Associations of neighborhood threat and deprivation with psychopathology: Uncovering neural mechanisms

BackgroundAssessing dimensions of neighborhoods could aid identification of contextual features that influence psychopathology in children and contribute to uncovering mechanisms underlying these associations. MethodThe ABCD sample included 11,868 participants aged 9-10 from 21 U.S. sites. Mixed effect and structural equation models estimated associations of neighborhood threat and deprivation with psychopathology symptoms and indirect effects. Hypothesized mechanisms included emotion processing (adaptation to emotional conflict, task-active ROIs for emotional n-back) and cognition (EF and task-active ROIs for the stop-signal task); additional exploratory analyses included neural function (of amygdala to network and within-network resting state connectivity). ResultsAssociations of neighborhood deprivation and all symptom domains were mediated by EF and with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) were mediated by connectivity within retrosplenial temporal and dorsal attention networks. In contrast, neighborhood threat was uniquely associated with attention difficulties, internalizing problems, and PLEs via increased within-network connectivity in the default mode network, with PLEs through within visual network connectivity, and with PLEs and externalizing symptoms through amygdala-to-sensorimotor network connectivity.ConclusionNeighborhood deprivation and threat predicted symptoms through distinct neural and cognitive pathways, with implications for prevention and intervention efforts at individual and contextual levels.