Independent and Interactive Connections Between Exposure to Pollution and the Development of Low-Income Boys'...

Pollution exposure is often present in high levels in disadvantaged neighborhoods and may independently confer risk for antisocial behavior (AB) and exacerbate relations between maternal depression and AB. The present study used multinomial logistic regression to test whether pollution exposure in early childhood (ages 0-2) and middle childhood (ages 5-12) was associated with trajectories of mother-reported AB (ages 5-11) in a sample of low-income boys (N = 218), controlling for established contextual risk factors. We also tested whether pollution moderated the association between maternal depression and AB. Pollution exposure was not directly associated with AB but did exacerbate the effects of maternal depression on AB. Results indicate pollution may impact behavioral outcomes for boys from low-income families in the context of maternal depression and suggest that more precise measures of pollution exposure are critical to use in future studies.