Developing a neurobehavioral animal model of poverty: Drawing cross-species connections between environments of scarcity-adversity, parenting quality, and infant outcome

Children reared in impoverished environments are at risk for enduring psychological and physical health problems. Mechanisms by which poverty affects development, however, remain unclear. To explore one potential mechanism of poverty's impact on social–emotional and cognitive development, an ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Development and psychopathology 2019-05, Vol.31 (2), p.399-418
Main Authors: Perry, Rosemarie E., Finegood, Eric D., Braren, Stephen H., Dejoseph, Meriah L., Putrino, David F., Wilson, Donald A., Sullivan, Regina M., Raver, C. Cybele, Blair, Clancy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal cognition
Animal models
Animals
Attachment
Babies
Brain research
Caregivers
Children & youth
Cognitive ability
Cognitive development
Economic indicators
Emotions
Families & family life
Female
Infants
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Models, Animal
Neurobiology
Parenting - psychology
Parents & parenting
Physiology
Poverty
Poverty - psychology
Rats
Regular Articles
Social Environment
Socioeconomic factors
Water pollution
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Summary:Children reared in impoverished environments are at risk for enduring psychological and physical health problems. Mechanisms by which poverty affects development, however, remain unclear. To explore one potential mechanism of poverty's impact on social–emotional and cognitive development, an experimental examination of a rodent model of scarcity-adversity was conducted and compared to results from a longitudinal study of human infants and families followed from birth (N = 1,292) who faced high levels of poverty-related scarcity-adversity. Cross-species results supported the hypothesis that altered caregiving is one pathway by which poverty adversely impacts development. Rodent mothers assigned to the scarcity-adversity condition exhibited decreased sensitive parenting and increased negative parenting relative to mothers assigned to the control condition. Furthermore, scarcity-adversity reared pups exhibited decreased developmental competence as indicated by disrupted nipple attachment, distress vocalization when in physical contact with an anesthetized mother, and reduced preference for maternal odor with corresponding changes in brain activation. Human results indicated that scarcity-adversity was inversely correlated with sensitive parenting and positively correlated with negative parenting, and that parenting fully mediated the association of poverty-related risk with infant indicators of developmental competence. Findings are discussed from the perspective of the usefulness of bidirectional–translational research to inform interventions for at-risk families.
ISSN:0954-5794
1469-2198
1469-2198
DOI:10.1017/S095457941800007X