Poster #89 - Material Deprivation, Amygdala Volume and Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - Interdisciplinary Section

Integrative Statement

Socioeconomic disadvantage and early life exposure to chronic stressors has known impacts on the developing brain, behavior, and health outcomes. Beyond being characterized by simple income or education metrics, poverty is often associated with material deprivation, which refers to a lack of physical resources (e.g., nutrition, toys, books) in the home environment (Johnson, Riis, & Noble, 2016). Material deprivation has known impacts on children’s mental health, possibly due to stress or chronic worry about physical resources (Wadsworth, Evans, Grant, Carter, & Duffy, 2016). However, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying associations between material deprivation and children’s mental health outcomes. One possibility is that material deprivation impacts development of the amygdala, a region critical for emotion processing and heavily implicated in internalizing and externalizing disorders (Adolphs, Tranel, Damasio, & Damasio, 1995). In turn, differences in amygdala development may contribute to an increased risk for internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. In this study, we investigated the role of amygdala volume in mediating associations between family material deprivation and children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and we explored whether any such associations were attributable to specific sub-nuclei of the amygdala. Participants were 5 to 9-year-old children (N = 51, 61% female) from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds (average parental education was 14 yrs., SD = 2.35; 49% Hispanic/Latino). Parents reported on family material deprivation within the past year (e.g., food, clothing, shelter) and on children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Children completed high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. FreeSurfer (version 6.0) was used for image preprocessing and extraction of volumetric data for the amygdala and its sub-nuclei (e.g., basolateral amygdala; Saygin et al., 2017). All images included in analyses passed quality control procedures and statistical analyses controlled for child age, sex, and whole brain volume, and family income. Findings indicated that higher material deprivation was associated with greater internalizing (B = 0.289, p = 0.014) and externalizing (B = 0.319, p = 0.007) symptoms. Furthermore, higher material deprivation was associated with smaller amygdala volume (B = -0.268, p = 0.014). These findings held when controlling for parental education as well. However, while smaller amygdala volume was significantly associated with increased externalizing behaviors (B = -0.451, p = 0.039) and marginally with increased internalizing behaviors (B = -0.380, p = 0.083), it did not mediate the association between material deprivation and children’s mental health. Exploratory analyses of amygdala sub-nuclei indicated that while smaller right accessory basal nucleus volume and smaller right cortical nucleus volume were each associated with greater material deprivation, these regions were not significantly associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Together, these findings point to the critical role that material deprivation, over and above family income and parental education, may play in shaping amygdala volume and mental health outcomes among school aged children. Furthermore, they highlight the need for future work to examine how material deprivation contributes to longitudinal mental health outcomes.

Authors

• Pooja M. Desai, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Emily Merz, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elaine A. Maskus, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Samantha A. Melvin, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xiaofu He, Columbia University Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kimberly G. Noble, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author