Department of Psychology, Harvard University.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2021 Nov;16(6):1463-1472. doi: 10.1177/1745691621992346. Epub 2021 Sep 7.
We review the three prevailing approaches-specificity, cumulative risk, and dimensional models-to conceptualizing the developmental consequences of early-life adversity and address fundamental problems with the characterization of these frameworks in a recent piece by Smith and Pollak. We respond to concerns raised by Smith and Pollak about dimensional models of early experience and highlight the value of these models for studying the developmental consequences of early-life adversity. Basic dimensions of adversity proposed in existing models include threat/harshness, deprivation, and unpredictability. These models identify core dimensions of early experience that cut across the categorical exposures that have been the focus of specificity and cumulative risk approaches (e.g., abuse, institutional rearing, chronic poverty); delineate aspects of early experience that are likely to influence brain and behavioral development; afford hypotheses about adaptive and maladaptive responses to different dimensions of adversity; and articulate specific mechanisms through which these dimensions exert their influences, conceptualizing experience-driven plasticity within an evolutionary-developmental framework. In doing so, dimensional models advance specific falsifiable hypotheses, grounded in neurodevelopmental and evolutionary principles, that are supported by accumulating evidence and provide fertile ground for empirical studies on early-life adversity.
我们回顾了三种流行的方法——特异性、累积风险和维度模型——来概念化早期逆境对发展的影响，并回应了 Smith 和 Pollak 在最近的一篇文章中对这些框架特征的基本问题。我们回应了 Smith 和 Pollak 对早期经验维度模型的担忧，并强调了这些模型在研究早期逆境对发展的影响方面的价值。现有模型中提出的逆境基本维度包括威胁/苛刻、剥夺和不可预测性。这些模型确定了早期经验的核心维度，这些维度跨越了特异性和累积风险方法关注的分类暴露（例如，虐待、机构抚养、长期贫困）；描述了可能影响大脑和行为发育的早期经验方面；提供了关于对不同逆境维度的适应性和不适应性反应的假设；并阐明了这些维度施加影响的具体机制，在进化发展框架内概念化经验驱动的可塑性。这样，维度模型提出了具体的可验证假设，这些假设基于神经发育和进化原则，得到了越来越多的证据的支持，并为早期逆境的实证研究提供了肥沃的土壤。
