Showing papers by "Jeanne Brooks-Gunn published in 2021"

Beyond Family-Level Adversities: Exploring the Developmental Timing of Neighborhood Disadvantage Effects on the Brain.

Abstract: A growing literature suggests that adversity is associated with later altered brain function, particularly within the corticolimbic system that supports emotion processing and salience detection (e.g., amygdala, prefrontal cortex [PFC]). Although neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage has been shown to predict maladaptive behavioral outcomes, particularly for boys, most of the research linking adversity to corticolimbic function has focused on family-level adversities. Moreover, although animal models and studies of normative brain development suggest that there may be sensitive periods during which adversity exerts stronger effects on corticolimbic development, little prospective evidence exists in humans. Using two low-income samples of boys (n = 167; n = 77), Census-derived neighborhood disadvantage during early childhood, but not adolescence, was uniquely associated with greater amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to ambiguous neutral faces in adolescence and young adulthood. These associations remained after accounting for several family-level adversities (e.g., low family income, harsh parenting), highlighting the independent and developmentally specific neural effects of the neighborhood context. Furthermore, in both samples, indicators measuring income and poverty status of neighbors were predictive of amygdala function, suggesting that neighborhood economic resources may be critical to brain development.

Government Assistance Protects Low‐Income Families from Eviction

Abstract: A lack of affordable housing is a pressing issue for many low-income American families and can lead to eviction from their homes Housing assistance programs to address this problem include public housing and other assistance, including vouchers, through which a government agency offsets the cost of private market housing This paper assesses whether the receipt of either category of assistance reduces the probability that a family will be evicted from their home in the subsequent six years Because no randomized trial has assessed these effects, we use observational data and formalize the conditions under which a causal interpretation is warranted Families living in public housing experience less eviction conditional on pre-treatment variables We argue that this evidence points toward a causal conclusion that assistance, particularly public housing, protects families from eviction

Adolescent Exposure To Deadly Gun Violence Within 500 Meters Of Home Or School: Ethnoracial And Income Disparities

Abstract: To identify the prevalence of and disparities in past-year exposure to deadly gun violence near adolescents’ homes and schools, we linked national data on deadly gun violence incidents from the Gun...

Intergenerational Economic Mobility for Low-Income Parents and Their Children: A Dual Developmental Science Framework.

Abstract: In this review we bring a psychological perspective to the issue of intergenerational economic mobility. More specifically, we present a new dual developmental science framework to consider the edu...

Prospective longitudinal associations between harsh parenting and corticolimbic function during adolescence.

Abstract: Childhood adversity is thought to undermine youth socioemotional development via altered neural function within regions that support emotion processing. These effects are hypothesized to be developmentally specific, with adversity in early childhood sculpting subcortical structures (e.g., amygdala) and adversity during adolescence impacting later-developing structures (e.g., prefrontal cortex; PFC). However, little work has tested these theories directly in humans. Using prospectively collected longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) (N = 4,144) and neuroimaging data from a subsample of families recruited in adolescence (N = 162), the current study investigated the trajectory of harsh parenting across childhood (i.e., ages 3 to 9) and how initial levels versus changes in harsh parenting across childhood were associated with corticolimbic activation and connectivity during socioemotional processing. Harsh parenting in early childhood (indexed by the intercept term from a linear growth curve model) was associated with less amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to angry facial expressions. In contrast, change in harsh parenting across childhood (indexed by the slope term) was associated with less PFC, but not amygdala, activation to angry faces. Increases in, but not initial levels of, harsh parenting were also associated with stronger positive amygdala-PFC connectivity during angry face processing.

Demographic and developmental patterns in telomere length across adolescence

Abstract: Telomere length is often used in studies of adults as a biomarker of cellular aging and an indicator of stress exposure. However, we know little about how telomeres change over time, particularly over the course of the important developmental period of adolescence. We use data on telomere length collected at two points in time spanning adolescence (Years 9 and 15) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine longitudinal patterns (n = 1,654) in telomere length. We find a quantitatively small but significant average lengthening in telomere length across adolescence and little evidence of associations between telomere length and pubertal development.