Parental and social factors in relation to child psychopathology, behavior, and cognitive function

Abstract

Parental and social factors have long-term impact on the neurodevelopment of offspring, but tend to highly covary with each other. Thus, it is difficult to parse out which parental and social factor contributes most to neurodevelopmental outcomes. This study aimed to assess clusters of parental and social factors associated with child psychopathology, behavioral problems, and cognition. This study employed the data of 11,875 children (9 to 11 years) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on 39 environmental measures and 30 child behavior and cognitive measures separately to identify clusters of parental and social factors and clusters of child psychopathology, behaviour, and cognition. Regression analysis was used to examine independent effects of each cluster of parental and social factors on child psychopathology, behavioral problems, and cognition. Greater Parent Psychopathology cluster was associated with greater Child Psychopathology cluster. Moreover, greater Socioeconomic Status cluster was associated with greater child General Cognition and Executive Function but less Behavioral Inhibition clusters. Greater Proximal Social Environment and Interaction cluster were associated with less child Impulsive Behavior and Behavioral Inhibition, but greater Behavioral Activation cluster. The environmental clusters related to birth outcomes, maternal tobacco, and drug use were not significantly related to child psychopathology, behavior, and cognition. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic status, parental psychopathology, and social environment and interactions are the strongest risks for behavioral problems and cognitive performance in a general child population. Intervention programs should target modifiable factors within these domains.

Nutrition, Cognition, and Social Emotion among Preschoolers in Poor, Rural Areas of South Central China: Status and Correlates

“…Moreover, a father’s education matters for the child’s anemia status, WPPSI, and prosocial scores. This is congruent with previous findings, suggesting that lower socioeconomic status is linked with lower IQ and executive functions [ 31 , 32 ]. Similarly, consistent with previous findings [ 33 , 34 ], our study identified that parenting style, which is low in demands and responsiveness, is linked with poor cognitive and prosocial abilities.…”

The link between the brain volume derived index and the determinants of social performance

“…Moreover, GM-BHQ was more strongly correlated with cognitive function than its regional subscales including hippocampus-BHQ or parahippocampus-BHQ (Watanabe et al, 2021), indicating that the whole-brain GMV reflects cognitive function better than individual regional GMV. As the whole-brain GMV is influenced by one's personality, cognitive ability, and surrounding environment (Kokubun & Yamakawa, 2019;Kokubun et al, 2018Kokubun et al, , 2020Kokubun et al, , 2021Nemoto et al, 2017;Watanabe et al, 2021), it has been shown that motivation (Subramanian et al, 2020;Włodarska et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2020) and empathy (Jami et al, 2021;Putrino et al, 2021) are also influenced by those factors. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that whole-brain GMV correlates with motivation and empathy.…”

Considering Prenatal Alcohol Exposure in a Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Framework

“…It is interesting to compare the findings of Lees et al with recently published results from the same ABCD cohort using a data-driven principal component analysis of 39 environmental measures and 30 child behavior and cognitive measures to identify clusters of parental and social factors and clusters of child outcomes (16). Maternal alcohol use was not associated with any child psychopathology, behavioral, or cognitive outcomes.…”

“…These findings align with converging evidence among studies of the developmental origins of health and disease for the transmission of maternal psychological distress to offspring, perpetuated by exposure to less optimal caregiving and an adverse postnatal environment experienced in the context of parental stress and psychopathology (4). Although Lees et al adjusted for maternal depression in their primary analyses, demographically matched samples were not matched on maternal depression and other social, parental, and environmental factors that were most strongly associated with child psychopathology in Zhang et al (16). Taken together, these two studies from the ABCD cohort pose a core conceptual challenge in integrating behavioral teratology studies with the developmental origins of health and disease and other research approaches-are we interested in asking what harm might alcohol cause, or what predicts poorer (or enhanced) development?…”