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Minds Under Siege: Cognitive Signatures of Poverty and Trauma in Refugee and Non‐Refugee Adolescents
Author(s) -
Chen Alexandra,
PanterBrick Catherine,
Hadfield Kristin,
Dajani Rana,
Hamoudi Amar,
Sheridan Margaret
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13320
Subject(s) - refugee , siege , psychology , poverty , neurocognitive , cognition , developmental psychology , psychiatry , political science , geography , archaeology , law
The impacts of war and displacement on executive function (EF)—what we might call the cognitive signatures of minds under siege —are little known. We surveyed a gender‐balanced sample of 12‐ to 18‐year‐old Syrian refugees ( n = 240) and Jordanian non‐refugees ( n = 210) living in Jordan. We examined the relative contributions of poverty, trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, and insecurity to variance in inhibitory control and working memory. We observed associations between poverty and WM, suggesting that, even in populations exposed to substantial violence and fear, poverty is a specific pathway to WM deficit. We did not, however, find associations between EFs and exposures to trauma. Careful distinction between childhood adversities may illuminate which neurocognitive pathways matter for measures of cognitive function.