ArticleJournal of behavioral medicine2023
The role of childhood unpredictability in adult health.
Article in Journal of behavioral medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analytic Assessment of Unpredictability and Disordered Eating.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Childhood unpredictability, expressive suppression, and mindfulness as predictors of bystanders' outsider behaviors in cyberbullying among Chinese undergraduates: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Exposure to unpredictable childhood environments is associated with amygdala activation during early extinction in adulthood.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Adaptation and validation of the Chinese versions of the childhood perceived poverty and wealth questionnaire(C‑CPPWQ) and the childhood perceived unpredictability questionnaire (C‑CPUQ).BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the retrospective family unpredictability scale.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The effects of childhood adversity on twenty-five disease biomarkers and twenty health conditions in adulthood: Differences by sex and stressor type.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and offspring imprinted gene DMR methylation at birth.Epigenetics · 2024Article
- Interoception in pregnancy: Implications for peripartum depression.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Childhood unpredictability is associated with increased risk for long- and short-term depression and anhedonia symptoms following combat deployment.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2024Article
- Exploring the Association Between Trauma, Instability, and Youth Cardiometabolic Health Outcomes Over Three Years.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2024Article
- Exposome Determinants of Quality of Life in Adults Over 50: Personality Traits, Childhood Conditions, and Long-Term Unemployment in SHARELIFE Retrospective Panel.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Article
- Childhood unpredictability and sleep quality in adulthood: the mediating roles of life history strategy and perceived stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Sex-Specific Associations Between Early-Life Unpredictability and Trajectories of Body Mass Index From Infancy to Adolescence.Biopsychosocial science and medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This research differentiated childhood unpredictability (i.e., perceptions of uncertainty or instability due to turbulent environmental changes) from other related constructs to identify its role in adult health. Study 1 (N = 441) showed that, beyond other childhood adversity variables (poverty and adverse childhood experiences or ACEs) and demographic characteristics, perceptions of unpredictability were associated with greater functional disability and worse health-related quality of life (assessed via the CDC's HRQOL Healthy Days measure and the RAND SF-36). Study 2 (N = 564) replicated those findings in a more racially diverse sample and showed that associations with childhood unpredictability held while also controlling for the Big 5 personality traits. Findings suggest that effects of unpredictability were especially pronounced among Hispanic (in Study 1), and Black/African American and low-income participants (in Study 2). Experiencing childhood environments that are perceived to be uncertain, unstable, or uncontrollable may put children on a path toward poor health outcomes in adulthood. Findings advance theories of child adversity and health and identify childhood unpredictability as a potentially valuable target for intervention.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.