Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution is Associated with Childhood Inhibitory Control and Adolescent Academic Achievement

• In Event: Environmental Risk Exposure and its Effects from Infancy to Adolescence: Differential Susceptibility to Context

Abstract

Introduction
Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with academic achievement (Grineski, 2020) and self-regulation, specifically in boys (Chiu, 2016). Self-regulation is also associated with achievement (McClelland, 2012). Understudied are the contributions of prenatal air pollution exposure to children’s inhibitory control, specifically, and whether pollution-related inhibitory control alterations lead to impairment in academic achievement.

Hypotheses
We hypothesized: 1) effects of air pollution exposure on inhibitory control would be detected in boys during childhood; 2) childhood inhibitory control would be positively associated with adolescent academic achievement; 3) inhibitory control would mediate exposure effects on achievement.

Methods
During the third trimester of pregnancy, mothers wore air monitoring backpacks for 48 hours that collected airborne vapors, aerosols, and PM2.5 from which eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were extracted (Tonne, 2004). The NEPSY-II Inhibition subtest assessed the ability to inhibit an automatic response and instead activate a novel response during late childhood (8-14 years, mean=10.4). First, the participant names shapes or the direction of arrows as fast as possible. Next, the child instead names the other shape or arrow direction, e.g., saying “square” for circle. Adolescent achievement was measured on average 3.4 years, and always after inhibitory control, using the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-III (WJ-III; 13-15 years, mean=13.7). The Broad Math Index (Applied Problems, Calculation, and Math Facts Fluency), Basic Reading Index (Letter-Word Identification and Word Attack), Academic Skills Index (Letter-Word Identification, Spelling, and Calculation) and Passage Comprehension were analyzed. Prenatal airborne PAH and inhibitory control was available for N=356 children; N=200 children had available achievement data.

Multiple linear regression examined sex-dependent PAH effects on childhood inhibitory control and sex-dependent effects of childhood inhibitory control on adolescent achievement. A nonparametric bootstrapping technique (5,000 simulations; R mediation package 4.5.0) tested whether childhood inhibitory control mediated prenatal PAH effects on achievement.

Study Population
Participants were recruited from the Mothers and Newborns prospective birth cohort (Perera, 2006). Mothers in the cohort were self-reported Dominican and African American women residing in Washington Heights, Central Harlem, or the South Bronx who gave birth at New York Presbyterian Hospital or Harlem Hospital between 1998 and 2006.

Results
The exposure-by-sex interaction effect was significant (β=0.21, p=.04; Figure 1): higher PAH exposure was associated with lower performance in girls (p=.004), but not boys (p=.88). Across all participants, better inhibitory control performance associated with higher scores on the Broad Math Index (β=0.34, p=6.0*10-7) and Passage Comprehension subtest (β=0.22, p=.001, Figure 2). Across all participants, PAH had a significant total effect on Passage Comprehension (β=-0.14, p=.038). Mediation of these effects by inhibitory control approached significance for the Passage Comprehension subtest (p=.079) and the Broad Math Index (p=.077).

Higher prenatal PAH exposure was associated with worse inhibitory control in girls but not boys. Better childhood inhibitory control was associated with better math and reading comprehension scores in all adolescents. The pattern of results suggests that inhibitory control mediates PAH exposure-related changes in achievement. Identifying these potential exposure-related phenotypes of learning problems may promote interventions that target inhibitory control deficits rather than content specific deficits.

Authors

• Amy Margolis, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Bruce Ramphal, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Pagliaccio, New York State Psychiatric Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Banker, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ena Selmanovic, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren Thomas, Brooklyn Learning Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Pam Factor-Litvak, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Fredrica Perrera, Columbia University Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bradley S. Peterson, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie Herbstman, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jeff Goldsmith, Columbia University Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Virginia Rauh, Columbia University Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author