Determinants of cognitive function in childhood: A cohort study in a middle income context (original) (raw)
Revista Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento
TThe association between environmental factors and cognitive performance during childhood could be mediated by poverty (i.e., households with Unsatisfied or Satisfied Basic Needs). This study explored such mediating roles in preschoolers from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Tasks to assess executive attention, working memory, inhibitory control, planning, and fluid reasoning were administered to 250 children aged 4 and 5 years. The results suggested that poverty mediated the effects of family composition, child health, health risk factors, children and adults at home, maternal age, and literacy activities on the performance of executive attention, fluid reasoning, and inhibitory control. These results contribute to our understanding of the relationship between environmental factors and cognitive development through the identification of the mediating role of poverty.
Developmental Neuropsychology, 2018
The socioeconomic status (SES) of parents has a crucial influence on the cognitive development of children, but it is not clear whether this effect varies as a function of the children's age. The objective of this study was to investigate the development of children aged 7, 9, and 11 years of parents with extremely low SES in a developing country (Ecuador). Participating children were divided between a medium-SES group and a low-SES group. Statistically significant differences were observed as a function of SES group and age in verbal memory, language, and executive function, observing wider between-group differences among the 11-year-olds.
The Effects of an Impoverished Environment on Children's Cognitive Development
Poverty is a global issue that dramatically affects the lives of children, who are the generation of our future. The effects of poverty influences the future of the child traumatically. Permanently altering the structure of the brain, this will cause hardships in striving in education and the daily needs for problem solving. Thus, the cycle of poverty continues to trap these children. The exploration of the direct effects of poverty on the anatomy of the brain is crucial to mitigate these affects impoverished children will suffer in adulthood.
Association of Child Poverty, Brain Development, and Academic Achievement
JAMA Pediatrics, 2015
IMPORTANCE Children living in poverty generally perform poorly in school, with markedly lower standardized test scores and lower educational attainment. The longer children live in poverty, the greater their academic deficits. These patterns persist to adulthood, contributing to lifetime-reduced occupational attainment. OBJECTIVE To determine whether atypical patterns of structural brain development mediate the relationship between household poverty and impaired academic performance. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Longitudinal cohort study analyzing 823 magnetic resonance imaging scans of 389 typically developing children and adolescents aged 4 to 22 years from the National Institutes of Health Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Normal Brain Development with complete sociodemographic and neuroimaging data. Data collection began in November 2001 and ended in August 2007. Participants were screened for a variety of factors suspected to adversely affect brain development, recruited at 6 data collection sites across the United States, assessed at baseline, and followed up at 24-month intervals for a total of 3 periods. Each study center used community-based sampling to reflect regional and overall US demographics of income, race, and ethnicity based on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development definitions of area income. One-quarter of sample households reported the total family income below 200% of the federal poverty level. Repeated observations were available for 301 participants. EXPOSURE Household poverty measured by family income and adjusted for family size as a percentage of the federal poverty level. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Children's scores on cognitive and academic achievement assessments and brain tissue, including gray matter of the total brain, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and hippocampus. RESULTS Poverty is tied to structural differences in several areas of the brain associated with school readiness skills, with the largest influence observed among children from the poorest households. Regional gray matter volumes of children below 1.5 times the federal poverty level were 3 to 4 percentage points below the developmental norm (P < .05). A larger gap of 8 to 10 percentage points was observed for children below the federal poverty level (P < .05). These developmental differences had consequences for children's academic achievement. On average, children from low-income households scored 4 to 7 points lower on standardized tests (P < .05). As much as 20% of the gap in test scores could be explained by maturational lags in the frontal and temporal lobes. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The influence of poverty on children's learning and achievement is mediated by structural brain development. To avoid long-term costs of impaired academic functioning, households below 150% of the federal poverty level should be targeted for additional resources aimed at remediating early childhood environments.
Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development.
American Psychologist, 1998
Recent research consistently reports that persistent poverty has more detrimental effects on IQ, school achievement, and socioemotional functioning than transitory poverty, with children experiencing both types of poverty generally doing less well than never-poor children. Higher rates of perinatal complications, reduced access to resources that buffer the negative effects of perinatal complications, increased exposure to lead, and less home-based cognitive stimulation partly account for diminished cognitive functioning in poor children. These factors, along with lower teacher expectancies and poorer academic-readiness skills, also appear to contribute to lower levels of school achievement among poor children. The link between socioeconomic disadvantage and children's socioemotional functioning appears to be mediated partly by harsh, inconsistent parenting and elevated exposure to acute and chronic stressors. The implications of research findings for practice and policy are considered.
Child Development, 2005
Relations of duration and developmental timing of poverty to children's development from birth to age 9 were examined by comparing children from families who were never poor, poor only during the child's infancy (0-3 years of age), poor only after infancy (4-9 years of age), and chronically poor. Chronically poor families provided lower quality childrearing environments, and children in these families showed lower cognitive performance and more behavior problems than did other children. Any experience of poverty was associated with less favorable family situations and child outcomes than never being poor. Being poor later tended to be more detrimental than early poverty. Mediational analyses indicated that poverty was linked to child outcomes in part through less positive parenting.
Determinants of early cognitive development: hierarchical analysis of a longitudinal study
Cadernos de Saúde Pública, 2008
The study describes the relationship between anthropometric status, socioeconomic conditions, and quality of home environment and child cognitive development in 320 children from 20 to 42 months of age, randomly selected from 20,000 households that represent the range of socioeconomic and environmental conditions in Salvador, Bahia, Northeast Brazil. The inclusion criterion was to be less than 42 months of age between January and July 1999. Child cognitive development was assessed using the Bayley Scales for Infant Development, and the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory (HOME) was applied to assess quality of home environment. Anthropometric status was measured using the indicators weight/age and height/age ratios (z-scores), and socioeconomic data were collected through a standard questionnaire. Statistical analysis was conducted through univariate and hierarchical linear regression. Socioeconomic factors were found to have an indirect impact on early cog...
Fisioterapia em Movimento, 2016
Introduction: Childhood development represents a sequence of changes in behavior and underlying processes, influenced by biological and environmental factors. Screening and monitoring of neurodevelopment show effective procedures for early identification of different disorders of childhood development. Objective: To analyze the neurodevelopment, using the Denver Developmental Screening Test II, of children enrolled in preschools of Administrative Districts in Belém and to map the districts and the percentage of development evaluated as normal and suspected delay. Methods: This was a cross-sectional and exploratory descriptive study. A questionnaire was administered to parents to collect the personal, contextual and family data and an instrument to measure the level of family poverty. Results: Of the 319 children assessed, 77.7% showed a suspected delay in neuropsychomotor developmental and 59.2% in language. The family poverty level variable showed a statistically significant associ...
The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development
2013
IMPORTANCE The study provides novel data to inform the mechanisms by which poverty negatively impacts childhood brain development. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the income-to-needs ratio experienced in early childhood impacts brain development at school age and to explore the mediators of this effect. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This study was conducted at an academic research unit at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. Data from a prospective longitudinal study of emotion development in preschool children who participated in neuroimaging at school age were used to investigate the effects of poverty on brain development. Children were assessed annually for 3 to 6 years prior to the time of a magnetic resonance imaging scan, during which they were evaluated on psychosocial, behavioral, and other developmental dimensions. Preschoolers included in the study were 3 to 6 years of age and were recruited from primary care and day care sites in the St Louis metropolitan area; they were annually assessed behaviorally for 5 to 10 years. Healthy preschoolers and those with clinical symptoms of depression participated in neuroimaging at school age/early adolescence. EXPOSURE Household poverty as measured by the income-to-needs ratio. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Brain volumes of children's white matter and cortical gray matter, as well as hippocampus and amygdala volumes, obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Mediators of interest were caregiver support/hostility measured observationally during the preschool period and stressful life events measured prospectively. RESULTS Poverty was associated with smaller white and cortical gray matter and hippocampal and amygdala volumes. The effects of poverty on hippocampal volume were mediated by caregiving support/hostility on the left and right, as well as stressful life events on the left. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The finding that exposure to poverty in early childhood materially impacts brain development at school age further underscores the importance of attention to the well-established deleterious effects of poverty on child development. Findings that these effects on the hippocampus are mediated by caregiving and stressful life events suggest that attempts to enhance early caregiving should be a focused public health target for prevention and early intervention. Findings substantiate the behavioral literature on the negative effects of poverty on child development and provide new data confirming that effects extend to brain development. Mechanisms for these effects on the hippocampus are suggested to inform intervention.
Maternal cognitive function and neurodevelopmental outcomes of slum-dwelling children in Bangladesh
Springer, 2024
Trajectories of neurodevelopment of children in disadvantageous situations are greatly influenced by cognitive function of the caregiver during that period. We aimed to examine whether there is any association of maternal cognitive function with the neurodevelopmental outcomes of children living in slums in Bangladesh. We enrolled 207 mother-child (12 to 42 months) dyads. Rigorously trained testers assessed children’s cognitive, language, and motor development using BayleyIII and behavior using Wolke’s behavior ratings. Cognitive function of mothers was measured with the modified version of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Digit Span scale. Other measures included home environment, parenting practices, self-esteem, anthropometry, and socio-economic status (SES). Maternal cognitive function was positively associated with cognitive, language, and motor performance of children with or without controlling for age of the children. Additionally, parenting practice was positively associated with the domains of neurodevelopment equally. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis divulged that MMSE is a significant predictor of both cognitive and language development after controlling for possible covariates, but not for the motor development. Moreover, better home stimulation predicted improved cognitive ability and higher self-esteem of mothers predicted improved motor ability of children. Maternal cognitive function has really a significant influence on the neurodevelopment of slum-dwelling children in Bangladesh. Therefore, intervention programs need to be emphasized on maternal cognition to improve neurodevelopment of children raised in adversity