Association of Neighborhood Opportunity with Infant Brain Activity and Cognitive Development.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with lower neurocognitive scores and differences in brain structure among school-age children. Associations between positive neighborhood characteristics, infant brain activity, and cognitive development are underexplored. We examined direct and indirect associations between neighborhood opportunity, brain activity, and cognitive development. METHODS: This longitudinal cohort study included infants from 2 primary care clinics in Boston and Los Angeles. Using a sample of 65 infants, we estimated path models to examine associations between neighborhood opportunity (measured by the Child Opportunity Index), infant electroencephalography (EEG) at 6 months, and infant cognitive development (measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning) at 12 months. A mediation model tested whether EEG power explained associations between neighborhood opportunity and infant cognition. RESULTS: Neighborhood opportunity positively predicted infant absolute EEG power across multiple frequency bands: low ( b = 0.12, 95% CI 0.01-0.24, p = 0.04, = 0.21); high ( b = 0.11, 95% CI 0.01-0.21, p = 0.03, = 0.23); ( b = 0.10, 95% CI 0.00-0.19, p = 0.04, = 0.20); and ( b = 0.12, 95% CI 0.02-0.22, p = 0.02, = 0.24). The results remained statistically significant after applying a Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate of 0.10 to adjust for multiple comparisons. No significant associations emerged between neighborhood opportunity, relative EEG power, and infant cognition. Mediation was not significant. CONCLUSION: Neighborhood opportunity is positively associated with some forms of infant brain activity, suggesting that positive neighborhood characteristics may play a salient role in early development.

Maternal Stress and Early Neurodevelopment: Exploring the Protective Role of Maternal Growth Mindset.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test associations between maternal stress, maternal mindset, and infant neurodevelopment at 12 months of age. Specifically, we sought to examine the extent to which maternal growth mindsets may serve to attenuate the negative associations between maternal stress and infants' neurodevelopment. METHODS: The current exploratory study leverages data from a longitudinal cohort study following mother-infant dyads. Maternal-perceived stress, maternal mindset, and infant electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were collected when infants were 12 months of age. The final analytic sample included 33 dyads. RESULTS: Results revealed no statistically significant main effects of maternal stress or maternal mindset for any of the infant EEG frequency band outcomes. After including interactions between maternal stress and mindset, statistically significant positive interactions were detected for all EEG frequency bands. Simple slope tests revealed significant negative associations between maternal stress and each of the 6 EEG frequency bands for mothers with more fixed-oriented mindsets. Associations between maternal stress and infant EEG outcomes for mothers with more growth-oriented mindsets did not differ from 0. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that infants raised by mothers with growth mindsets may be protected against the neurodevelopmental consequences of higher maternal stress.

Beyond Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status: Exploring the Role of Neighborhood Resources for Preschool Classroom Quality and Early Childhood Development.

The neighborhood literature consistently documents associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and child development. Yet, this approach may miss important heterogeneity in neighborhood resources (e.g., libraries, doctors' offices) that have important implications for children. Moreover, the mechanisms that explain the relation between neighborhood characteristics and child outcomes are poorly understood. Using a sample of 955 children situated in preschool neighborhoods across nine United States cities, the present study aimed to (1) describe the relation between neighborhood SES and resources among our sample neighborhoods and (2) explore whether neighborhood SES and resources may be (a) independently and (b) jointly associated with young children's gains in language/literacy and executive function skills via differences in preschool classroom process quality. Our results suggested that neighborhoods were heterogeneous in both SES and resources, thereby indicating a diverse range of resource availability among lower SES neighborhoods. Moreover, we found that both neighborhood SES and resources were individually associated with benefits to children's development through levels of classroom process quality and that these associations were magnified in communities that were particularly high in both SES and resources. These findings point to potential policy levers at both neighborhood and classroom levels to support children's development.

Children's exposure to spatial language promotes their spatial thinking.

Does spatial language contribute to the growth of preschool children's spatial skills? Four-year-old children (N = 50) were randomly assigned to a play-only (n = 24) or a spatial-language and play condition (n = 26). Their mental rotation and spatial vocabulary were assessed at baseline and several days after 5 play sessions. Children in the spatial-language condition scored higher at posttest on a mental rotation task than those in the play-only condition. The amount and diversity of experimenter spatial language during the play sessions accounted for a significant amount of the variance on children's posttest mental rotation. Significant gains in mental rotation were replicated in a second study (N = 34) with a broader range of play activities and with children enrolled in Head Start. These results show that the facilitative effects of spatial language on spatial cognition are not restricted to the context in which the spatial language is provided. In particular, 4-year-old children's experience with spatial language during play can transfer to promote their mental rotation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).