How Does Environmental Unpredictability In Systemic and Interpersonal Contexts Predict Early Childhood Development and Psychosocial Outcomes? an Ecological Examination

This study and leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic “natural experiment” to examine how ecologically-embedded unpredictability affected early childhood outcomes. We identified serial indirect pathways: Systemic distal unpredictability predicted lower developmental and psychosocial functioning via increased basic needs instability (systemic proximal context) and subsequently disrupted routines and emotional stability (interpersonal processes).