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Socioeconomic disparities in neurocognitive development in the first two years of life
Author(s) -
Noble Kimberly G.,
Engelhardt Laura E.,
Brito Natalie H.,
Mack Luke J.,
Nail Elizabeth J.,
Angal Jyoti,
Barr Rachel,
Fifer William P.,
Elliott Amy J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21303
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , neurocognitive , psychology , developmental psychology , cognition , language development , cognitive skill , cohort , literacy , demography , gerontology , medicine , population , psychiatry , sociology , pedagogy
ABSTRACT Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with cognition and achievement. Socioeconomic disparities in language and memory skills have been reported from elementary school through adolescence. Less is known about the extent to which such disparities emerge in infancy. Here, 179 infants from socioeconomically diverse families were recruited. Using a cohort‐sequential design, 90 infants were followed at 9 and 15 months, and 89 were followed at 15 and 21 months. SES disparities in developmental trajectories of language and memory were present such that, at 21 months of age, children of highly educated parents scored approximately .8 standard deviations higher in both language and memory than children of less educated parents. The home language and literacy environment and parental warmth partially accounted for disparities in language, but not memory development. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc . Dev Psychobiol 57: 535–551, 2015.