Childhood multiple risk factor exposure exceeds the adverse developmental impacts of singular exposures. Multiple risk factor exposure may also explain why sociodemographic variables (e.g., poverty) can have adverse consequences. Most research on multiple risk factor exposure has relied upon cumulative risk (CR) as the measure of multiple risk. CR is constructed by dichotomizing each risk factor exposure (0 = no risk; 1 = risk) and then summing the dichotomous scores. Despite its widespread use in developmental psychology and elsewhere, CR has several shortcomings: Risk is designated arbitrarily; data on risk intensity are lost; and the index is additive, precluding the possibility of statistical interactions between risk factors. On the other hand, theoretically more compelling multiple risk metrics prove untenable because of low statistical power, extreme higher order interaction terms, low robustness, and collinearity among risk factors. CR multiple risk metrics are parsimonious, are statistically sensitive even with small samples, and make no assumptions about the relative strengths of multiple risk factors or their collinearity. CR also fits well with underlying theoretical models (e.g., Bronfenbrenner's, 1979, bioecological model; McEwen's, 1998, allostasis model of chronic stress; and Ellis, Figueredo, Brumbach, & Schlomer's, 2009, developmental evolutionary theory) concerning why multiple risk factor exposure is more harmful than singular risk exposure. We review the child CR literature, comparing CR to alternative multiple risk measurement models. We also discuss strengths and weaknesses of developmental CR research, offering analytic and theoretical suggestions to strengthen this growing area of scholarship. Finally, we highlight intervention and policy implications of CR and child development research and theory.

Cumulative risk and child development.

https://teensneedsleep.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dewald-et-al-the-influence-of-sleep-quality-sleep-duration-and-sleepiness-on-school-performance-in-children-and-adolescents-a-meta-analytic-review.pdf

The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review

Prepubescent boys are, if anything, more likely than girls to be depressed. During adolescence, however, a dramatic shift occurs: between the ages of 11 and 13 years, this trend in depression rates is reversed. By 15 years of age, females are approximately twice as likely as males to have experienced an episode of depression, and this gender gap persists for the next 35 to 40 years. We offer a theoretical framework that addresses the timing of this phenomenon. First, we discuss the social and hormonal mechanisms that stimulate affiliative needs for females at puberty. Next, we describe how heightened affiliative need can interact with adolescent transition difficulties to create a depressogenic diathesis as at-risk females reach puberty. This gender-linked vulnerability explains why adolescent females are more likely than males to become depressed when faced with negative life events and, particularly, life events with interpersonal consequences.

Adolescent onset of the gender difference in lifetime rates of major depression: a theoretical model.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe the natural course of DSM-III-R alcohol disorders as a function of age at first alcohol use and to investigate the influence of early use as a risk factor for progression to the development of alcohol disorders, exclusive of the effect of confounding influences. METHOD: Data were obtained from a community sample (N=5,856) of lifetime drinkers participating in the 1990–1991 Mental Health Supplement of the Ontario Health Survey.RESULTS: Survival analyses revealed a rapid progression to alcohol-related harm among those who reported having their first drink at ages 11–14. After 10 years, 13.5% of the subjects who began to drink at ages 11 and 12 met the criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse, and 15.9% had a diagnosis of dependence. Rates for subjects who began to drink at ages 13 and 14 were 13.7% and 9.0%, respectively. In contrast, rates for those who started drinking at ages 19 and older were 2.0% and 1.0%. Unexpectedly, a delay in progression to harm was observe...

Age at first alcohol use: a risk factor for the development of alcohol disorders.

Do experiences with racial discrimination at school predict changes in African American adolescents' academic and psychological functioning? Does African American ethnic identity buffer these relations? This paper addresses these two questions using two waves of data from a longitudinal study of an economically diverse sample of African American adolescents living in and near a major East Coast metropolis. The data were collected at the beginning of the 7th grade and after the completion of the 8th grade. As expected, experiences of racial discrimination at school from one's teachers and peers predicts declines in grades, academic ability self-concepts, academic task values, mental health (increases in depression and anger, decreases in self-esteem and psychological resiliency), and increases in the proportion of one's friends who are not interested in school and who have problem behaviors. A strong, positive connection to one's ethnic group (our measure of ethnic identity) reduced the magnitude of the association of racial discrimination experiences with declines in academic self-concepts, school achievement, and perception of friends' positive characteristics, as well as the association of the racial discrimination experiences with increases in problem behaviors.

The influence of ethnic discrimination and ethnic identification on African American adolescents' school and socioemotional adjustment.

This article examines the impact of experiencing several major life transitions simultaneously in early adolescence For many children, entry into the new life period of adolescence is marked by the transition from a relatively intimate elementary school setting into a more complex, impersonal junior high school environment This major shift in organizational context is often accompanied by dramatic changes in biology and social definition We hypothesized that transitions will be easier for children to cope with if the various adolescent changes come into focus at different stages rather than simultaneously In a longitudinal study conducted in a large Midwestern city, schoolchildren were followed from sixth into seventh grade in 2 different types of school systems The effect of multiple life changes (school transition, pubertal development, early dating behavior, residential mobility, family disruption) on students' self-esteem, academic grade-point average, and participation in extracurricular activities was analyzed The results identify children who are forced to cope with several life transitions concurrently as a group at risk Theoretical implications are discussed, with development of the notion that individuals need an "arena of comfort" in at least some spheres of their lives

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1130616.pdf

Richard Burgeson

Papers

The impact of cumulative change in early adolescence.