Citation

Maranges HM, Hasty CR, Martinez JL, Maner JK. Adapt. Human Behav. Physiol. 2022; 8(3): 313-343.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s40750-022-00200-z

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A burgeoning literature inspired by life history theory suggests that psychological and behavioral processes become adaptively calibrated to the levels of harshness and unpredictability encountered in early developmental environments. The current research develops and validates brief scales intended to measure perceptions of childhood harshness (resource scarcity) and unpredictability.

Methods

Data were collected from adults in the U.S. (total N = 3252). Study 1 was used to design the measures and confirm reliability. Study 2 provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 assessed associations between the perceived harshness and unpredictability scales and indicators of life history strategies.

Results

The scales showed good convergent validity (e.g., moderate-to-strong associations with adverse childhood experiences, impulsivity, and a lack of self-control) and discriminant validity (e.g., null-to-low associations with social desirability, sex, and age), as well as associations with biometric (e.g., age of menarche and sexual debut), behavioral (e.g., number of sexual partners, age of first offspring, number of offspring), and psychometric (e.g., scores on the K-SF-42 and Mini-K) indicators of life history strategies.

Conclusions

These scales provide easy-to-administer retrospective measures of perceived childhood harshness and unpredictability and facilitate research testing hypotheses related to adaptive calibration.

Language: en

Keywords

Adaptive calibration; Behavioral ecology; Harshness; Life history theory; Measures; Unpredictability