Abstract

Episodic foresight (EF) refers to the ability to anticipate future states of the self. Despite almost two decades of research, no studies explored how family context variables relate to the development of this ability. The objectives of this study were to explore the association of socioeconomic status (SES), parental consideration of future consequences (CFC), and family environment quality on the development of episodic foresight and to compare the magnitude of the effects of these same variables on delay of gratification and planning.Sixty-four dyads composed by 4-year-old Uruguayan children and their main caregiver participated in the study. Children were administered experiments on episodic foresight, delay of gratification, planning, and receptive language. Parents reported socioeconomic status, family environment, and their consideration of future consequences. Even though parents’ limit setting was associated to higher EF in children and parental CFC-I was a predictor in multiple regression analysis, these effects ceased to be significant when controlled by child’s receptive language and caregiver education, being these the main predictors of EF. Results also indicate that SES significantly distinguishes the performance in future-oriented skills and language, being the magnitude of the effect higher for EF in comparison with planning and delay of gratification. This study supports that EF is related to SES to a greater extent than other variables traditionally assessed in studies of poverty and child development. We discuss implications of low SES and language skills in the light of EF development and immediate-oriented behavior in contexts of deprivation.

Highlights

  • Desire for immediate gratification and present orientation are more frequently observed in adults coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Adams & White, 2009; Haushofer & Fehr, 2014; Pepper & Nettle, 2017)

  • We explore the effects of family context variables on children scores in future-oriented measures through a hierarchical regression

  • We both analyze the effect of family context variables on episodic foresight (EF) and compare these effects to those found for Delayed reward (DR) and Tower of Hanoi (ToH)

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Summary

Introduction

Desire for immediate gratification and present orientation are more frequently observed in adults coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Adams & White, 2009; Haushofer & Fehr, 2014; Pepper & Nettle, 2017). Mapping the variables that contribute to the development of EF may be crucial to understand the EF is defined as the ability to project oneself into the future to anticipate and pre-experience events, desires, or mental states (Atance & O’Neill, 2001). EF demands the construction of mental representations upon facts that may happen and implies the anticipation of the self in relation to personal future, detached from the actual emotional state or beliefs of the person, and located at an approximate time and place (Atance & O’Neill, 2001; Suddendorf & Redshaw, 2013). Assessment of EF in young children presents methodological challenges since adult methods are not suitable (e.g., self-report).

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