The effect of unconditional cash transfers on maternal assessments of children's early language and socioemotional development: Experimental evidence from U.S. families residing in poverty.

Economic disadvantage has often been associated with poorer performance on measures of early childhood development. However, the causal impacts of income on child development remain unclear. The present study uses data from the Baby's First Years randomized control trial to identify the causal impact of unconditional cash transfers on maternal reports of early childhood development.

Delay of gratification and adult outcomes: The Marshmallow Test does not reliably predict adult functioning.

This study extends the analytic approach conducted by Watts et al. (2018) to examine the long-term predictive validity of delay of gratification. Participants (n = 702; 83% White, 46% male) completed the Marshmallow Test at 54 months (1995-1996) and survey measures at age 26 (2017-2018).

Child-directed speech in a large sample of U.S. mothers with low income.

Research on early language input and socioeconomic status typically relies on correlations in small convenience samples. Using data from Baby's First Years, this paper assesses the causal impact of monthly, unconditional cash transfers on child-directed speech and child vocalizations among a large, racially diverse sample of low-income U.S.

Effects of a monthly unconditional cash transfer starting at birth on family investments among US families with low income.

How does unconditional income for families in poverty affect parental investments for their young children? Mothers in four US metropolitan areas were randomized to receive a monthly unconditional cash transfer of either $333 per month (high) or $20 per month (low) for the first several years after childbirth. During the first 3 years, high-cash gift households spent more money on child-specific goods and more time on child-specific early learning activities than the low-cash gift group. Few changes were evident in other core household expenditures.

Synaptic injury in the inner plexiform layer of the retina is associated with progression in multiple sclerosis.

While neurodegeneration underlies the pathological basis for permanent disability in multiple sclerosis (MS), predictive biomarkers for progression are lacking. Using an animal model of chronic MS, we find that synaptic injury precedes neuronal loss and identify thinning of the inner plexiform layer (IPL) as an early feature of inflammatory demyelination-prior to symptom onset. As neuronal domains are anatomically segregated in the retina and can be monitored longitudinally, we hypothesize that thinning of the IPL could represent a biomarker for progression in MS.

Effects of homicide timing on test scores: Quasi-experimental evidence from two cities in Colombia.

This study examines the effect of homicides around schools on the standardized test scores of fifth and ninth graders (N = 4729; M = 12.71 years, SD = 2.13) using a quasi-experimental design in two Colombian cities.

Remyelination protects neurons from DLK-mediated neurodegeneration.

Chronic demyelination and oligodendrocyte loss deprive neurons of crucial support. It is the degeneration of neurons and their connections that drives progressive disability in demyelinating disease. However, whether chronic demyelination triggers neurodegeneration and how it may do so remain unclear.

Unconditional Cash Transfers and Maternal Assessments of Children's Health, Nutrition, and Sleep: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Children experiencing poverty are more likely to experience worse health outcomes, including injury, chronic illness, worse nutrition, and poorer sleep. The extent to which poverty reduction improves these outcomes is unknown.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a 3-year, monthly unconditional cash transfer on health, nutrition, sleep, and health care utilization among children experiencing poverty who were healthy at birth.

Predicting adolescent and young adult outcomes from emotional support and cognitive stimulation offered by preschool-age home and early care and education settings.

Children's early environmental experiences are often considered highly influential for later life development. Yet, environmental contexts, such as the home and early care and education (ECE) setting, and multiple aspects of each setting, are not typically examined concurrently. In this study, we examined associations between cognitive stimulation and emotional support in the home and ECE setting during the preschool years (36-54 months) with adolescent (age 15; = 708; 52% female) and adult (age 26; = 584; 54% female) outcomes using data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a study conducted at 10 sites across the United States.

EVALUATING CONTRADICTORY EXPERIMENTAL AND NON-EXPERIMENTAL ESTIMATES OF NEIGHBORHOOD EFFECTS ON ECONOMIC OUTCOMES FOR ADULTS.

Although non-experimental studies find robust neighborhood effects on adults, such findings have been challenged by results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) residential mobility experiment. Using a within-study comparison design, this paper compares experimental and non-experimental estimates from MTO and a parallel analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Striking similarities were found between non-experimental estimates based on MTO and PSID.

The Effect of a U.S. Poverty Reduction Intervention on Maternal Assessments of Young Children's Health, Nutrition, and Sleep: A Randomized Control Trial.

Importance: Children experiencing poverty are more likely to experience worse health outcomes during the first few years of life, including injury, chronic illness, worse nutrition, and poorer sleep. The extent to which a poverty reduction intervention improves children's health, nutrition, sleep, and healthcare utilization is unknown.

Objective: To determine the effect of a 3-year, monthly unconditional cash transfer on health, nutrition, sleep, and healthcare utilization of children experiencing poverty who are healthy at birth.

Attention and behavior problems in childhood predict adult financial status, health, and criminal activity: A conceptual replication and extension of Moffitt et al. (2011) using cohorts from the United States and the United Kingdom.

This study is a conceptual replication of a widely cited study by Moffitt et al. (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled "self-control") predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data from longitudinal cohort studies in the United States (n = 1,168) and the United Kingdom ( = 16,506), we largely reproduced their pattern of findings that attention and behavior problems measured across the course of childhood predicted a range of adult outcomes including educational attainment (β = -0.

End of the road: Astrocyte endfeet regulate OPC migration and myelination.

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) use the vasculature as a scaffold for their migration. In this issue of Neuron, Su et al. determine that astrocytic ensheathment of the vasculature mediates OPC detachment from blood vessels via the secretion of semaphorins, regulating the timing of oligodendrocyte differentiation.

Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings before the 2020-21 winter surge of COVID-19 in the United States.

Objective: COVID-19 in the US disproportionately affected, and continues to affect, racial/ethnic minorities. Although risky social gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2020 contributed substantially to the "winter surge" in cases and deaths, no research examines potential racial/ethnic differences in behaviors related to holiday gatherings.

Design: We used the Understanding America Survey (UAS) - Coronavirus Tracking, a nationally representative study of US adults, to examine associations between race/ethnicity and risky holiday gathering behavior (i.

Unconditional cash transfers and maternal substance use: findings from a randomized control trial of low-income mothers with infants in the U.S.

Background: Policy debates over anti-poverty programs are often marked by pernicious stereotypes suggesting that direct cash transfers to people residing in poverty encourage health-risking behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and other substance use. Causal evidence on this issue is limited in the U.S.

The impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain activity.

Early childhood poverty is a risk factor for lower school achievement, reduced earnings, and poorer health, and has been associated with differences in brain structure and function. Whether poverty causes differences in neurodevelopment, or is merely associated with factors that cause such differences, remains unclear. Here, we report estimates of the causal impact of a poverty reduction intervention on brain activity in the first year of life.

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty.

Can the United States dramatically reduce the number of its children living in poverty? This article summarizes key conclusions of the report issued by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years. These conclusions focus on the causal evidence linking poverty reduction and child well-being as well as a host of policy and program ideas directed toward poverty reduction. The Committee found that packages of work-oriented and income support program are able to simultaneously reduce child poverty and increase the number of adult workers in low-income families.

Baby's First Years: Design of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Poverty Reduction in the United States.

Childhood economic disadvantage is associated with lower cognitive and social-emotional skills, reduced educational attainment, and lower earnings in adulthood. Despite these robust correlations, it is unclear whether family income is the cause of differences observed between children growing up in poverty and their more fortunate peers or whether these differences are merely due to the many other aspects of family life that co-occur with poverty. Baby's First Years is the first randomized controlled trial in the United States designed to identify the causal impact of poverty reduction on children's early development.

Chronic Demyelination and Axonal Degeneration in Multiple Sclerosis: Pathogenesis and Therapeutic Implications.

Purpose Of Review: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Inflammatory attacks in MS lead to both demyelination and axonal damage. However, due to incomplete remyelination most MS lesions remain chronically demyelinated.

Neuron-Oligodendrocyte Interactions in the Structure and Integrity of Axons.

The myelination of axons by oligodendrocytes is a highly complex cell-to-cell interaction. Oligodendrocytes and axons have a reciprocal signaling relationship in which oligodendrocytes receive cues from axons that direct their myelination, and oligodendrocytes subsequently shape axonal structure and conduction. Oligodendrocytes are necessary for the maturation of excitatory domains on the axon including nodes of Ranvier, help buffer potassium, and support neuronal energy metabolism.

Persistence and Fade-Out of Educational-Intervention Effects: Mechanisms and Potential Solutions.

Some environmental influences, including intentional interventions, have shown persistent effects on psychological characteristics and other socially important outcomes years and even decades later. At the same time, it is common to find that the effects of life events or interventions diminish and even disappear completely, a phenomenon known as . We review the evidence for persistence and fadeout, drawing primarily on evidence from educational interventions.

The Kindergarten Early Development Instrument Predicts Third Grade Academic Proficiency.

School readiness skills predict later educational achievement, health, and social-emotional outcomes. Measures of school readiness can provide valuable information to assess both the impact of strategies and policies that prepare children for school as well as informing strategies for improving children's educational trajectories across their school years. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a measure of school readiness skills based on teacher-reported observational recall.