Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults
Published on: October 19, 2014
When more is not better: the role of cumulative risk in child behavior outcomes
Karen Appleyard1, Byron Egeland, Manfred H M van Dulmen
1Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Background:
Cumulative risk research has established the deleterious effects of co-occurring risk factors on child behavior outcomes. However, extant literature has not addressed potential differential effects of cumulative risk at different points in development and has left open questions about whether a threshold model or a linear risk model better describes the impact of cumulative risk on behavior outcomes. The current study examined the impact of cumulative risk factors (i.e., child maltreatment, inter-parental violence, family disruption, low socioeconomic status, and high parental stress) in early and middle childhood on child behavior outcomes in adolescence.
Methods:
Using data from an ongoing longitudinal study of at-risk urban children (N=171), the cumulative effects of these five risk factors across early and middle childhood were investigated.
Results:
The findings support the cumulative risk hypothesis that the number of risks in early childhood predicts behavior problems in adolescence. Evidence for a linear but not a threshold model of cumulative risk was found; the more risks present, the worse the child outcome. Moreover, the presence of multiple risks in early childhood continues to explain variations in predicting adolescent behavior outcomes even after including the effects of risk in middle childhood.
Conclusions:
The results support the need for comprehensive prevention and early intervention efforts with high-risk children, such that there does not appear to be a point beyond which services for children are hopeless, and that every risk factor we can reduce matters.
Related Concept Videos
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast, controlled...
Relative Risk
Regression Toward the Mean
Adler's Individual Psychology
Bullying
Timing and Consequences on Behavior
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...

