dr. Sihong Liu, Stanford University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Unpredictable Maternal Signals During Infancy and Developmental Trajectories of Body Mass Index into Adolescence
Presenting author	LillyBelle Ku'ulei Deer, Ph.D., University of Denver, United States

Paper #3
Title	Effects of unpredictability on children’s decision making behaviors
Presenting author	Dr. Karen E. Smith, Ph.D., Rutgers University – Newark, United States

Paper #4
Title	Understanding the Relationship between Childcare Precarity and Emotional Distress
Presenting author	Mateus Morante Mazzaferro, Stanford University, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Philip Fisher, Ph.D., Stanford Center on Early Childhood, Stanford University, United States

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