Childhood Material Hardship Linked to Adolescent Neurocognition: A Computational Modeling Approach.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Childhood material hardship is linked to cognitive and mental health issues.
• Previous research is limited by cross-sectional data and conventional cognitive measures.
• Computational models offer a more precise way to assess cognitive processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the longitudinal association between childhood material hardship and adolescent cognitive drift rate.
• To examine the link between drift rate and attention difficulties in adolescents.
• To utilize a computational model to understand cognitive impacts of early adversity.

Main Methods:

• Used data from 187 adolescents in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
• Applied a computational model to assess drift rate, reflecting evidence accumulation efficiency.
• Employed growth curve modeling to analyze the impact of initial hardship exposure.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with greater childhood material hardship showed a lower drift rate, indicating less efficient processing.
• Initial exposure to material hardship, not cumulative changes, was associated with adolescent drift rate.
• Lower drift rate was linked to concurrent attentional problems, mediating the effect of hardship on attention.

Conclusions:

• Childhood material hardship can impair cognitive processes underlying goal-directed behavior in adolescence.
• Computational methods, like the diffusion-decision model, reveal specific cognitive impacts of adversity.
• Findings underscore the importance of addressing early life adversity for cognitive development and attention.