School Climate, Cortical Structure, and Socioemotional Functioning: Associations across Family Income Levels

摘要

School climates are important for children’s socioemotionaldevelopment and may also serve as protective factors in thecontext of adversity. Nevertheless, little is known about thepotential neural mechanisms of such associations, as therehas been limited research concerning the relation betweenschool climate and brain structure, particularly for brainregions relevant for mental health and socioemotional functioning.Moreover, it remains unclear whether the role ofschool climate differs depending on children’s socioeconomicstatus. We addressed these questions in baseline data for 9- to10-year-olds from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Developmentstudy (analytic sample for socioemotional outcomes, n =8887), conducted at 21 sites across the United States. Corticalthickness, cortical surface area, and subcortical volume werederived from T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging.School climate was measured by youth report, and socioemotionalfunctioning was measured by both youth and parentreport. A positive school climate and higher family incomewere associated with lower internalizing and externalizingsymptoms, with no evidence of moderation. There were noassociations between school climate and cortical thickness orsubcortical volume, although family income was positively associatedwith hippocampal volume. For cortical surface area,however, there was both a positive association with familyincome and moderation: There was an interaction betweenschool climate and income for total cortical surface area andlocally in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. In all cases, therewas an unexpected negative association between school climateand cortical surface area in the lower-income group. Consequently,although the school climate appears to be related tobetter socioemotional function for all youth, findings suggestthat the association between a positive school environmentand brain structure only emerges in the context of socioeconomicstress and adversity. Longitudinal data are needed tounderstand the role of these neural differences in socioemotionalfunctioning over time.