Maternal Education Prospectively Predicts Child Neurocognitive Function: An Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Study

• Published in: Developmental psychology 2024-06, Vol.60 (6), p.1028-1040
• Main Authors: Morales, Santiago, Bowers, Maureen E., Shuffrey, Lauren, Ziegler, Katherine, Troller-Renfree, Sonya, Hernandez, Alexis, Leach, Stephanie C., McGrath, Monica, Ola, Cindy, Leve, Leslie D., Nozadi, Sara S., Swingler, Margaret M., Lai, Jin-Shei, Schweitzer, Julie B., Fifer, William, Camargo, Carlos A., Khurana Hershey, Gurjit K., Shapiro, Allison L. B., Keating, Daniel P., Hartert, Tina V., Deoni, Sean, Ferrara, Assiamira, Elliott, Amy J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent Development; Adolescents; Changes; Child Health; Childhood; Childhood Development; Children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Early childhood education; Educational Attainment Level; Environmental aspects; Environmental Influences; Executive Function; Female; Health status; Human; Language; Male; Mothers; Neurocognition; Parent educational background; Perinatal; Perinatal Period; Shakespeare plays; Young adults; Young Children
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001642

A large body of research has established a relation between maternal education and children's neurocognitive functions, such as executive function and language. However, most studies have focused on early childhood and relatively few studies have examined associations with changes in maternal education over time. Consequently, it remains unclear if early maternal education is longitudinally related to neurocognitive functions in children, adolescents, and young adults. In addition, the associations between changes in maternal education across development and more broadly defined neurocognitive outcomes remain relatively untested. The current study leveraged a large multicohort sample to examine the longitudinal relations between perinatal maternal education and changes in maternal education during development with children's, adolescents', and young adults' neurocognitive functions (N = 2,688; Mage = 10.32 years; SDage = 4.26; range = 3-20 years). Moreover, we examined the differential effects of perinatal maternal education and changes in maternal education across development on executive function and language performance. Perinatal maternal education was positively associated with children's later overall neurocognitive function. This longitudinal relation was stronger for language than executive function. In addition, increases in maternal education were related to improved language performance but were not associated with executive functioning performance. Our findings support perinatal maternal education as an important predictor of neurocognitive outcomes later in development. Moreover, our results suggest that examining how maternal education changes across development can provide important insights that can help inform policies and interventions designed to foster neurocognitive development. Public Significance Statement Using a large multicohort sample, we examined the longitudinal relations between perinatal maternal education and changes in maternal education with their children's neurocognitive functions. Perinatal maternal education was associated with their children's later neurocognitive function. This longitudinal relation was stronger for language than executive function. Increases in maternal education were related to improved language performance but were not associated with executive function. Early maternal education is an important predictor of later child neurocognitive outcomes. Changes in maternal education also provide unique asso