Dataset Information

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

ABSTRACT:

Importance

The negative effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on lifelong functioning are pronounced, with some evidence suggesting that these effects are mediated by changes in brain development. To our knowledge, no research has investigated whether parenting might buffer these negative effects.

Objective

To establish whether positive parenting behaviors moderate the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on brain development and adaptive functioning in adolescents.

Design, setting, and participants

In this longitudinal study of adolescents from schools in Melbourne, Australia, data were collected at 3 assessments between 2004 and 2012. Data were analyzed between August 2016 and April 2017.

Exposures

Both family (parental income-to-needs, occupation, and education level) and neighborhood measures of socioeconomic disadvantage were assessed. Positive maternal parenting behaviors were observed during interactions in early adolescence.

Main outcomes and measures

Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans at 3 times (early, middle, and late adolescence) from ages 11 to 20 years. Global and academic functioning was assessed during late adolescence. We used linear mixed models to examine the effect of family and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage as well as the moderating effect of positive parenting on adolescent brain development. We used mediation models to examine whether brain developmental trajectories predicted functional outcomes during late adolescence.

Results

Of the included 166 adolescents, 86 (51.8%) were male. We found that neighborhood, but not family, socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with altered brain development from early (mean [SD] age, 12.79 [0.425] years) to late (mean [SD] age, 19.08 [0.460] years) adolescence, predominantly in the temporal lobes (temporal cortex: random field theory corrected; left amygdala: B, -0.237; P?Conclusions and relevanceOur findings highlight the importance of neighborhood disadvantage in influencing brain developmental trajectories. Further, to our knowledge, we present the first evidence that positive maternal parenting might ameliorate the negative effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on frontal lobe development (with implications for functioning) during adolescence. Results have relevance for designing interventions for children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

SUBMITTER: Whittle S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5710640 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

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

Whittle Sarah S Vijayakumar Nandita N Simmons Julian G JG Dennison Meg M Schwartz Orli O Pantelis Christos C Sheeber Lisa L Byrne Michelle L ML Allen Nicholas B NB

JAMA psychiatry 20170801 8

<h4>Importance</h4>The negative effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on lifelong functioning are pronounced, with some evidence suggesting that these effects are mediated by changes in brain development. To our knowledge, no research has investigated whether parenting might buffer these negative effects.<h4>Objective</h4>To establish whether positive parenting behaviors moderate the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on brain development and adaptive functioning in adolescents.<h4>Design, se ...[more]

PMID: 28636697

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Project description:Neighborhood disadvantage and community violence are common in poor, urban communities and are risk factors for emotional dysfunction. Emotional processes are supported by neural circuitry that includes the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus. These brain regions are connected by white matter pathways that include the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, stria terminalis, and fornix. Emotional function varies with the microstructure of these white matter pathways. However, it is not clear whether the microstructure of these pathways varies with risk factors for emotional dysfunction (e.g., neighborhood disadvantage and violence exposure). Therefore, determining the relationships between neighborhood disadvantage, violence exposure, and white matter microstructure may offer insight into the neural mechanisms by which adverse life experiences alter developing neural systems. The current study investigated the association that exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and violence have with the quantitative anisotropy (QA), a measure of the amount of directional water diffusion, of the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, stria terminalis, and fornix. Neighborhood disadvantage (Mage = 11.20) and violence exposure (MW1age = 11.20; MW2age = 13.05; MW3age = 16.20; MW4age = 19.25) were assessed during adolescence and participants returned for magnetic resonance imaging as young adults (N = 303; Mage = 20.25, SD = 1.55), during which diffusion weighted brain images were collected. The QA of the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, and stria terminalis/fornix varied negatively with neighborhood disadvantage such that the QA of these white matter tracts decreased as neighborhood disadvantage increased. Violence exposure was not related to QA in any tract (i.e., cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, and stria terminalis/fornix) after correction for multiple comparisons. These results suggest that an adolescent's neighborhood may play an important role in the microstructure (i.e., QA) of white matter pathways that connect brain regions that support emotional function.

Project description:Low socioeconomic status (SES) and living in a disadvantaged neighborhood are associated with poor cardiovascular health. Multiple lines of evidence have linked DNA methylation to both cardiovascular risk factors and social disadvantage indicators. However, limited research has investigated the role of DNA methylation in mediating the associations of individual- and neighborhood-level disadvantage with multiple cardiovascular risk factors in large, multi-ethnic, population-based cohorts. We examined whether disadvantage at the individual level (childhood and adult SES) and neighborhood level (summary neighborhood SES as assessed by Census data and social environment as assessed by perceptions of aesthetic quality, safety, and social cohesion) were associated with 11 cardiovascular risk factors including measures of obesity, diabetes, lipids, and hypertension in 1,154 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). For significant associations, we conducted epigenome-wide mediation analysis to identify methylation sites mediating the relationship between individual/neighborhood disadvantage and cardiovascular risk factors using the JT-Comp method that assesses sparse mediation effects under a composite null hypothesis. In models adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking, medication use, and genetic principal components of ancestry, epigenetic mediation was detected for the associations of adult SES with body mass index (BMI), insulin, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), as well as for the association between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and HDL-C at FDR q < 0.05. The 410 CpG mediators identified for the SES-BMI association were enriched for CpGs associated with gene expression (expression quantitative trait methylation loci, or eQTMs), and corresponding genes were enriched in antigen processing and presentation pathways. For cardiovascular risk factors other than BMI, most of the epigenetic mediators lost significance after controlling for BMI. However, 43 methylation sites showed evidence of mediating the neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and HDL-C association after BMI adjustment. The identified mediators were enriched for eQTMs, and corresponding genes were enriched in inflammatory and apoptotic pathways. Our findings support the hypothesis that DNA methylation acts as a mediator between individual- and neighborhood-level disadvantage and cardiovascular risk factors, and shed light on the potential underlying epigenetic pathways. Future studies are needed to fully elucidate the biological mechanisms that link social disadvantage to poor cardiovascular health.

Dataset Information

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

Importance

Objective

Design, setting, and participants

Exposures

Main outcomes and measures

Results

Publications

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

Similar Datasets

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