Role of Positive Parenting in the Association Between Neighborhood Social Disadvantage and Brain Development Across Adolescence

Whittle, Sarah; Vijayakumar, Nandita; Simmons, Julian G; Dennison, Meg; Schwartz, Orli; Pantelis, Christos; Sheeber, Lisa; Byrne, Michelle; Allen, Nicholas

doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2017.1558

Cited by 141 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…They found that poor‐quality parenting moderates the strength of mother–child HCC covariation but had no main effect on child HCC. Our results are consistent with our recent work with adolescents, where warm/positive parenting styles were found to provide a buffering effect to the negative effects of adversity on brain development and school outcome (Whittle et al, ). It was conjectured whether stress‐induced cortisol, which has demonstrated neurotoxicity (Lee, Ogle, & Sapolsky, ), may underlie the relationships between adversity and altered brain development.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…They found that all three risk factors predicted childhood problems but that a positive parent–child relationship buffered risk effects. In related work, the current authors have demonstrated that multidimensional disadvantage, specifically at the neighbourhood level, influences brain development through adolescence, but that positive parenting, as Flouri et al found, moderates this relationship (Whittle et al, ). To date, the influence of parenting and family functioning has not been examined in relation to child HCC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

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Correlates of hair cortisol concentrations in disadvantaged young children

et al. 2018

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Children from highly disadvantaged families tend to experience worse health, educational, and job outcomes than less disadvantaged peers. However, the mechanisms underlying these relationships remain to be explicated. In particular, few studies have investigated the relationships between the psychosocial influences that children are exposed to early in life and longer term cortisol output. This study aims to contribute to the literature by exploring how disadvantaged young children's experiences of family adversity, and parenting and family functioning, are related to their long‐term cortisol levels. A sample of 60 children (26 males, mean = 4.25 years, SD = 1.68) and their mothers (mean = 34.18 years, SD = 7.11) from a low‐income population took part in a single assessment. Mothers completed questionnaires on the family environment, parenting practices, and child behaviour. Children provided a hair sample for cortisol assay and anthropometric measures. A parsimonious multivariate regression model (including potential predictors identified by a selection algorithm) was used to investigate the correlates of hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in children. Higher levels of social exclusion, being male, and younger age were each associated with higher HCC. Maternal nurturing and emotion coaching were associated with lower HCC. Findings suggest that chronic stress may underlie relationships between adversity and its long‐term effects and that HCC offers a promising method for examining chronic stress in children and evaluating interventions by which it can be ameliorated.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Correlates of hair cortisol concentrations in disadvantaged young children

et al. 2018

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“…As with past research (Luby et al, 2013;Noble et al, 2012;Whittle et al, 2017), we defined SES by household's IPR. Parents or guardians reported all sources of household income (wages, social security, disability, and unemployment benefits, worker's compensation, inheritances, and help from relatives) during the previous calendar year and composition of the household (including ages of any children).…”

Section: Socioeconomic Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subcortical structural variations associated with low socioeconomic status in adolescents

Jenkins

Chiang

Vause

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

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Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with a higher probability of multiple exposures (e.g., neighborhood violence, poor nutrition, housing instability, air pollution, and insensitive caregiving) known to affect structural development of subcortical brain regions that subserve threat and reward processing, however, few studies have examined the relationship between SES and such subcortical structures in adolescents. We examined SES variations in volume and surface morphometry of subcortical regions. The sample comprised 256 youth in eighth grade (mean age = 13.9 years), in whom high dimensional deformation mapping of structural 3T magnetic resonance imaging scans was performed. Vertex‐wise linear regression analyses examined associations between income to poverty ratio and surfaces of the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens and pallidum, with the covariates age, pubertal status, and intracranial volume. Given sex differences in pubertal development and subcortical maturation at this age, the analyses were stratified by sex. Among males, who at this age average an earlier pubertal stage than females, the relationship between SES and local shape variation in subcortical regions was almost entirely positive. For females, the relationship between SES and local shape variation was negative. Racial identity was associated with SES in our sample, however supplementary analyses indicated that most of the associations between SES and subcortical structure were independent of it. Although these cross‐sectional results are not definitive, they are consistent with a scenario where low SES delays structural maturation of subcortical regions involved with threat and reward processing. Future longitudinal studies are needed to test this hypothesis.

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“…These findings raise questions about which factors may mediate and/or moderate socioeconomic differences in children's EF and brain structure. Researchers have identified several factors that may mediate or moderate these differences, including stressful life events (Luby et al., ) and positive parenting (Whittle et al., ). However, it is unknown whether socioeconomic disparities in children's EF and brain structure may be mediated or moderated by school climate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

School climate is associated with cortical thickness and executive function in children and adolescents

Piccolo

Merz

Noble

et al. 2018

Developmental Science

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A positive school climate has been found to support mental and physical health, academic achievement and social adjustment among youth. However, links between school climate and brain structure have not been investigated to date. In this study, we investigated whether school climate was associated with executive function (EF) and brain structure (cortical thickness and surface area) in children and adolescents. We further examined whether these links varied as a function of socioeconomic background. Participants who ranged from 9 to 18 years of age (N = 108) completed EF tasks and a high-resolution, 3-Tesla, T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Overall school climate, academic support, and family socioeconomic background were assessed using questionnaires. Higher academic support was associated with greater EF task performance and increased global cortical thickness. Additionally, academic support moderated the association between family income and EF, such that children from lower income families performed similarly to their more advantaged peers on EF tasks in the context of positive academic support. This work is the first to link school climate to brain structure and contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting that academic support may be an important protective factor in the context of socioeconomic disadvantage.

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Role of Positive Parenting in the Association Between Neighborhood Social Disadvantage and Brain Development Across Adolescence

Cited by 141 publications

References 36 publications

Correlates of hair cortisol concentrations in disadvantaged young children

Correlates of hair cortisol concentrations in disadvantaged young children

Subcortical structural variations associated with low socioeconomic status in adolescents

School climate is associated with cortical thickness and executive function in children and adolescents

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