Delay discounting in children exposed to disaster

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Behavioral Economics
• Disaster Psychology

Background:

• Delay discounting, the tendency to devalue future rewards, predicts health and academic outcomes.
• Environmental uncertainty can significantly alter delay discounting behavior.
• The Great East Japan Earthquake (2011) created a unique context to study these effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of housing loss due to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake on children's delay discounting.
• To examine whether other forms of trauma, such as loss of loved ones, similarly affect delay discounting.

Main Methods:

• A 2014 time-investment exercise assessed delay discounting in 167 children (mean age 8.3 years) who were preschoolers during the 2011 disaster.
• Children allocated tokens between immediate (same-day candy) and delayed (one-month later, doubled candy) rewards.
• Housing status (destroyed, flooded, or undamaged) and other traumatic experiences were recorded.

Main Results:

• Children experiencing housing loss (destruction or flooding) showed significantly higher delay discounting (allocated more tokens for immediate rewards).
• This effect was not observed for children who lost loved ones or experienced other psychological trauma.
• The association between housing loss and delay discounting was robust.

Conclusions:

• Experiencing housing loss during a natural disaster is uniquely associated with increased delay discounting in children.
• Psychological trauma unrelated to housing loss did not show a similar correlation.
• Findings highlight the specific impact of environmental and material loss on children's future-oriented decision-making.