Browsing by Author "Li, Xinge"

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Associations Between Objective and Subjective Socioeconomic Status, Perception of Family Resources, and Child Psychopathology Symptoms in Preschool Years
(2020-09-29) Hosseini, Natalie; Douge, Marie; Shen, Shutian; Biekman, Brian; Lipschutz, Rebecca; Li, Xinge
The purpose of this study was to analyze the associations between the domains of objective and subjective socioeconomic status, perception of family resources, and psychopathology symptoms in preschool-aged children. The sample consisted of 44 low income multi-ethnic families from the Houston area. These families were recruited from preschools, community centers, and service organizations. Parents self-reported demographic information, subjective socioeconomic status through the ladder scale, and child psychopathology symptoms through the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition. Family resources were determined through their own scale, and child behavior was measured through the Conners Early Childhood-Parent measure. Correlation analysis revealed that income-to-needs ratio, Hollingshead index, parental education level, overall subjective perception, and perception of overall family resources were not significantly associated with any of the child psychopathology symptom variables. Linear regression model revealed that family growth and support subscale scores were significantly associated with defiance/aggressive behaviors in preschool years. Results showed that higher levels of perception of resourcefulness in family growth and support, and family necessities and health, were associated with lower levels of child defiance/aggressiveness. Findings support the need for longitudinal designs with larger power, as well as the need to observe other behaviors such as cognitive adjustment.
The Associations Between Maternal Depression and Anxiety and Functional Connectivity of Working Memory in Preschool Children
(2022-08-08) Li, Xinge; Bick, Johanna R.; Cirino, Paul T.; Pollonini, Luca
Children reared in socioeconomically disadvantaged environments are at disproportionately high risk for academic and behavioral problems. Heightened stress exposure can negatively affect the development of neural circuitries that subserve key neurocognitive functions necessary for school readiness and academic success. Given increased plasticity, such adversities likely have the strongest influences on the maturation and functional organization of candidate neural circuitries in early childhood phases. However, the focus on early childhood periods is limited, which may be partially due to constraints related to neuroimaging at this age range. We leveraged the methodology of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to address this gap and examined associations between socioeconomic risk, family stress, and variability in functional connectivity in prefrontal-cortex-related brain circuitries in a sample of young children aged 4-7 years. Neural functional connectivity patterns in children were measured using fNIRS while children participated in a visuo-spatial working memory task. Functional connectivity within prefrontal regions and between frontal and parietal regions during working memory blocks was calculated. Results indicated that parent stress and well-being, especially anxiety, were associated with reduced (weaker) functional connectivity within the prefrontal cortex while children engaged in working memory. Functional connectivity was not significantly associated with child behavior based on parent report. In summary, efforts to support families to reduce stress and hardship should be prioritized to support optimal brain maturation and network connectivity that foundationally influences child adjustment and academic success.
The Relationship Between Poverty and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Activation
(2020-09-29) Ramos, Catherine; Montgomery, Ainash; Li, Xinge
The effects of poverty on children have been shown to influence brain development and function. Working memory is one of the primary cognitive functions that develop in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and is also shown to be heavily affected by poverty. We chose to study this brain region in preschool-aged children with low socioeconomic status (SES) since it develops rapidly early in life. In order to study the extent of correlation of poverty exposure on brain activation (specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure prefrontal brain activity during a working memory task in a sample of preschool-aged children with low SES.