Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Cognitive Aging: An Intersectional Life Course Perspective

Greater childhood socioeconomic status (cSES) is associated with better later life cognition. Largely absent from this literature is how structural racism potentially influences this relationship. Guided by intersectional life course theory, we examined if the influence of cSES and region of schooling on later life cognitive outcomes differs among non-Hispanic White (NHW) and Black older adults. We used data from the 2010-2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study for participants ages 65 and older in 2010. Using growth mixture modeling, we estimated the associations between race, cSES (parental education, social, and financial capital), and region of schooling at age 10 (southern versus not) on cognitive performance. Consistent with prior research, there was a main effect of race on cognitive performance levels (but not with decline over time), with lower scores among older Black adults, on average. Among NHWs, higher cSES was protective for later life cognition, especially for NHW participants from the South. Although Black older adults who attended school outside of the South had higher levels of cognitive performance than their counterparts who attended school at age 10 in the South, Black older adults who attended school outside of the South--regardless of cSES--still had lower average scores on cognition at baseline than the most disadvantaged NHW participants. This paper implicates the effects of structural racism on cognitive performance among older Black adults, indicating the need for heightened attention to structural racism within interventions for optimizing brain health and promoting equitable cognitive aging across the life course.

The Effect of Childhood Emotional Adversity and Later Life Friend Solidarity on Cognition

Early life experiences can influence later life outcomes such as physical, mental, and cognitive health. Previous research investigated the effect of childhood socioeconomic status in relation to mid-to-later life cognition (Liu & Lachman, 2019); however, the effects of childhood emotional adversity on cognition have not been examined. Controlling for age, education, sex, and race, the current study investigated the influence of childhood emotional adversity and later life friend solidarity on change in later life episodic memory, executive functioning, and subjective memory (i.e., perceived memory compared to others same age). Utilizing the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) database, we studied 2,752 participants (50-75 years, M=60.09, SD=6.97, 53% female, 84% White) with completed measures on MIDUS 1 retrospective childhood adversity, MIDUS 2 friend solidarity, and MIDUS 2/3 cognition. Multilevel modeling (Mplus) was used. Higher friend solidarity was associated with higher executive functioning (b=0.122, p<.01) and higher subjective memory (b=0.267, p<.001), suggesting the positive impact of supportive friendships. Higher childhood emotional adversity was associated with lower perceived subjective memory (b=-0.037, p<.05). There was no significant friend solidarity by emotional adversity interaction. Together, these findings suggest that later life friend solidarity may be important for objective and subjective cognition; whereas, childhood emotional adversity may play a role in subjective cognition. Given the associations in prior research between lower perceptions of memory and lower mental well-being and quality of daily life, experiencing childhood emotional adversity may increase risk of lower perceptions of well-being, including cognitive functioning.

Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Depressive Symptoms of Young Adults: Mediating Role of Childhood Trauma

Background: Studies have shown that low childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with a high prevalence of depressive symptoms. Childhood trauma, as a potential consequence of low SES, may play an important part, but the mediation effect of childhood trauma remains to be elucidated.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,807 university students. The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Economic Status—Youth Version, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and Beck Depression Inventory were used to measure childhood SES, childhood trauma, and current depressive symptoms, respectively. A structural equation model (SEM) was employed to demonstrate the mediating role of childhood trauma on the association between childhood SES and depressive symptoms.Results: The SEM demonstrated that childhood SES had significant indirect effects upon depressive symptoms via childhood trauma. Childhood trauma accounted for 89.3% of the total effect, indicating a profound mediation effect.Conclusions: The effect of childhood SES on the depressive symptoms of young adults was mediated by childhood trauma, which emphasizes the importance of early prevention and intervention of child neglect/abuse.

Further tests of the scarcity and luxury hypotheses in dispositional greed: Evidence from two large-scale Dutch and American samples

A recent, large-scale study among Chinese adolescents found that childhood socioeconomic status (CSES) was positively related to dispositional greed (i.e., the “luxury hypothesis”), instead of negatively related (i.e., the “scarcity hypothesis”; Liu et al., 2019c). This relationship was found for only-children, not for children with siblings. The generalizability of these findings may be limited, due to China’s one-child policy and socioeconomic policies which may have led to fewer differences in wealth. We replicated this research in two other cultural contexts that represent markedly different socioeconomic policies in order to test its generalizability: the Netherlands (Study 1, N = 2367, 51.3% female, Mage = 54.06, SD = 17.90), and the USA (Study 2, N = 999, 50.1% female, Mage = 33.44, SD = 12.28). Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to test the association between CSES and greed. We mostly replicated the findings by Liu et al. (2019c): CSES was positively related to greed in both studies (“luxury hypothesis”) and there was a moderating effect of siblings in Study 1, but not in Study 2. Implications for theories on greed as well as future research on the association between CSES and greed are discussed.

Accounting for the SES-Math Achievement Gap at School Entry: Unique Mediation Paths via Executive Functioning and Behavioral Self-Regulation

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly predictive of math achievement in early childhood and beyond. In this study, we aimed to further our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the SES-achievement gap by examining whether two aspects of self-regulation—executive functions (EF) and behavioral self-regulation (BSR)—mediate between SES and math achievement. Using data from a longitudinal study in Singapore (n = 1,257, 49% males), we examined the predictive link from SES to math achievement at entry to formal education (age 7), and the role of EF (child-assessed) and BSR (child-assessed and teacher-rated) as mediators of the SES-math achievement relationship. After accounting for children’s non-verbal reasoning and prior math achievement, EF and BSR (both child-assessed) emerged as significant partial mediators between SES and math. A key contribution of our study is in demonstrating that both components of self-regulation play a small role in explaining SES disparities in math achievement. Our findings further suggest that a balanced focus on enhancing EF and BSR skills of children from low-SES families may help to attenuate the SES-math achievement gap. More generally, our research contributes new insights to the ongoing debate about the theoretical distinctions between EF and BSR.

Pathways from early life SES to dementia risk in old age: The role of personality

Objective This study investigates the association between childhood socioeconomic status (cSES) and risk of cognitive impairment in older adulthood, and whether Five Factor Model personality traits mediated this association. Methods A sample of 9,995 participants (mean age = 67.01 years) from the Health and Retirement Study were followed every two years from 2006 to 2018. cSES was tested as a predictor of risk of dementia and risk of cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND). Personality was tested as a mediator of these associations. Models were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, race, education, and baseline year. Results Although effect sizes were modest, results indicated that lower cSES was associated with higher risk of dementia (HR=0.88, [0.775, 0.985]). Higher cSES was also associated with higher Conscientiousness and lower Neuroticism. Conscientiousness and Neuroticism each accounted for 7.9% of the total effect of cSES on dementia. Results were similar for CIND. Conclusions Early childhood socioeconomic factors may contribute to cognitive impairment in older adulthood, an association mediated, in part, through adult personality traits.

The Impact of Communication Information on the Perceived Threat of COVID-19 and Stockpiling Intention

This article investigates the role of diverse nudging communication strategies on perceived threat and stockpiling intention. Across three studies, the authors examined the various effects of “nudging” on consumer behavior. Study 1 demonstrates that a commonly used picture has a stronger impact on perceived threat than a less frequently exposed picture regardless of its accuracy. Study 2 shows that the perceived threat of COVID-19, in terms of severe health consequences, is lower when using an indirect (vs. direct) explanation of the virus, as well as when reducing the amount of information about the virus. Study 3 investigates the impact of salient negative information and childhood socioeconomic status (SES). Findings reveal that negative information about deaths associated with the virus increases the level of perceived threat and stockpiling intention, especially among people of low childhood SES.