Income and Social Rank Influence UK Children's Behavioral Problems: A Longitudinal Analysis

Income rank and depressive symptoms among employees in Germany - A 5-year cross-lagged panel analysis

Background/Objective

Socioeconomic disparities in mental health are well-established. Previous research suggests that relative income rank is associated with depressive symptoms above and beyond absolute income. This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of income rank for future depressive symptoms while accounting for absolute income. Exploring potential reverse pathways from depressive symptoms to income rank was a secondary objective.

Method

A two-wave cross-lagged panel design with a 5-year follow-up was used to analyze data for income rank, absolute income, and two dimensions of depressive symptoms (i.e., cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms) from initially 4,201 employees. Income rank was calculated for reference groups, based on the same gender, the same 5-year age band, and the same occupational skill level.

Results

Lower income rank at baseline predicted a higher severity of cognitive-affective depressive symptoms at five-year follow-up, even after adjusting for absolute income. In contrast, income rank did not demonstrate a significant unique longitudinal association with somatic depressive symptoms when simultaneously taking absolute income into account. There was no evidence for the assumption that depressive symptoms are predictive for future income rank (i.e., reverse pathway).

Conclusions

Cognitive-affective symptoms of depression might be particularly responsive to social comparisons and a relatively low social rank.

Child mental health and income gradient from early childhood to adolescence: Evidence from the UK

Background

Children from low income families are likely to have poorer mental health than their more affluent peers. However, it is unclear how this association varies at different developmental stages and what the potential underpinning mechanisms are. This study investigates the relationship between family income and mental health problems from early childhood to adolescence in the UK, and examines the potential mediating role of family-related factors over time.

Methods

Data were drawn from the UK Millennium Cohort Study at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14 and 17 years. Child mental health was measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Total Difficulties Score, and the Internalising and Externalising subscales. Family income was operationalised as permanent income. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted at each age to examine the association between income and mental health problems, and to examine potential mechanisms based on the Parental Stress and Parental Investment theories.

Results

The samples included 8096 children aged up to 14 years, of which 5667 remained in the study at age 17. Results indicated a statistically significant association between lower family income and poorer mental health in all age groups after adjusting for confounding factors. The strength of the association was reduced after adjustment for Parental Stress and Parental Investment factors, with the larger attenuation driven by Parental Stress factors in most cases. Fully adjusted models suggested an increased independent association between maternal psychological distress and children's mental health as children grew older.

Conclusions

While lower family income is associated with a child's poorer mental health, much of this association is explained by other factors such as maternal psychological distress, and therefore the direct association is relatively small. This suggests that policies targeting income redistribution may reduce child mental health problems, and also benefit the wider family, reducing the prevalence of other associated risk factors.

Longitudinal Relation between Family Socio-Economic Status and Problem Behaviors in Chinese Children: The Roles of Sense of Coherence and Maternal Warmth

Literature has well-documented the relation of family socio-economic status (SES) to children’s problem behaviors, yet the complex mechanisms underlying the relation are not well understood. Therefore, the primary goal of this one-year longitudinal study was to explore the mediating role of children’s sense of coherence and the moderating role of perceived maternal warmth in the association between family SES and externalizing and internalizing problems in Chinese children. The sample consisted of 913 children (493 boys; Mage = 11.50 years, SD = 1.04) in fourth to sixth grades in an urban area in mainland China. Data were obtained from multiple sources, including child self-reports, parental reports, and teacher ratings. The results indicated that children’s sense of coherence mediated the association between family SES and internalizing problem behaviors, but not externalizing problem behaviors. This mediating role was also moderated by maternal warmth and specifically, family SES was negatively associated with internalizing problem behaviors via the sense of coherence for children who perceived high maternal warmth. Generally, these results highlighted the possible roles of a sense of coherence and maternal warmth in the longitudinal implications of family SES for Chinese children’s internalizing problems.

Mechanisms of Maternal Diet-Induced Obesity Affecting the Offspring Brain and Development of Affective Disorders

Depression and metabolic disease are common disorders that share a bidirectional relationship and continue to increase in prevalence. Maternal diet and maternal behaviour both profoundly influence the developmental trajectory of offspring during the perinatal period. At an epidemiological level, both maternal depression and obesity during pregnancy have been shown to increase the risk of neuropsychiatric disease in the subsequent generation. Considerable progress has been made to understand the mechanisms by which maternal obesity disrupts the developing offspring gut-brain axis, priming offspring for the development of affective disorders. This review outlines such mechanisms in detail, including altered maternal care, the maternal microbiome, inflammation, breast milk composition, and maternal and placental metabolites. Subsequently, offspring may be prone to developing gut-brain interaction disorders with concomitant changes to brain energy metabolism, neurotransmission, and behaviour, alongside gut dysbiosis. The gut microbiome may act as a key modifiable, and therefore treatable, feature of the relationship between maternal obesity and the offspring brain function. Further studies examining the relationship between maternal nutrition, the maternal microbiome and metabolites, and offspring neurodevelopment are warranted to identify novel therapeutic targets.

Social status and susceptibility to wildfire smoke among outdoor-housed female rhesus monkeys: A natural experiment

Introduction

Wildfire smoke (WFS) exposure is a growing threat to human health, and lower socioeconomic position (SEP) has been shown to increase pollution susceptibility. Studies of SEP-related susceptibility, however, are often compromised due to spatial confounding between lower-SEP and pollution. Here we examine outdoor-housed nonhuman primates, living in natural social hierarchy in a common location, born during years of high vs. low WFS, to examine the separate and combined effects of WFS and social rank, an analog to SEP, on lung and immune function.

Methods

Twenty-one females were born during extreme WFS events in summer 2008; 22 were born in summer 2009, during low WFS. Pulmonary function and circulating cytokines were measured three years later, in adolescence. We estimated fine particulate (PM_2.5) and ozone exposures during each animal's first 90 days and three years of age using regulatory data. Early-life social status was estimated using maternal rank at birth, as rank in females is relatively stable throughout life, and closely approximates mother's rank. We tested associations among WFS exposure, rank, and endpoints using linear regression and ANOVA.

Results

Higher WFS exposure in infancy was, on average, associated with lower functional residual capacity (FRC), residual volume (RV), tissue compliance (Ct), and IL-8 secretion in adolescence. Higher social rank conferred significantly higher expiratory reserve volume (ERV) and functional residual capacity (FRC) solely among those born in the high-WFS year (2008). Differences in effects of rank between years were not significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons.

Conclusions

Exposure to WFS in infancy generally conferred lower adolescent respiratory volumes and inflammatory cytokines. Higher rank conferred higher respiratory volumes only among females born during WFS, suggesting the possibility that the health benefits of rank may be more apparent under environmental challenge.

Physical health and emotional and behavioral problems in maltreated children according to family economic status: Health problems of maltreated children in Korea

Low family income is a risk factor for child maltreatment. However, there has been no comparative study on the association between child maltreatment and family income. The objective of this study was to investigate the physical health and emotional and behavioral problems of maltreated children according to the economic status of their family.Cross-sectional nationwide studyData from 2012 to 2014 was extracted from the Korean National Child Abuse Registry (age <18 years) operated by the National Child Protection Agency (NCPA). Demographic characteristics and 34 physical health and emotional/behavioral problems of maltreated children were compared by family economic status. Family economic status was classified into 2 groups: families receiving the National Basic Livelihood Guarantee (NBLG) and those not receiving the guarantee (non-NBLG group).A total of 17,128 children were registered in the system. Mean age was 9.3 years (SD 4.8 years), 44.4% were females, and 29.2% were in the NBLG group. Poor hygiene, anxiety, and attention deficit were frequently reported physical and emotional health problems. Common behavioral problems included running away, rebelliousness/impulsivity/aggressiveness, maladjustment in school, learning problems at school, and frequent unauthorized absenteeism and truancy. Physical health problems (7 of 8 items) occurred more often in the NBLG group, and behavioral problems (6 of 17 items) occurred more often in the non-NBLG group.Children in Korea who are maltreated have different physical health, emotional, and behavioral problems depending on their family income level. These results can be useful in approaching the recognition of and interventions for child maltreatment.

Socioeconomic Status Gradients in Young Children's Well-Being at School

This study examines the socioeconomic status gradients in children's well-being at school using data on the total population of Danish public school children age 6-11 (N = 147,994). Children completed the national well-being at school survey, an environment-specific self-report of satisfaction with school, social well-being at school, and psychological well-being at school. Data were linked with administrative register data on family characteristics. Regression analysis was used to estimate gradients by parental education and income for each of the three dimensions of well-being at school. Findings indicated that even in the relatively equal Danish context, children from more educated and higher-income families experienced greater satisfaction with school and higher social and psychological well-being at school than their less advantaged peers.

Prenatal risk and physical aggression during the first years of life: The gender-specific role of inhibitory control

Prenatal risk and a lack of inhibitory control have consistently been related to the development of physical aggression in older children. This study examined whether inhibitory control mediated the relation between prenatal risk and aggression in infants and toddlers. The role of gender in this mediation model was also examined. The sample consisted of 161 mother-child dyads (83 boys). A prenatal cumulative risk score was created from a number of well-established risk factors including maternal psychopathology, substance use, and social and socioeconomic disadvantages. At 12 months, children performed an inhibitory control task. Physical aggression was assessed through maternal reports at 12 and 20 months of age. Results showed that higher prenatal risk was associated with more physical aggression. Inhibitory control mediated this association at both 12 and 20 months: higher prenatal risk was related to lower inhibitory control, which in turn led to higher aggression. At 20 months, gender moderated the mediation effect: the mediating role of inhibitory control was only found for girls. These results suggest that even before 2 years of age, inhibitory control is an important construct involved in the relation between prenatal risk and physical aggression.

Nutritional and immunological factors in breast milk: A role in the intergenerational transmission from maternal psychopathology to child development

Perinatal psychopathologies affect more than 25% of women during and after their gestational period. These psychiatric disorders can potentially determine important biological variations in their organisms, affecting many different physiological and metabolic pathways. Of relevance, any of these changes occurring in the mother can alter the normal composition of breast milk, particularly the concentration of nutritional and inflammatory components, which play a role in child brain functioning and development. Indeed, there is evidence showing that changes in milk composition can contribute to cognitive impairments and alterations in mental abilities in children. This review aims to shed light on the unique intergenerational role played by breast milk composition, from maternal psychopathologies to child development.

Kinds of individuals defined by patterns of variables

This paper argues that investigators should consider replacing the popular practice of comparing individuals varying in gender, social class, and/or ethnicity on one or more continuous measures with a search for kinds of individuals defined by patterns of properties that include not only their values on outcome measures but also their gender, social class, and ethnicity. Investigators who believe that a particular predictor contributes to an outcome independent of the gender, class, or ethnicity of the participants often implement statistical procedures that promise to remove the contributions of the above categories. These analyses lead to misleading conclusions when the controlled category is correlated with the dependent measures. The final sections summarize the properties of genders, classes, and ethnic groups that make distinctive contributions to many psychological outcomes. The paper ends by noting that a society's ethical beliefs constitute a defensible basis for ignoring the biological properties associated with these categories in order to allow members of these groups access to whatever educational or occupational goals they desire.