Environmental Harshness, Life History, and Crystallized Intelligence of Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

The present study examined longitudinal relations between adverse environment (at the community and family level), life history (LH) profile (conceptualized as a suite of behavioral and physical traits with converging adaptive functions), and crystalized intelligence (mathematics and vocabulary test scores) using data on 1,185 Chinese adolescents obtained from the China Family Panel Studies survey. Multilevel structural equation modeling indicates that early familial environmental harshness was negatively associated with slow LH profiles and crystalized intelligence, slow LH profiles were positively associated with crystallized intelligence, and early community-level environmental harshness strengthened the positive association between slow LH and crystalized cognitive abilities. The results underscore the importance of the childhood environment in fostering individual LH and cognitive development.