"Life is Uncertain, eat Desert First”: Associations Between Early Adversity, Health-Behaviours, Risk-Taking and Temporal Discounting

Many health- and risk-taking behaviours involve trade-offs between immediate gratification and future health and well-being. Early Childhood Adversity has been found to be associated with lower efforts in preventative health-behaviour and less risk-avoidance as well as bio-psycho-social measures such as earlier puberty and sexual debut. The current research aims to verify these associations and includes the novel construct of Misery Delay Discounting, i.e. the future discounting of expected misery caused by serious future illness. This study used an online survey design to collect responses from 371 adult USA residents (Mage = 29.98). A Structural Equation Modelling approach was used to model Early Adversity as a predictor for health- and risk-taking behaviours in adulthood. The model fit the data well (RMSEA = 0.058 [90% CI = 0.052; 0.063]; CFI = 0.968; TLI = 0.958). Results corroborate theory and previous empirical evidence and provide an evolutionary-developmental informed foundation for health intervention programmes.