Household Adversity, Day to Day Experiences, and Birth/Pregnancy Complications are Associated with Delay Discounting: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study

Delay discounting, or the propensity to devalue rewards as the time to reward receipt increases, is a robust predictor of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental outcomes across the life course. However, less is known about environmental antecedents that may be associated with delay discounting tendencies during adolescence, a developmental period during which delay discounting behaviors are still developing. Here, we examined the relation between delay discounting and the exposome—multi-level environmental exposures experienced from conception onwards. Participants included 9,848 children (Mage = 10.94 years, SD = 0.64; 53.2% female; 72% White) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study who completed the Adjusting Delay Discounting Task at the 1-year follow-up. Predictors included six exposome factors that captured aspects of proximal and distal environments including: positive day-to-day experiences, family values, household adversity, neighborhood poverty, birth/pregnancy complications, and state-level conservatism/rurality. Greater household adversity, lower positive day-to-day experiences, and greater birth/pregnancy complications were associated with greater delay discounting, after adjusting for age, sex, race, household income and parent education. These findings highlight potential intervention and policy targets aimed at modifying delay discounting preferences in adolescence and reducing risk for negative sequelae across development.