Childhood Adversity, Families, Neighborhoods, and Cognitive Outcomes: Testing Structural Models of the Bioecological Framework

Abstract

Article HistoryOver half of the children in the U.S. experience adversity early in childhood. These experiences, along with conditions in their families and neighborhoods, have profound developmental effects. The bioecological model of development includes these proximal contexts in a theory of development that incorporates the threats and supports present in these spaces to describe child development. This study used structural equation modeling to build latent measures of childhood adversity, family conflict, and neighborhood quality and tested theoretically-implied pathways to determine the relationships among these measures and cognitive outcomes in children. This study of US children ages 5-17 (N = 2,907) employed a nationally representative sample from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to create and test these measures. Results indicate that adversity, family conflict, and a lack of neighborhood quality negatively impact cognitive function, even when controls for socioeconomic status and race are introduced. Testing of models indicated that family conflict and neighborhood quality are mediated by adverse childhood experiences, and these contexts should not be related to cognitive outcomes without the inclusion of adversity measures. This study provides further insight into the relationships among these contexts and children's lives, and offers guidance for future research with these constructs. Contribution/Originality:This study contributes to the literature on Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Bioecological model of development by identifying the mediational nature of family conflict and neighborhood quality measures when relating ACEs to young adolescent outcomes. Additionally, the paper identifies and analyzes latent measures of these variables.

Lifetime Disadvantages after Childhood Adversity: Health Problems Limiting Work and Shorter Life

“…to contribute to knowledge about the pathways model, we examined how adult diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, and sedentary behavior may mediate the association of adversity with work disability (J. N. , 2016b, 2017S. B. Laditka andLaditka 2015, 2018;Pavela and Latham 2016).…”

“…We also examined whether the 620 excluded individuals differed systematically from those included, using logistic regression to compare work disability and other characteristics in our models between those groups. Our primary methods used a multinomial logistic markov chain regression model, estimated by maximum likelihood, and dynamic microsimulation (e.g., J. N. Laditka and Laditka 2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2017S. B. Laditka 1998;S.…”

“…People who have difficulty navigating relationships may be less able to arrange workplace accommodations for disabling conditions. there is also evidence that childhood adversity has negative effects on cognitive function (Olofson 2017). thus, biological, affective, behavioral, and cognitive mechanisms may link childhood adversity with difficulty working in adult life.…”

The Power of Role-Playing in Counseling Children with Learning Difficulties in Inclusive Schools of Indonesia

“…Adversity is defined as a conceptual framework to understand and improve all aspects of success. It includes a pro-active response as how to overcome problems (Duthoo, 2013;Capuras et al, 2016;Olofson, 2017). It is a power of cognitive skills that someone may employ to improve the response to turn the problems into achievement.…”

“…Henceforth, the principles of adversity may well be applied to the learning characteristics of students with learning difficulties. Olofson (2017) suggests four steps to build one" adversity; first is listening to the response of the problems experienced, second, exploring the possible solution, third, analyzing the impacts of the solution, and lastly conducting an action to achieve solution. However, it is noteworthy that single approach of teaching strategy never results in perfect achievement among students, particularly those with learning difficulties.…”