A Population Neuroscience Approach to Examining the Effects of Poverty on Adolescent Brain Development

Twenty percent of U.S. children are growing up in poverty. Children from low-income families often experience greater chronic stress, which may allow poverty to become biologically embedded by altering key aspects of brain development. Despite the known deleterious effects of poverty on mental health, little is known about how poverty impacts biological mechanisms and how these processes contribute to the development of mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. To address this, we are examining adolescents from The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). The FFCWS is a population-based representative sample of predominantly low-income youth who have been followed since birth. In a day-long visit, we are acquiring the following data: fMRI (task-based with eye tracking and rest), diffusion tensor imaging, neuroendocrine, genetic, epigenetic, measures of the socio-emotional and economic environment as well as diagnostic and dimensional symptom measures to assess psychopathology of the teen and mom. To date, we have collected data from 182 families. I will present initial findings that focus on the demographic characteristics of this representative sample, rates of psychopathology in the adolescent and mother, and the relationship among poverty-related stress, brain function and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The long-term goal of this project is to link the wealth of longitudinal data from the FFCWS with our current multi-level measures to better understand how developmental timing and specific forms of poverty-related stress influence brain development and give rise to psychopathology.

Speaker: Christopher Monk, Univ. of Michigan