Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Associations of Socioeconomic Disadvantage with White Matter, Language Development, and Early Indicators of Affective Symptomatology from Infancy to Early Childhood by Nourhan M Elsayed, M.A. Doctor of Philosophy in Psychological and Brain Sciences Washington University in St. Louis, 2024 Professor Deanna Barch, Chair Socioeconomic disadvantage (SESD) is associated with reduced neurocognitive abilities, particularly in language, and reduced integrity in white matter bundles known to subserve language. These findings are important beyond language development, given evidence that cognition and emotion are dynamic processes, whereby the maturation of one process serves as a foundation for higher-level skills. The current study used data collected from 353 youth and their mothers from the longitudinal Early Life Adversity and Biological Embedding (eLABE) study across four time points, beginning at birth through age three, to examine the associations of SESD with expressive and receptive language, white matter development, and indicators of affective symptomatology from birth to age three. The study found that children with more SESD had lower receptive language at age one and slower receptive and expressive language increases between ages one and three. Children experiencing more SESD had lower radial (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD) in the uncinate fasciculus (UNC) at birth but no differences at birth in fractional anisotropy (FA), RD, or AD, in other examined white matter bundles subserving language (e.g., corpus callosum, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus). Across white matter bundles, change in microstructure between birth and age three was not associated with SESD. Contrary to hypotheses, there was no evidence that a relationship between SESD and language was via indirect effects of white matter microstructure or that associations between SESD and white matter microstructure were via indirect effects of language. There was no evidence of serial indirect effects by white matter microstructure and language or language and white matter microstructure from SESD to indicators of affective symptomology. These results highlight the early associations of SESD with language. The associations of SESD with language, with concurrent null associations between SESD and white matter microstructure, underscore the need for additional research examining the longitudinal associations between SESD and structural brain maturation across the lifespan.

Committee Chair

Deanna Barch

Committee Members

Alecia Vogel-Hammen; Joan Luby; Mike Strube; Ryan Bogdan

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Psychology

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

7-1-2025

Language

English (en)

Author's ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2950-1664

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