Introduction to the special issue: Environmental contaminants and child and adolescent development

Abstract

Introduction to the special issue: Environmental contaminants and child and adolescent developmentEnvironmental contaminants are well-established predictors of negative outcomes during childhood and adolescence. For example, exposures to lead and other heavy metals are linked to behavior problems and poorer cognitive performance (e.g., Axelrad et al., 2007;Needleman et al., 1979). There are multiple channels of exposures to heavy metals and other contaminants, including air, soil, water and food consumption, and exposures through each of these channels contribute to negative developmental outcomes (e.g.

Editorial – « Directions 2022 »

“…Echoing one of our recent special issue on the impact of environmental contaminants on child and adolescent development (Trentacosta & Austin, 2022), Jiang and Li (2022) present a large study based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) outlining the association between environmental exposure to perchlorate, nitrate, and thiocyanate with overweight/obesity and central obesity among children and adolescents in the US. Similarly, based upon the differential susceptibility theory, Iimura and colleagues (2022) examined whether the relationship between pubertal maturation and depressive symptoms can be moderated by individual differences in environmental sensitivity, in a longitudinal study of Japanese adolescents.…”