The Enduring Impact of Poverty on Risk for Mental Health Challenges in Youth

This talk will present results from a line of developmental research examining the relationship of early childhood poverty and early adversity to the development of the structure and functional connectivity of the human brain and to subsequent risk for mental health challenges. The results highlight the important role of disruptions to subcortical brain structure and function. Further, this talk will evaluate the relative contributions of neighborhood versus the individual family, how such relationships evolve over the course of development, the mediating role of parenting, and their relationships to depression and cognitive function but early in life and at the transition to adulthood. Many of the findings in humans parallel more experimental research in animal models, and highlight the critical need to address childhood poverty as a means to enhance adaptive outcomes across the lifespan. In addition, this work highlights the benefits of adapting multiple levels of analysis into approaches tailored toward understanding mental illness vulnerability.