Though youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods experience greater risk for poor behavioral and mental health outcomes, many go on to show resilience in the face of adversity. A few recent studies have identified neural markers of resilience in cognitive and affective brain networks, yet the broader network organization supporting resilience in youth remains unknown, particularly in relation to neighborhood disadvantage. Moreover, most studies have defined resilience as the absence of psychopathology, which does not consider growing evidence that resilience also includes positive outcomes across multiple domains (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMother-child closeness, a mutually trusting and affectionate bond, is an important factor in shaping positive youth development. However, little is known about the neural pathways through which mother-child closeness is related to brain organization. Utilizing a longitudinal sample primarily from low-income families (N = 181; 76% African American youth and 54% female), this study investigated the associations between mother-child closeness at ages 9 and 15 years and structural connectivity organization (network integration, robustness, and segregation) at age 15 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Parenting is associated with brain development and long-term health outcomes, although whether these associations depend on the developmental timing of exposure remains understudied. Identifying these sensitive periods can inform when and how parenting is associated with neurodevelopment and risk for mental illness.
Objective: To characterize how harsh and warm parenting during early, middle, and late childhood are associated with brain architecture during adolescence and, in turn, psychiatric symptoms in early adulthood during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Family poverty has been associated with altered brain structure, function, and connectivity in youth. However, few studies have examined how disadvantage within the broader neighborhood may influence functional brain network organization. The present study leveraged a longitudinal community sample of 538 twins living in low-income neighborhoods to evaluate the prospective association between exposure to neighborhood poverty during childhood (6-10 y) with functional network architecture during adolescence (8-19 y).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnstable and unpredictable environments are linked to risk for psychopathology, but the underlying neural mechanisms that explain how instability relate to subsequent mental health concerns remain unclear. In particular, few studies have focused on the association between instability and white matter structures despite white matter playing a crucial role for neural development. In a longitudinal sample recruited from a population-based study (N = 237), household instability (residential moves, changes in household composition, caregiver transitions in the first 5 years) was examined in association with adolescent structural network organization (network integration, segregation, and robustness of white matter connectomes; M = 15.
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