Poster #18 - Physical Home Environment Relates to Prefrontal Cortical Thickness and Reading Achievement in Adolescents

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Integrative Statement

Biologically embedded experiences alter developmental trajectories in ways that can influence health, learning, and/or behavior. These systematic differences in experiences may contribute to different biological outcomes as individuals grow and develop, including at the neural level. The majority of research on this topic has focused on infants and children; this study instead focuses on adolescents. Research on adolescent brain development in the past two decades has demonstrated substantial brain development during this formative period of life (Foulkes & Blakemore, 2018). Striking individual differences in both adolescent behavioral and biological development, however, precipitates the need to examine how individual differences in experiences contribute to variation in adolescent brain development, an area of emerging research. Previous studies of biologically embedded experiences on neurodevelopment have focused on large-scale institutional factors (e.g., socioeconomic status (SES)) and psychosocial factors (e.g., caregiving behavior). Less attention has focused on how the quality of the immediate home settings, such as the physical home environment (PHYS), influences neurodevelopment. The PHYS in which adolescents reside is valuable to examine as it represents a more proximal factor than the sociocultural factors at the macro level (e.g., SES) that are less amenable to change. A handful of studies in younger children report that exposure to poorer PHYS (characterized by a lack of cleanliness, high levels of clutter, potentially hazardous interiors and exteriors, crowding, excessive noise, and poorly lit spaces) is associated with worse outcomes, particularly related to cognitive achievement. Specifically, independent of the effects of SES, excessive noise and crowding in the home were associated with delays in reading (Evans & Maxwell, 1997), lower scores on standardized reading tests (Evans, Lepore, Shejwal, & Palsane, 1998), and elevated stress hormones (Evans & English, 2002) in children. All of these findings relate to home environment, over and above potential influences of SES. While a majority of work on PHYS and cognitive outcomes has been conducted in children, adolescents also undergo significant physical maturation that may influence how they interact with and respond to their physical environments. The goal of the current study was to examine whether PHYS quality is biologically embedded in the developing adolescent brain as evidenced by cognitive achievement and cortical thickness in 56 (48% female) healthy adolescents (13.98 to 18.8 years (M = 16.83 years, SD = 1.17). Utilizing in-home assessments of adolescents’ PHYS using the HOME scale (Caldwell & Bradley, 1984), anatomical brain scans (MRI), and indices of academic achievement using the wide-range achievement test (WRAT), we found that adolescents who have more physical problems in the home (e.g., structural hazards, crowding, excessive noise, poorly lit) have thinner prefrontal cortices, which was associated with lower levels of reading achievement, independent of age, sex, ethnicity, SES and whether adolescents’ basic physical and socioemotional needs were met by caregivers. By conducting home visits to assess physical characteristics of adolescents’ home, we highlight a typically overlooked aspect of the home environment that has relevance for adolescents’ cognitive and brain development.

Authors

• Jessica Phuong Uy, University of California, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Diane Goldenberg, University of Southern California
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Marie Tashjian, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adriana Galván, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author