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The Role of Poverty and Chaos in the Development of Task Persistence Among Adolescents
Author(s) -
FullerRowell Thomas E.,
Evans Gary W.,
Paul Elise,
Curtis David S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/jora.12157
Subject(s) - persistence (discontinuity) , poverty , psychology , chaos (operating system) , task (project management) , developmental psychology , late childhood , early childhood , economics , economic growth , computer science , geotechnical engineering , computer security , management , engineering
Late adolescents ( N = 256; M age = 17.5) who spent a larger proportion of their early life in poverty exhibited less persistence when confronted by a challenging task. Greater chaos during early adolescence also predicted less task persistence at age 17. However, the effects of poverty were moderated by chaos such that if chaos levels were high during early adolescence, task persistence was uniformly lower among late adolescents, irrespective of childhood poverty. Only when chaos levels were relatively low did poverty matter for future task persistence. Furthermore, the interactive effects of chaos and early childhood poverty were independent of child ability, and of concurrent chaos and poverty.