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Socioeconomic disparities in academic achievement: A multi-modal investigation of neural mechanisms in children and adolescents.

ABSTRACT: Growing evidence suggests that childhood socioeconomic status (SES) influences neural development, which may contribute to the well-documented SES-related disparities in academic achievement. However, the particular aspects of SES that impact neural structure and function are not well understood. Here, we investigate associations of childhood SES and a potential mechanism-degree of cognitive stimulation in the home environment-with cortical structure, white matter microstructure, and neural function during a working memory (WM) task across development. Analyses included 53 youths (age 6-19 years). Higher SES as reflected in the income-to-needs ratio was associated with higher parent-reported achievement, WM performance, and cognitive stimulation in the home environment. Although SES was not significantly associated with cortical thickness, children raised in more cognitively stimulating environments had thicker cortex in the frontoparietal network and cognitive stimulation mediated the assocation between SES and cortical thickness in the frontoparietal network. Higher family SES was associated with white matter microstructure and neural activation in the frontoparietal network during a WM task, including greater fractional anisotropy (FA) in the right and left superior longitudinal fasciculi (SLF), and greater BOLD activation in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex during WM encoding and maintenance. Greater FA and activation in these regions was associated higher parent-reported achievement. Together, cognitive stimulation, WM performance, FA in the SLF, and prefrontal activation during WM encoding and maintenance significantly mediated the association between SES and parent-reported achievement. These findings highlight potential neural, cognitive, and environmental mechanisms linking SES with academic achievement and suggest that enhancing cognitive stimulation in the home environment might be one effective strategy for reducing SES-related disparities in academic outcomes.

SUBMITTER: Rosen ML

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5944356 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Socioeconomic disparities in academic achievement: A multi-modal investigation of neural mechanisms in children and adolescents.

Rosen Maya L ML Sheridan Margaret A MA Sambrook Kelly A KA Meltzoff Andrew N AN McLaughlin Katie A KA

NeuroImage 20180225

Growing evidence suggests that childhood socioeconomic status (SES) influences neural development, which may contribute to the well-documented SES-related disparities in academic achievement. However, the particular aspects of SES that impact neural structure and function are not well understood. Here, we investigate associations of childhood SES and a potential mechanism-degree of cognitive stimulation in the home environment-with cortical structure, white matter microstructure, and neural func ...[more]

PMID: 29486324

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Project description:BackgroundOver a fifth of children and adolescents suffer with asthma or atopic disease. It is unclear whether asthma impacts academic performance in children and adolescents, and little is known about the association of eczema, food allergy or hayfever and academic performance.ObjectiveTo examine whether asthma, eczema, food allergy or hayfever impacts on adolescent academic performance and to assess the role of unmeasured confounding.MethodsThis study used the Childhood and Adolescent Twin Study of Sweden cohort born 1992-1998. At age 9-12 years, parents reported on their child's ever or current asthma, eczema, food allergy and hayfever status (n = 10 963). At age 15, linked national patient and medication register information was used to create current and ever asthma definitions including severe and uncontrolled asthma for the same children. Academic outcomes in Grade 9 (age 15-16 years) included: eligibility for high school (Grades 10-12), and total mark of the best 16 subject units, retrieved from the Grade 9 academic register. Whole cohort analyses adjusted for known covariates were performed, and co-twin control analyses to assess unmeasured confounders.ResultsThere were no associations found for asthma or food allergy at 9-12 years and academic outcomes in adolescence. In addition, at age 15, there were no statistically significant associations with current, ever, severe or uncontrolled asthma and academic outcomes. Eczema and hayfever at age 9-12 years were found to be positively associated with academic outcomes; however, co-twin control analyses did not support these findings, suggesting the main analyses may be subject to unmeasured confounding.Conclusion and clinical relevanceHaving asthma or an atopic disease during childhood or adolescence does not negatively impact on academic performance. This information can be used by clinicians when talking with children and parents about the implications of living with asthma or atopic disease.

Dataset Information

Socioeconomic disparities in academic achievement: A multi-modal investigation of neural mechanisms in children and adolescents.

Publications

Socioeconomic disparities in academic achievement: A multi-modal investigation of neural mechanisms in children and adolescents.

Similar Datasets

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