ERIC Number: EJ1407943
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: EISSN-1939-0599
Relative Brain Age Is Associated with Socioeconomic Status and Anxiety/Depression Problems in Youth
Jacob W. Cohen; Bruce Ramphal; Mariah DeSerisy; Yihong Zhao; David Pagliaccio; Stan Colcombe; Michael P. Milham; Amy E. Margolis
Developmental Psychology, v60 n1 p199-209 2024
Brain age, a measure of biological aging in the brain, has been linked to psychiatric illness, principally in adult populations. Components of socioeconomic status (SES) associate with differences in brain structure and psychiatric risk across the lifespan. This study aimed to investigate the influence of SES on brain aging in childhood and adolescence, a period of rapid neurodevelopment and peak onset for many psychiatric disorders. We reanalyzed data from the Healthy Brain Network to examine the influence of SES components (occupational prestige, public assistance enrollment, parent education, and household income-to-needs ratio [INR]) on relative brain age (RBA). Analyses included 470 youth (5-17 years; 61.3% men), self-identifying as White (55%), African American (15%), Hispanic (9%), or multiracial (17.2%). Household income was 3.95 ± 2.33 (mean ± SD) times the federal poverty threshold. RBA quantified differences between chronological age and brain age using covariation patterns of morphological features and total volumes. We also examined associations between RBA and psychiatric symptoms (Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL]). Models covaried for sex, scan location, and parent psychiatric diagnoses. In a linear regression, lower RBA is associated with lower parent occupational prestige (p = 0.01), lower public assistance enrollment (p = 0.03), and more parent psychiatric diagnoses (p = 0.01), but not parent education or INR. Lower parent occupational prestige (p = 0.02) and lower RBA (p = 0.04) are associated with higher CBCL anxious/depressed scores. Our findings underscore the importance of including SES components in developmental brain research. Delayed brain aging may represent a potential biological pathway from SES to psychiatric risk.
Descriptors: Brain, Age, Socioeconomic Status, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Depression (Psychology), Mental Disorders, Youth, Psychopathology, Family Income, Poverty, Age Differences, Check Lists, Child Behavior, Symptoms (Individual Disorders)
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (DHHS), Office of the Director; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (DHHS/NIH); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York (New York)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Child Behavior Checklist
Grant or Contract Numbers: K23ES02623905S1; R01ES032296; P20HD109965