Parents, but not their children, demonstrate greater delay discounting with resource scarcity

BMC Public Health

Research

Teresa Quattrin¹  Leonard H. Epstein¹  Rocco A. Paluch¹  Ihouma U. Eneli²  Stephen R. Cook³  Kenneth B. Schechtman⁴  Denise E. Wilfley⁴  Alyssa M. Button⁵  Nancy Geller⁶ 

[1] Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Building #26, 14214, Buffalo, NY, USA;Department of Pediatrics, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA;Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA;Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA;Division of Population and Public Health Science, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA;

关键词: Delay discounting;    Scarcity;    Obesity;    Socioeconomic status;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-023-16832-z

 received in 2023-02-06, accepted in 2023-09-25,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIndividuals with obesity tend to discount the future (delay discounting), focusing on immediate gratification. Delay discounting is reliably related to indicators of economic scarcity (i.e., insufficient resources), including lower income and decreased educational attainment in adults. It is unclear whether the impact of these factors experienced by parents also influence child delay discounting between the ages of 8 and 12-years in families with obesity.MethodsThe relationship between indices of family income and delay discounting was studied in 452 families with parents and 6–12-year-old children with obesity. Differences in the relationships between parent economic, educational and Medicaid status, and parent and child delay discounting were tested.ResultsResults showed lower parent income (p = 0.019) and Medicaid status (p = 0.021) were differentially related to greater parent but not child delay discounting among systematic responders.ConclusionsThese data suggest differences in how indicators of scarcity influence delay discounting for parents and children, indicating that adults with scarce resources may be shaped to focus on immediate needs instead of long-term goals. It is possible that parents can reduce the impact of economic scarcity on their children during preadolescent years. These findings suggest a need for policy change to alleviate the burden of scarce conditions and intervention to modify delay discounting rate and to improve health-related choices and to address weight disparities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 5