Early Neighborhood Contexts Shapes Neuropsychiatric Risk in Children
2026 Award: $58,540
It is widely known that development is shaped by a complex interplay of biological and environmental factors. However, the variables most often used to operationalize environmental effects are unable to capture the broad neighborhood- and community-level contexts that shape development. Our research aims to determine which elements of the environment have the strongest impact on cognition, risk for psychiatric illness, and brain structure over time, paving the way for more targeted interventions aimed at mitigating risks associated with poorer environmental exposures.
Need/Problem: Environmental factors interact with brain development to influence children’s development across domains. To date, however, the examination of such environmental characteristics has largely been limited to familylevel indicators, with little consideration of key neighborhood and community contexts that can shape development across time.
Grant Summary: We will apply Child Opportunity Index (COI 3.0) indicators to a large longitudinal dataset, allowing for the examination of neighborhood characteristics across childhood and adolescence and how those influence development. Specifically, we aim to examine the impact of neighborhood contextual factors on the development of cognitive abilities, risk for psychiatric illness, and brain structure, both cross-sectionally and over time.
Goals & Projected Outcomes: This study will provide important evidence around neighborhood characteristics that shape development and interact with brain structure, both concurrently and longitudinally. Findings from this study will provide strong preliminary data for future NIH funding opportunities that will aim to more clearly elucidate the interaction of environmental and biological factors on development, as well as potential mechanisms for intervention.
Rebecca Stephens, PhD
Marissa DiPiero, PhD
Grant Details: To explore the influence of neighborhood characteristics on development, we will utilize the Child Opportunity Index (COI 3.0), which provides census tract-level indicators across multiple environmental domains. Using over 5000 addresses collected from hundreds of study participants over the past two decades as part of the Early Brain Development Study (EBDS), we will generate a large dataset of COI indicators over time, which will allow for the examination of environmental influences on cognition (e.g., intelligence, executive function) and psychopathology (e.g., anxiety, depression) as well as brain structure. We will also be able to determine the effects of changes in neighborhood opportunity on development and windows during which such changes may have especially strong effects. We also plan to explore the interaction of neighborhood characteristics and brain structure, probing the neurobiological mechanisms through which environmental context becomes embedded in the brain and influences behavior.
