Identifying the contributions of gestational and caregiving environments to socioeconomic disparities in child language and cognitive development.

项目概要/摘要 在美国，儿童的发展因其家庭的社会经济地位的不同而有明显的差异 （SES）。社会经济地位最显著和最重要的差异是在语言和认知方面。 发育，早在两岁时就很明显，到进入幼儿园时，预测结果令人沮丧 孩子们的长期学业轨迹的准确性。然而，虽然社会科学已经确定了各种结构， 环境和心理因素，有助于儿童发展的差异，我们有有限的 了解这些因素如何“进入皮肤下”，以影响生物过程， 参与大脑成熟并形成关键的发育结果。该提案综合了以下办法： 从生物学和心理学角度理解发展差异。理论家 生物科学已经提出，在怀孕期间，不利因素在生物学上根深蒂固，部分原因是 对应激的免疫反应导致“不良妊娠环境”（AGEs）。动物研究 证实了压力暴露会导致不良的妊娠环境和随后的 氧化性神经元损伤和发育受损，但人体研究尚未检查AGEs是否是 与语言和认知的社会经济差异有关。我们利用现有的NIH资助的研究 围产期结局的差异，其中SES和妊娠环境的深入评估是 在600名来自不同背景的孕妇身上进行。我们将跟随这些孩子 个人，收集婴儿-幼儿时期的认知和语言发展的措施，以及 5岁时的学前教育结果。目标1将确定是否由以下原因导致的不良妊娠环境 母亲的压力调节了儿童语言和认知发展的社会经济差异。目标2将 加深对不良妊娠环境的胎盘特征的理解， 语言和认知发展水平较低。目标3将审查反政府专家组的综合贡献， 出生后的环境预测语言和认知发展。为了实现这些目标，我们 利用来自社会，行为和生物科学的最先进的方法，并采取文化和 语言反应的方法来评估儿童的语言和认知发展。本研究将 回答有关语言和认知发展中SES差异的起源的关键问题， 对理论、政策和实践的重要影响。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT In the United States, children’s development differs markedly as a function of their family’s socioeconomic status (SES). Some of the most pronounced and consequential SES disparities are in language and cognitive development, which are evident as early as two years of age and, by kindergarten entry, predict with depressing accuracy children’s long-term academic trajectories. Yet while social science has identified a variety of structural, contextual, and psychological factors that contribute to disparities in child development, we have limited understanding of how these factors “get under the skin” to influence biological processes that are proximally involved in brain maturation and shape key developmental outcomes. This proposal integrates approaches to understanding developmental disparities from the biological and psychological sciences. Theorists in the biological sciences have proposed that disadvantage gets biologically embedded during gestation, in part via immune responses to stress that result in “adverse gestational environments” (AGEs). Animal studies have confirmed that stressful exposures can contribute to adverse gestational environments and to subsequent oxidative neuronal injury and impaired development, yet human studies have yet to examine whether AGEs are associated with socioeconomic disparities in language and cognition. We leverage an existing NIH-funded study of disparities in perinatal outcomes, where in-depth assessments of SES and the gestational environment are being performed in 600 pregnant individuals from diverse backgrounds. We will follow children born to these individuals, collecting measures of cognitive and language development during the infant-toddler period as well as preschool outcomes at age 5 years. Aim 1 will determine if adverse gestational environments resulting from maternal stress mediate socioeconomic disparities in child language and cognitive development. Aim 2 will deepen understanding into the placental characteristics of adverse gestational environments that are associated with lower language and cognitive development. Aim 3 will examine the combined contributions of AGEs and postnatal caregiving environments in predicting language and cognitive development. Across these aims, we utilize state-of-the-art methods from the social, behavioral, and biological sciences, and adopt a culturally and linguistically responsive approach to assessment of child language and cognitive development. This study will answer key questions about the origins of SES disparities in language and cognitive development that have important implications for theory, policy, and practice.