Examining the Relationship Between an Individual's Childhood Environmental Factors and Motivation to Expend Energy Later in Life

Abstract

Environmental factors during childhood, such as environmental unpredictability, have previously shown to predict eating in the absence of hunger in adulthood, even when there is a lack of environmental pressure to do so. While this is historically an adaptive trait to promote survival in environments with limited and unpredictable resources, the behavior can become maladaptive if individuals are put in contexts where resources are no longer restricted. Previous research has also illustrated that individuals from unpredictable environments are more susceptible to changes in behavior when reminded of scarce resource conditions. If childhood environments can affect how adults choose to secure calories, I predict that it may also affect how adults spend their calories. The current research aims to investigate whether the same energy-maximizing pattern exists between childhood unpredictability and energy expenditure later in life. Participants were primed to think of resource scarcity or a control condition in addition to completing pre- and post-manipulation grip strength tests to measure their effort. Results revealed that priming individuals with resource scarcity did not seem to predict their effort, however childhood unpredictability was associated with how many hours that participants reported exercising each week as well as their attitudes towards exercise.