Poster #75 - Prenatal Neighborhood Crime Exposure is associated with Externalizing Behaviors at 12 and 24 months

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Prenatal exposure to neighborhood crime has been previously associated with reduced frontolimbic connectivity in the neonatal brain (Brady et al. 2022); however, it is unknown whether prenatal exposure to neighborhood crime is also associated with early externalizing behaviors. It is plausible that prenatal crime exposure relates to later behavior, as studies in middle childhood and adolescents demonstrate a link between living in a high-crime neighborhood and externalizing problems (Fowler et al. 2009). We hypothesize that prenatal neighborhood crime exposure during pregnancy will relate to externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms at ages 12 and 24 months.

The study utilized a longitudinal cohort of 399 women recruited during pregnancy as part of the Early Life Adversity and Biological Embedding study at Washington University. Prenatal addresses were collected for each mother and coded by census block group. Crime data for each block group was obtained from Applied Geographic Solution’s CrimeRisk Database, which is a commercial dataset that combines data from over 16,000 law enforcement agencies. Violent crimes (e.g., murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery) and property crimes (e.g., burglary, larceny, vehicle theft, arson) were examined. At 12 and 24 months of age, the mothers of 293 infants completed the Infant-Toddler Socioemotional Assessment (ITSEA), which includes an internalizing and externalizing domain score, normalized to the national average for each age and sex. Linear models controlling for children’s sex were used to examine the relationship of block-tract group crime to the ITSEA externalizing t-scores. We also controlled for national Area Deprivation Index (ADI) percentile and familial income-to-needs ratio in separate models. Specificity analyses used the same models with ITSEA internalizing t-scores as the outcome variable. Results were corrected for multiple comparisons using FDR correction.

The results of this study demonstrated that prenatal exposure to high levels of neighborhood property crime was related to higher ITSEA externalizing t-scores at 12 months and 24 months of age, even when controlling for neighborhood ADI and familial poverty (Figure 1). Prenatal exposure to violent crime was related to higher ITSEA externalizing scores at age 12 months, but not age 24 months, when controlling for neighborhood and familial poverty (Figure 2). Neither property or violent crime were related to ITSEA internalizing t-scores at 12 or 24 months after correcting for multiple comparisons.

These findings provide evidence that living in a high crime area during pregnancy is associated with greater levels of externalizing symptoms, but not internalizing symptoms, even when controlling for poverty. The association with crime exposure may be due to differential effects of threat vs. deprivation (McLaughlin et al. 2014). A limitation of this analysis is that it does not account for crime exposure during the first year, but this is a planned future direction. Nevertheless, these findings reiterate the need to reduce crime exposure during pregnancy to prevent intergenerational transmission of adversity.

Authors

• Rebecca Brady, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia E. Rogers, Washington University School of Medicine

• Tara Smyser, Washington University in St. Louis

• Barbara Warner, Washington University in St. Louis

• Deanna Barch, Washington University in St. Louis

• Joan L Luby, Washington University in St. Louis

• Christopher D. Smyser, Washington University School of Medicine