Contextualizing Socioeconomic Status and Its Effects on Brain Structure and Cognitive Skills in Children: Evidence from the ABCD Study

• In Event: Mind, Brain, and the Learning Context

Abstract

This study investigates interactions between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and home contextual factors on children's neurocognitive development using data from the ABCD study. Confirmatory factor analysis validated constructs of family learning attitudes and household organization and conflict. We examined interactions between SES and home context, and their influence on cognitive skills and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) structure, a brain region particularly associated with learning. Measures of IPS structure were shown to be associated positively with income-to-needs ratios and parent education and negatively with home conflict, with effects moderated by organization. Crystallized intelligence and math fluency associated with IPS structure and SES, home learning attitudes, and conflict. These findings underscore the complex interplay between SES, home environment, and children's neurocognitive development.

Authors

• Analia Marzoratti, University of Virginia

• Tanya Evans, University of Virginia