Brain And Cognitive Development In Contexts Of Adversity And Inequality

Week 5:

Topics: Brain and Cognitive development; poverty, ACEs, stress, toxicants, nutrition

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Developmental potential: Grantham-McGregor et al. (2007) and the 2020 update: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank Group (2021)

Supplemental readings:

-Social determinants of mental health: Shim & Compton (2020)

-Poor individual classification from ACE screening: Meehan et al. (2022)

Child maltreatment: Cicchetti & Banny (2014) from the Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology *Emily is Expert for the Day!

Supplemental readings:

–Prevention of child maltreatment through the Nurse Family Partnership program: Eckenrode al. (2017)

-18-year outcome follow-up, randomized trial of NFP: Kitzman et al. (2019)

Supplemental reading:

-Developmental cascade from prenatal stress: Hentges et al. (2019)

-Disparities in prenatal health (Green, 2018), pregnancy-related deaths (CDCa, 2022), and infant mortality (CDCb, 2022), also see Artiga et al., (2020)

-Perinatal depression prevalence in low- and middle-income countries: Mitchell et al. (2023)

State-level macro-economic factors moderate the association of low income with brain structure and mental health in US children: Weissman et al. (2023)

Supplemental readings:

-Family income and brain structure in children and adolescents: Noble et al. (2015)

-SES, BMI, and brain development in children: Dennis et al. (2022)

-The impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain development: Troller-Renfree et al. (2022)

-Paid maternal leave is associated with infant brain function at 3 months: Brito et al. (2022)

Continue to think about and refine research question for the literature review project

Essay Questions

According to Grantham-McGregor et al. (2007), over 200 million children under the age of five are not fulling their “developmental potential?” What do they mean by developmental potential? Provide at least one example of how data supports their assertion (hint: see the many tables and figures). How does this compare to the 2020 update? What is your overall impression of these findings?

Felitti et al. (1998) is the landmark study that first defined ACEs. Briefly define how they defined and measured ACEs. What are the key findings they report? i.e., how common were ACEs to experience? What were some of the outcomes are they linked with? What are the recommendations the authors provide to prevent ACEs? Any final thoughts on this article?
1. If you are really interested in the topic of ACES, consider reviewing Meehan et

al. (2022) which reanalyzed the original data and came to some very different conclusions (not required).

Cicchetti & Banny (2014) extend Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model in their discussion of the “ecological-transactional model” on p. 725. What does this model refer to? How is it similar or different than Bronfenbrenner’s approach? What mechanisms are proposed to explain how the experience of child maltreatment is linked to later mental health outcomes? What practical implications (regarding prevention and intervention) are proposed? Final thoughts on the article?
Regarding Nesti et al. (2018), what were the key findings? What cascading effects could we predict if we treated maternal depression and stress? That is, how might that impact child development? How does this relate to Bowlby’s ideas on policy implications that we discussed regarding attachment? Can we help children by helping their mothers? How so?
What were the key findings presented by Weissman et al. (2023)? Mechanisms proposed that may explain this association? And the implications? HINT: Always look for the big take-aways in the abstract, review the results presented (it’s okay if some are hard to follow at this point!), and read the discussion carefully for a repeat of the big take-aways as well as limitations, implications, and next steps.

Discussion questions: