Society to cell: How child poverty gets “Under the Skin” to influence child development and lifelong health

Schmidt, Kristopher L.; Merrill, Sarah M.; Gill, Randip; Miller, Gregory E.; Gadermann, Anne M.; Kobor, Michael S.

doi:10.1016/j.dr.2021.100983

Cited by 25 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 233 publications

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“…Similar to the impact of ACEs, the pervasive effects of poverty, often associated with insufficient social-, material-, and health resources, on neural development present significant threats to developing children. It is estimated that one in three children grow up with some form of multidimensional poverty, with approximately 356 million children across the world exposed to severe poverty conditions (Schmidt et al, 2021). In order to learn more about the specific mechanisms related to the multidimensional aspects of early life stress (ELS), preclinical animal models have been used to examine the roles of neural, endocrine, and behavioral variables (Chen and Baram, 2016;Smith and Pollak, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupted development from head to tail: Pervasive effects of postnatal restricted resources on neurobiological, behavioral, and morphometric outcomes

Kent

Jacob

Bowen

et al. 2022

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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When a maternal rat nurtures her pups, she relies on adequate resources to provide optimal care for her offspring. Accordingly, limited environmental resources may result in atypical maternal care, disrupting various developmental outcomes. In the current study, maternal Long-Evans rats were randomly assigned to either a standard resource (SR) group, provided with four cups of bedding and two paper towels for nesting material or a limited resource (LR) group, provided with a quarter of the bedding and nesting material provided for the SR group. Offspring were monitored at various developmental phases throughout the study. After weaning, pups were housed in same-sex dyads in environments with SRs for continued observations. Subsequent behavioral tests revealed a sex × resource interaction in play behavior on PND 28; specifically, LR reduced play attacks in males while LR increased play attacks in females. A sex × resource interaction was also observed in anxiety-related responses in the open field task with an increase in thigmotaxis in LR females and, in the social interaction task, females exhibited more external rears oriented away from the social target. Focusing on morphological variables, tail length measurements of LR males and females were shorter on PND 9, 16, and 21; however, differences in tail length were no longer present at PND 35. Following the behavioral assessments, animals were perfused at 56 days of age and subsequent immunohistochemical assays indicated increased glucocorticoid receptors in the lateral habenula of LR offspring and higher c-Fos immunoreactivity in the basolateral amygdala of SR offspring. Further, when tail vertebrae and tail tendons were assessed via micro-CT and hydroxyproline assays, results indicated increased trabecular separation, decreased bone volume fraction, and decreased connectivity density in bones, along with reduced collagen concentration in tendons in the LR animals. In sum, although the restricted resources only persisted for a brief duration, the effects appear to be far-reaching and pervasive in this early life stress animal model.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupted development from head to tail: Pervasive effects of postnatal restricted resources on neurobiological, behavioral, and morphometric outcomes

Kent

Jacob

Bowen

et al. 2022

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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“…Overall, effect sizes were largest for perinatal family and parental resources and approaches including income, social support, quality of relationships, mental health, and parenting. This matters, because prior evidence suggests powerful impacts of these ecological factors on children's ongoing development 9,10 . Our observed effect sizes were similar to those reported in prior studies of associations between personality and within-generation outcomes, as well as next-generation parenting of older children 2,5,7,18 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This idea is consistent with prior evidence that people higher in agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability report increased relationship satisfaction and reduced interpersonal conflict 2 , 5 , while extraversion predicts size and quality of social supports, and many personality traits predict occupational and financial attainment 2 , 5 . Such social and material supports are particularly important in the transition to parenthood and children’s early development 9 , 10 . However, the role of parent personality in shaping this social context into which children are born including social support, intimate partner relationships, life stressors and finances, remains underexplored 11 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental personality and early life ecology: a prospective cohort study from preconception to postpartum

Spry

Olsson

Aarsman

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Personality reliably predicts life outcomes ranging from social and material resources to mental health and interpersonal capacities. However, little is known about the potential intergenerational impact of parent personality prior to offspring conception on family resources and child development across the first thousand days of life. We analysed data from the Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (665 parents, 1030 infants; est. 1992), a two-generation study with prospective assessment of preconception background factors in parental adolescence, preconception personality traits in young adulthood (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness), and multiple parental resources and infant characteristics in pregnancy and after the birth of their child. After adjusting for pre-exposure confounders, both maternal and paternal preconception personality traits were associated with numerous parental resources and attributes in pregnancy and postpartum, as well as with infant biobehavioural characteristics. Effect sizes ranged from small to moderate when considering parent personality traits as continuous exposures, and from small to large when considering personality traits as binary exposures. Young adult personality, well before offspring conception, is associated with the perinatal household social and financial context, parental mental health, parenting style and self-efficacy, and temperamental characteristics of offspring. These are pivotal aspects of early life development that ultimately predict a child’s long-term health and development.

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“…Also, children living in low-income families have been shown to have worse health outcomes on many health indicators, including obesity, mental health, asthma, and low birth weight [ 28 ]. Though there is low evidence on the mechanistic pathway between poverty and heart diseases in children, research has shown that poverty is associated with molecular alterations in multiple body physiology that might ultimately lead to cardiovascular diseases [ 29 ]. Additionally, socio-economic disadvantages disproportionately predispose children to infections or complications of infections that may result in acquired heart disease such as Kawasaki, rheumatic heart disease, and infective endocarditis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of Adverse Childhood Experiences with Heart Conditions in Children: Insight from the 2019–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health

Adebiyi

Pietri-Toro

Awujoola³

et al. 2023

Children

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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been associated with a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and premature mortality in adults. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the associations between ACEs and heart diseases among children in the United States. METHODS: Data on children ages 0 to 17 years reported by parents/guardians to have current heart conditions were analyzed. Using Stata version 17 software, descriptive statistics were generated for the demographic characteristics and the various health outcomes using the chi-square of independence. Multivariate logistic regression models were employed to determine the associations between ACEs and heart conditions, the severity of heart conditions, and overall health status. RESULTS: There were 826 children with current heart conditions from a total of 68,753 surveyed children. This corresponded to an estimated 780,000 (1.13%) children living with heart conditions in the U.S. On multivariate logistic models, several ACEs, including household economic hardship, parental/guardian’s alcohol/drug abuse, severe mental health illness of parents/guardians, racial/ethnic discrimination, exposure to neighborhood violence, and accumulation of two or more ACEs, were significantly associated with heart diseases among children. Though the accumulation of two or more ACEs did not have a significant association with the severity of heart condition, it was significantly associated with caregiver reports of undesirable overall health status. CONCLUSIONS: ACEs are significantly associated with heart conditions among children and contribute to unfavorable overall health status among children with heart conditions in the U.S. There is a need for policies and programs that will promptly identify ACEs and mitigate their negative impact on children.

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Society to cell: How child poverty gets “Under the Skin” to influence child development and lifelong health

Cited by 25 publications

References 233 publications

Disrupted development from head to tail: Pervasive effects of postnatal restricted resources on neurobiological, behavioral, and morphometric outcomes

Disrupted development from head to tail: Pervasive effects of postnatal restricted resources on neurobiological, behavioral, and morphometric outcomes

Parental personality and early life ecology: a prospective cohort study from preconception to postpartum

Association of Adverse Childhood Experiences with Heart Conditions in Children: Insight from the 2019–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health

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