Effect of socioeconomic status disparity on child language and neural outcome: how early is early?

The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) Project: Longitudinal cohort study protocol

There is a scarcity of prospective longitudinal research targeted at early postnatal life which maps developmental pathways of early-stage processing and brain specialisation in the context of early adversity. Follow up from infancy into the one-five year age range is key, as it constitutes a critical gap between infant and early childhood studies. Availability of portable neuroimaging (functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG)) has enabled access to rural settings increasing the diversity of our sampling and broadening developmental research to include previously underrepresented ethnic-racial and geographical groups in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). The primary objective of the Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project was to establish brain function - using longitudinal data from mother - for-age reference curves infant dyads living in the UK and rural Gambia and investigate the association between context-associated moderators and developmental trajectories across the first two years of life in The Gambia. In total, 265 participating families were seen during pregnancy, at 7-14 days, 1-, 5-, 8-, 12-, 18- and 24-months post-partum. An additional visit is now underway at 3-5 years to assess pre-school outcomes. The majority of our Gambian cohort live in poverty, but while resource-poor in many factors they commonly experience a rich and beneficial family and caregiving context with multigenerational care and a close-knit supportive community. Understanding the impact of different factors at play in such an environment ( i.e., detrimental undernutrition versus beneficial multigenerational family support) will (i) improve the representativeness of models of general cognitive developmental pathways from birth, (ii) identify causal pathways of altered trajectories associated with early adversity at both individual and group level, and (iii) identify the context-associated moderators ( i.e. social context) that protect development despite the presence of poverty-associated challenges. This will in turn contribute to the development of targeted interventions.

Socioeconomic Inequalities Affect Brain Responses of Infants Growing Up in Germany

Developmental changes in functional neural networks are sensitive to environmental influences. This EEG study investigated how infant brain responses relate to the social context that their families live in. Event-related potentials of 255 healthy, awake infants between six and fourteen months were measured during a passive auditory oddball paradigm. Infants were presented with 200 standard tones and 48 randomly distributed deviants. All infants are part of a longitudinal study focusing on families with socioeconomic and/or cultural challenges (Bremen Initiative to Foster Early Childhood Development; BRISE; Germany). As part of their familial socioeconomic status (SES), parental level of education and infant's migration background were assessed with questionnaires. For 30.6% of the infants both parents had a low level of education (≤10 years of schooling) and for 43.1% of the infants at least one parent was born abroad. The N2-P3a complex is associated with unintentional directing of attention to deviant stimuli and was analysed in frontocentral brain regions. Age was utilised as a control variable. Our results show that tone deviations in infants trigger an immature N2-P3a complex. Contrary to studies with older children or adults, the N2 amplitude was more positive for deviants than for standards. This may be related to an immature superposition of the N2 with the P3a. For infants whose parents had no high-school degree and were born abroad, this tendency was increased, indicating that facing multiple challenges as a young family impacts on the infant's early neural development. As such, attending to unexpected stimulus changes may be important for early learning processes. Variations of the infant N2-P3a complex may, thus, relate to early changes in attentional capacity and learning experiences due to familial challenges. This points towards the importance of early prevention programs.

Neurocognitive and mental health outcomes in children with tungiasis: a cross-sectional study in rural Kenya and Uganda

BACKGROUND

Tungiasis, a neglected tropical parasitosis, disproportionately affects children. Few empirical studies have reported neurocognitive and mental health outcomes of children with ectoparasitic skin diseases like tungiasis. Pathophysiology of tungiasis suggests it could detrimentally affect cognition and behaviour. This study pioneered the investigation of neurocognitive and mental health outcomes in children with tungiasis.

METHODS

This was a multi-site cross-sectional study including 454 quasi-randomly sampled school-children aged 8-14 from 48 randomly selected schools in two counties in Kenya and a district in Uganda. The participants were stratified into infected and uninfected based on the presence of tungiasis. The infected were further classified into mild and severe infection groups based on the intensity of the infection. Adapted, validated, and standardized measures of cognition and mental health such as Raven Matrices and Child Behaviour Checklist were used to collect data. Statistical tests including a multilevel, generalized mixed-effects linear models with family link set to identity were used to compare the scores of uninfected and infected children and to identify other potential risk factors for neurocognitive and behavioural outcomes.

RESULTS

When adjusted for covariates, mild infection was associated with lower scores in literacy [adjusted β(aβ) = - 8.9; 95% confidence interval (CI) - 17.2, - 0.6], language (aβ = - 1.7; 95% CI - 3.2, - 0.3), cognitive flexibility (aβ = - 6.1; 95% CI - 10.4, - 1.7) and working memory (aβ = - 0.3; 95% CI - 0.6, - 0.1). Severe infection was associated with lower scores in literacy (aβ = - 11.0; 95% CI - 19.3, - 2.8), response inhibition, (aβ = - 2.2; 95% CI - 4.2, - 0.2), fine motor control (aβ = - 0.7; 95% CI - 1.1, - 0.4) and numeracy (aβ = - 3; 95% CI - 5.5, - 0.4).

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides first evidence that tungiasis is associated with poor neurocognitive functioning in children. Since tungiasis is a chronic disease with frequent reinfections, such negative effects may potentially impair their development and life achievements.

[Formula: see text] Perinatal and social risk of poor language, memory, and learning outcomes in a cohort of extremely and very preterm children

Children born extremely preterm (EPT) or very preterm (VPT) are at risk of neurodevelopmental impairment. How the interaction between biological and social risk factors affects cognitive development has not yet been completely understood. The objectives of this study are to analyze and compare the language, memory, and learning outcomes of five-year-old children born EPT (<28 weeks' gestational age) and VPT (28-31+6 weeks' gestational age) and to determine the risk of having poor outcomes attending to perinatal and maternal characteristics. The analysis included 377 children born VPT (n = 284) and EPT (n = 93) in 2011-2012. Maternal, neonatal, and clinical information was obtained at birth, and maternal education was obtained at five years using a parental questionnaire. At five years, the language, memory, and learning outcomes were assessed with the developmental NEuroPSYchological assessment second edition (NEPSY-II®). Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association of biological and social risk factors with performance below the expected level for the child's age in language, memory, and learning subtests. Lower maternal age and education increased the odds of having language performance below the expected level for the child's age, while lower maternal educational level and gestational age increased the likelihood of having memory performance below the expected level. Children living in the most social disadvantage contexts are at a higher risk of suboptimal cognitive development. Implementing intervention programs in disadvantaged contexts and targeting specific cognitive domains may enable EPT and VPT children to reach and fulfill their potential in society.

Family Socioeconomic Status and Parental Involvement in Chinese Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Moderated Mediation Model

Parental involvement benefits children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in multiple developmental areas. We conducted the present study to examine the role of parenting stress and ASD symptom severity in the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and parental involvement. A total of 165 Chinese parents of children with ASD participated in this study. Mediation analyses indicated that family SES was positively related to parental involvement; parenting stress partially mediated the relationship between family SES and parental involvement. The analyses also found that ASD symptom severity moderated the influence of parenting stress on parental involvement. Specifically, the decreased parenting stress improved parental involvement when ASD symptom severity was low. The findings enhanced our understanding of the mechanism underlying the relationship between family SES and parental involvement among parents facing considerable child-rearing challenges. Implications for devising evidenced-based interventions to promote parental involvement for low SES children with ASD are discussed.

Associations between Socioeconomic Status, Cognition, and Brain Structure: Evaluating Potential Causal Pathways Through Mechanistic Models of Development

Differences in socioeconomic status (SES) correlate both with differences in cognitive development and in brain structure. Associations between SES and brain measures such as cortical surface area and cortical thickness mediate differences in cognitive skills such as executive function and language. However, causal accounts that link SES, brain, and behavior are challenging because SES is a multidimensional construct: correlated environmental factors, such as family income and parental education, are only distal markers for proximal causal pathways. Moreover, the causal accounts themselves must span multiple levels of description, employ a developmental perspective, and integrate genetic effects on individual differences. Nevertheless, causal accounts have the potential to inform policy and guide interventions to reduce gaps in developmental outcomes. In this article, we review the range of empirical data to be integrated in causal accounts of developmental effects on the brain and cognition associated with variation in SES. We take the specific example of language development and evaluate the potential of a multiscale computational model of development, based on an artificial neural network, to support the construction of causal accounts. We show how, with bridging assumptions that link properties of network structure to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain structure, different sets of empirical data on SES effects can be connected. We use the model to contrast two possible causal pathways for environmental influences that are associated with SES: differences in prenatal brain development and differences in postnatal cognitive stimulation. We then use the model to explore the implications of each pathway for the potential to intervene to reduce gaps in developmental outcomes. The model points to the cumulative effects of social disadvantage on multiple pathways as the source of the poorest response to interventions. Overall, we highlight the importance of implemented models to test competing accounts of environmental influences on individual differences.

Concentrated poverty, ambient air pollution, and child cognitive development

Why does growing up in a poor neighborhood impede cognitive development? Although a large volume of evidence indicates that neighborhood poverty negatively affects child outcomes, little is known about the mechanisms that might explain these effects. In this study, we outline and test a theoretical model of neighborhood effects on cognitive development that highlights the mediating role of early life exposure to neurotoxic air pollution. To evaluate this model, we analyze data from a national sample of American infants matched with information on their exposure to more than 50 different pollutants known or suspected to harm the central nervous system. Integrating methods of causal inference with supervised machine learning, we find that living in a high-poverty neighborhood increases exposure to many different air toxics during infancy, that it reduces cognitive abilities measured later at age 4 by about one-tenth of a standard deviation, and that about one-third of this effect can be attributed to disparities in air quality.

Toxic Neighborhoods: The Effects of Concentrated Poverty and Environmental Lead Contamination on Early Childhood Development

Although socioeconomic disparities in cognitive ability emerge early in the life course, most research on the consequences of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood has focused on school-age children or adolescents. In this study, we outline and test a theoretical model of neighborhood effects on cognitive development during early childhood that highlights the mediating role of exposure to neurotoxic lead. To evaluate this model, we follow 1,266 children in Chicago from birth through school entry and track both their areal risk of lead exposure and their neighborhoods' socioeconomic composition over time. With these data, we estimate the joint effects of neighborhood poverty and environmental lead contamination on receptive vocabulary ability. We find that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods reduces vocabulary skills during early childhood and that this effect operates through a causal mechanism involving lead contamination.

Women's health: optimal nutrition throughout the lifecycle

Sex differences are an important consideration when researching and establishing policies for nutrition and optimal health. For women's health, there are important physiologic, neurologic, and hormonal distinctions throughout the lifecycle that impact nutritional needs. Distinct from those for men, these nutritional needs must be translated into appropriate nutrition policy that aims to not only avoid overt nutritional deficiency, but also to promote health and minimize risk for chronic disease. Through a series of webinars, scientific experts discussed the advances in the understanding of the unique nutritional needs, challenges and opportunities of the various life stages for women across the life course and identified emerging nutritional interventions that may be beneficial for women. Nevertheless, there is concern that existing nutrition policy intended for women's health is falling short with examples of programs that are focused more on delivering calories than achieving optimal nutrition. To be locally effective, targeted nutrition needs to offer different proposals for different cultural, socio-economic, and geographic communities, and needs to be applicable at all stages of growth and development. There must be adequate access to nutritious foods, and the information to understand and implement proven nutritional opportunities. Experts provided recommendations for improvement of current entitlement programs that will address accessibility and other social and environmental issues to support women properly throughout the lifecycle.

Childhood disadvantage, neurocognitive development and neuropsychiatric disorders: Evidence of mechanisms

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Children living in socioeconomically disadvantaged households have excess risks of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric problems. The purpose of this review is to synthesize evidence for mechanisms that may contribute to these excess risks.

RECENT FINDINGS

The majority of the 60 studies included in our review focused on children's neurocognitive development and behavioural problems. About half conducted mediation analyses of factors in the family and neighbourhood environments, including access to resources (e.g. cognitive inputs within the home environment) and exposure to stressors (e.g. negative parenting practices), as well as neurobiological embedding of childhood disadvantage. In addition, many studies conducted moderation analyses of factors that were hypothesized to interact with (i.e. exacerbate or mitigate) the harmful effects of childhood disadvantage.

SUMMARY

Many of the factors that contribute to the excess risk of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric problems among children in disadvantaged households are potentially modifiable (e.g. cognitively stimulating materials, parental language input, cultural resources, parental stress and psychopathology, negative parenting, neighbourhood violence). If their causality is ultimately established, they could be targets for the prevention and reduction of disparities. The continued search for mechanisms should not detract from work to reduce and hopefully eliminate children's exposure to disadvantage.

Childhood socioeconomic status is associated with psychometric intelligence and microstructural brain development

Childhood socioeconomic status is robustly associated with various children's cognitive factors and neural mechanisms. Here we show the association of childhood socioeconomic status with psychometric intelligence and mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy using diffusion tensor imaging at the baseline experiment (N = 285) and longitudinal changes in these metrics after 3.0 ± 0.3 years (N = 223) in a large sample of normal Japanese children (mean age = 11.2 ± 3.1 years). After correcting for confounding factors, cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses show that higher childhood socioeconomic status is associated with greater baseline and baseline to follow-up increase of psychometric intelligence and mean diffusivity in areas around the bilateral fusiform gyrus. These results demonstrate that higher socioeconomic status is associated with higher psychometric intelligence measures and altered microstructural properties in the fusiform gyrus which plays a key role in reading and letter recognition and further augmentation of such tendencies during development. Definitive conclusions regarding the causality of these relationships requires intervention and physiological studies. However, the current findings should be considered when developing and revising policies regarding education.

Differences and Similarities in Predictors of Expressive Vocabulary Development between Children with Down Syndrome and Young Typically Developing Children

The purpose of this study was to examine potential differences in the predictors of expressive vocabulary development between children with Down syndrome and typically developing children to support preparation for intervention development. An age cohort of 43 children with Down syndrome and 57 typically developing children with similar nonverbal mental age levels were assessed at three time points. Linear mixed models were used to investigate the predictors of expressive vocabulary over time. Both groups achieved progress in expressive vocabulary. The typically developing children had steeper growth than the children with Down syndrome (1.38 SD vs. 0.8 SD, p < 0.001). In both groups, receptive vocabulary, auditory memory, and the home literacy environment were significant predictors of development. In the children with Down syndrome, the phonological awareness and oral motor skills were also significant. Group comparisons showed that receptive vocabulary, auditory memory and oral motor skills were stronger predictors in the children with Down syndrome than in the typically developing children. These results indicate that children with Down syndrome are more vulnerable when it comes to risk factors that are known to influence expressive vocabulary than typically developing children. Children with Down syndrome therefore require early broad-based expressive vocabulary interventions.

Association Between Socioeconomic Status and In Utero Fetal Brain Development

IMPORTANCE

Children raised in settings with lower parental socioeconomic status are at increased risk for neuropsychological disorders. However, to date, the association between socioeconomic status and fetal brain development remains poorly understood.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the association between parental socioeconomic status and in vivo fetal brain growth and cerebral cortical development using advanced, 3-dimensional fetal magnetic resonance imaging.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This cohort study of fetal brain development enrolled 144 healthy pregnant women from 2 low-risk community obstetrical hospitals from 2012 through 2019 in the District of Columbia. Included women had a prenatal history without complications that included recommended screening laboratory and ultrasound studies. Exclusion criteria were multiple gestation pregnancy, known or suspected congenital infection, dysmorphic features of the fetus, and documented chromosomal abnormalities. T2-weighted fetal brain magnetic resonance images were acquired. Each pregnant woman was scanned at up to 2 points in the fetal period. Data were analyzed from June through November 2020.

EXPOSURES

Parental education level and occupation status were documented.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Regional fetal brain tissue volume (for cortical gray matter, white matter, cerebellum, deep gray matter, and brainstem) and cerebral cortical features (ie, lobe volume, local gyrification index, and sulcal depth) in the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes were calculated.

RESULTS

Fetal brain magnetic resonance imaging studies were performed among 144 pregnant women (median [interquartile range] age, 32.5 [27.0-36.1] years) with gestational age from 24.0 to 39.4 weeks; 75 fetuses (52.1%) were male, and 69 fetuses (47.9%) were female. Higher parental education level was associated with significantly increased volume in the fetal white matter (mothers: β, 2.86; 95% CI, 1.26 to 4.45; P = .001; fathers: β, 2.39; 95% CI, 0.97 to 3.81; P = .001), deep gray matter (mothers: β, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.002 to 0.32; P = .048; fathers: β, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.31; P = .02), and brainstem (mothers: β, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.10; P = .01; fathers: β, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.004 to 0.08; P = .03). Higher maternal occupation status was associated with significantly increased volume in the fetal white matter (β, 2.07; 95% CI, 0.88 to 3.26; P = .001), cerebellum (β, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.04 to 0.29; P = .01), and brainstem (β, 0.03; 95% CI, 0.001 to 0.07; P = .04), and higher paternal occupation status was associated with significantly increased white matter volume (β, 1.98; 95% CI, 0.71 to 3.25; P < .01). However, higher socioeconomic status was associated with significantly decreased fetal cortical gray matter volume (mothers: β, -0.11; 95% CI, -0.18 to -0.03; P = .01; fathers: β, -0.10; 95% CI, -0.18 to -0.03; P = .01). Higher parental socioeconomic status was associated with increased volumes of 3 brain lobes of white matter: frontal lobe (mothers: β, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.13; P = .01; fathers: β, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.11; P = .03), parietal lobe (mothers: β, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.11; P < .001; fathers: β, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.10; P = .001), and temporal lobe (mothers: β, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.07; P < .001; fathers: β, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.07; P < .001), and maternal SES score was associated with significantly decreased volume in the occipital lobe (β, 0.02; 95% CI, 0.002 to 0.04; P = .03). Higher parental socioeconomic status was associated with decreased cortical local gyrification index (for example, for the frontal lobe, mothers: β, -1.1; 95% CI, -1.9 to -0.3; P = .01; fathers: β, -0.8; 95% CI, -1.6 to -0.1; P = .03) and sulcal depth, except for the frontal lobe (for example, for the parietal lobe, mothers: β, -9.5; 95% CI, -13.8 to -5.3; P < .001; fathers: β, -8.7; 95% CI, -13.0 to -4.4; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

This cohort study found an association between parental socioeconomic status and altered in vivo fetal neurodevelopment. While being born and raised in a lower socioeconomic status setting is associated with poorer neuropsychological, educational, and socioeconomic outcomes in children, these findings suggest that altered prenatal programming may be associated with these outcomes and that future targeted prenatal interventions may be needed.

What Impacts Early Language Skills? Effects of Social Disparities and Different Process Characteristics of the Home Learning Environment in the First 2 Years

It is well documented that the language skills of preschool children differ substantially and that these differences are highly predictive of their later academic success and achievements. Especially in the early phases of children's lives, the importance of different structural and process characteristics of the home learning environment (HLE) has been emphasized and research results have documented that process characteristics such as the quality of parental interaction behavior and the frequency of joint activities vary according to the socio-economic status (SES) of the family. Further, both structural and process characteristics are associated with children's language development. As most of the studies focus on single indicators or didn't take the dynamics of parenting behavior across age into account, the present paper aims to investigate the associations of different characteristics of the home learning environment as well as their potentially changing impact on the language skills of 2-year-old children. Using data of 2.272 families of the infant cohort study of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), longitudinally assessed process characteristics (sensitivity in the sense of maternal responsivity to the child's behavior and signals in mother-child interaction; maternal stimulation behavior which goes beyond the child's actual level of action and development; frequency of joint picture book reading) and structural characteristics (mother's education, equivalised household income, parental occupational status) were considered. Language skills (vocabulary and grammar) of the children at the age of two were measured by a standardized and validated parent report instrument (child language checklist). Results showed that (1) all three process characteristics of the home learning environment (HLE) are associated with the family's SES; (2) across three assessment waves nearly all process characteristics predicted children's vocabulary and grammar skills with some process-specific changes across waves; (3) despite separate direct effects of nearly all HLE-process characteristics in each wave, the amount of explained variance in a joint model including the HLE facets from each wave is hardly higher than in the separate models; and (4) socioeconomic background predicted both language facets of the children in each model even when controlling for the assessed process characteristics of the home learning environment.

Totality of the Evidence Suggests Prenatal Cannabis Exposure Does Not Lead to Cognitive Impairments: A Systematic and Critical Review

Background: Despite limited data demonstrating pronounced negative effects of prenatal cannabis exposure, popular opinion and public policies still reflect the belief that cannabis is fetotoxic.

Methods: This article provides a critical review of results from longitudinal studies examining the impact of prenatal cannabis exposure on multiple domains of cognitive functioning in individuals aged 0 to 22 years. A literature search was conducted through PsycINFO, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Articles were included if they examined the cognitive performance of offspring exposed to cannabis in utero.

Results: An examination of the total number of statistical comparisons (n = 1,001) between groups of participants that were exposed to cannabis prenatally and non-exposed controls revealed that those exposed performed differently on a minority of cognitive outcomes (worse on <3.5 percent and better in <1 percent). The clinical significance of these findings appears to be limited because cognitive performance scores of cannabis-exposed groups overwhelmingly fell within the normal range when compared against normative data adjusted for age and education.

Conclusions: The current evidence does not suggest that prenatal cannabis exposure alone is associated with clinically significant cognitive functioning impairments.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Low-Income Adolescents Experiencing Family-Neighborhood Income Disparities

Certain neighborhood factors may increase the risk of exposure to trauma, therefore increasing the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other aspects of neighborhoods can be protective, such as neighborhood-based social relationships, which provide social support that buffers the risk of developing PTSD. The strength of these social relationships may not be as dependent on neighborhood conditions as much as they are contingent on socioeconomic similarities between neighborhood residents. Using a nationally representative sample of hospital emergency department admissions in the United States (N = 13,669,251), this study hypothesized that an interaction between family-level income and neighborhood-level income would be associated with adolescent PTSD. The results show that female adolescents who resided in the highest income areas were 1.39 times more likely, 95% CI [1.09, 1.77], to be diagnosed with PTSD than those who lived in the lowest income areas. This association was not statistically significant for male adolescents. Additionally, low-income female youth were nearly one-third more likely than their non-low-income counterparts to be diagnosed, odds ratio (OR) = 1.29, 95% CI [1.12, 1.48], whereas low-income male youth were nearly twice as likely than their non-low-income counterparts to be diagnosed, OR = 1.95, 95% CI [1.62, 2.34]. Furthermore, there was an interaction among both male and female adolescents such that lower-income adolescents living in higher-income areas had higher odds of a PTSD diagnosis compared to their higher-income peers in areas that were in the same median household income quartile.

The relationship between biological and psychosocial risk factors and resting-state functional connectivity in 2-month-old Bangladeshi infants: A feasibility and pilot study

Childhood poverty has been associated with structural and functional alterations in the developing brain. However, poverty does not alter brain development directly, but acts through associated biological or psychosocial risk factors (e.g. malnutrition, family conflict). Yet few studies have investigated risk factors in the context of infant neurodevelopment, and none have done so in low-resource settings such as Bangladesh, where children are exposed to multiple, severe biological and psychosocial hazards. In this feasibility and pilot study, usable resting-state fMRI data were acquired in infants from extremely poor (n = 16) and (relatively) more affluent (n = 16) families in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Whole-brain intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) was estimated using bilateral seeds in the amygdala, where iFC has shown susceptibility to early life stress, and in sensory areas, which have exhibited less susceptibility to early life hazards. Biological and psychosocial risk factors were examined for associations with iFC. Three resting-state networks were identified in within-group brain maps: medial temporal/striatal, visual, and auditory networks. Infants from extremely poor families compared with those from more affluent families exhibited greater (i.e. less negative) iFC in precuneus for amygdala seeds; however, no group differences in iFC were observed for sensory area seeds. Height-for-age, a proxy for malnutrition/infection, was not associated with amygdala/precuneus iFC, whereas prenatal family conflict was positively correlated. Findings suggest that it is feasible to conduct infant fMRI studies in low-resource settings. Challenges and practical steps for successful implementations are discussed.

Homicidal Ideation and Forensic Psychopathology: Evidence From the 2016 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS)

Homicide is the most serious and costly criminal offense and better forensic and criminological understanding of homicidal ideation as a potential psychobehavioral precursor to homicidal conduct is critical. Using data from the 2016 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) distributed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), we found 64,910 cases of homicidal ideation among a sample of 25.6 + million-a prevalence of 0.25%. Numerous conditions conferred increased substantially the likelihood of homicidal ideation including antisocial personality disorder (2406%), schizoaffective disorder (1821%), borderline personality disorder (1557%), paranoid personality disorder (1,504%), schizophrenia (1,143%), obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (921%), brief psychotic disorder (771%), unspecified psychosis (737%), avoidant personality disorder (596%), and schizoid personality disorder (571%), delusional disorder (546%), and other psychotic disorder (504%). Homicidal ideation is comorbid with serious psychiatric and behavioral problems and has important implications for offender typologies and homicidality.

The Effects of Family Socioeconomic Status on Psychological and Neural Mechanisms as Well as Their Sex Differences

Family socioeconomic status (SES) is an important factor that affects an individual’s neural and cognitive development. The two novel aims of this study were to reveal (a) the effects of family SES on mean diffusivity (MD) using diffusion tensor imaging given the characteristic property of MD to reflect neural plasticity and development and (b) the sex differences in SES effects. In a study cohort of 1,216 normal young adults, we failed to find significant main effects of family SES on MD; however, previously observed main effects of family SES on regional gray matter volume and fractional anisotropy (FA) were partly replicated. We found a significant effect of the interaction between sex and family income on MD in the thalamus as well as significant effects of the interaction between sex and parents’ educational qualification (year’s of education) on MD and FA in the body of the corpus callosum as well as white matter areas between the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex. These results suggest the sex-specific associations of family SES with neural and/or cognitive mechanisms particularly in neural tissues in brain areas that play key roles in basic information processing and higher-order cognitive processes in a way females with greater family SES level show imaging outcome measures that have been associated with more neural tissues (such as greater FA and lower MD) and males showed opposite.

Socio-demographic, maternal, and child indicators of socioemotional problems in 2-year-old children: A cohort study

Throughout infancy and early childhood, stable and secure relationships with caregivers are needed to promote optimal socioemotional (SE) and cognitive development.The objective is to examine socio-demographic, maternal, and child indicators of SE problems in 2-year-olds living in an urban-suburban community in the southern United States.Mother-infant pairs enrolled in a prospective pregnancy cohort study.Shelby County (Memphis), Tennessee.One thousand five hundred three women were recruited during their second trimester and followed with their children through the child's age of 2 years.Child SE development was measured by the Brief Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment at 2 years of age. Mothers reported their own behavioral and mental health, temperament, parenting stress, and potential for child abuse during gestation and/or when their child was 1 year of age. Examiners measured maternal IQ during data collection at the child's age of 1 year. Child communication, cognitive development, and risk for autism spectrum disorder were assessed at 1 and 2 years of age. Multivariable regression models were developed to predict mother-reported SE problems.In bivariate analyses, multiple maternal behavioral and mental health indicators and child cognitive skills were associated with reported child SE problems at 2 years of age. Regression analyses, controlling for socio-demographic, maternal, and child variables, showed the following factors were independently associated with mother-reported child SE problems: maternal education of high school or less, lower maternal IQ, higher maternal cyclothymic temperament score, greater parenting stress, greater maternal psychological distress, lower child expressive communication score, and child risk for autism spectrum disorder. Socio-demographic variables accounted for the variance often attributed to race.Since mothers in the study were medically low-risk, generalizing these findings to medically high-risk mothers is unwarranted. In addition, these SE outcomes in 2-year-old children do not reflect the trajectory of SE development throughout early childhood.Attention to independent indicators of future SE problems in children may help identify individual children and families needing intervention and target public prevention/treatment programs in communities.

Turning 1 Year of Age in a Low Socioeconomic Environment: A Portrait of Disadvantage

In the United States today, 16 million children are growing up poor. Few studies report multiple environmental factors associated with poverty during the first year of life and effects on infant development.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate maternal, home, and neighborhood environment of low and higher socioeconomic status (SES) infants from birth to 1 year and to evaluate the impact of SES and environment on infant developmental outcome at 1 year.

METHODS

Low (n = 30) and higher SES (n = 30) African-American mothers and their healthy term gestation female infants were prospectively compared for environmental characteristics and infant developmental outcome. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV); Beck Depression Inventory; Perceived Stress Scale; Parenting Stress Index-Fourth Edition (PSI-4); Social Support Scale; Home Observation Measurement of the Environment (HOME); Household Food Insecurity (HFI); Concentrated Neighborhood Disadvantage (CND). Bayley Scales of Infant Development Third Edition (BSID-III); Preschool Language Scale (PLS-5).

RESULTS

Environmental risk was greater for low compared with higher SES: lower WAIS-IV (p < .001); higher PSI-4 total (p = .003); lower HOME total and 3 subscales (p < .002); higher HFI (p = .012); and higher CND (p = .027). Low SES infant outcomes differed from higher SES: lower BSID-III Cognitive Composite (p = .005), PLS-5 Total Language (p ≤ .017), and Auditory Comprehension (p ≤ .008). In regressions, after controlling for SES, effects of environmental factors were not found.

CONCLUSION

By age 1, low SES infants had been exposed to greater environmental disadvantage and already exhibited poorer developmental functioning than higher SES infants. These findings suggest that support for families and children from impoverished circumstances cannot begin too early.

An Explanation of the Distinction Between Developmental Factors and Mechanisms

This paper provides five clear, relatable examples that can help students understand the distinction between the term “factors” and “mechanisms” in Developmental Psychology. The examples emphasize the idea that factors are related to changes in ways that moderate development, but are not causal. On the other hand, the term mechanism refers to processes that produce change. These examples can be embedded in lectures individually or shared as a whole to support student learning. A precise understanding of the distinction between factors and mechanisms can help students better understand development, parse research findings, and consider policy and practical implications.

New Approaches to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Learning Disabilities in an International Context

Abstract. Learning disability (LD) is a term frequently used to describe neurological disorders affecting academic and school performance. Although often applied, this term is not precisely defined. While the new DSM-V has substantially redefined LD, problems still remain, including the influence of different cultural experiences and the near absence of proposals for the application of biomarkers in LD diagnosis. This paper discusses these issues and calls for more emphasis to be placed on the identification and application of biomarkers for LD diagnosis. In addition, it proposes that these biomarkers should be incorporated into a more comprehensive bio-psycho-social diagnosis model of LD.