Browsing by Author "Shen, Shutian"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item 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, XingeThe 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.Item Early Environmental Factors and Neural Activation during Statistical Learning in Young Children(2023-08) Shen, Shutian; Bick, Johanna R.; Francis, David J.; Yoshida, HanakoIncreasing evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging studies indicates that early life experiences scaffold brain development to support learning and cognitive outcomes. Children reared in contexts of socioeconomic disadvantage may be exposed to fewer and less consistent learning opportunities, among other stressors, which undermines their abilities to reach full neurodevelopmental potential. Alterations in implicit learning processes, such as statistical learning, that support cognitive and language development are under-investigated in contexts of socioeconomic disadvantage. Uncovering these associations may reveal novel neurodevelopmental and behavioral pathways that underpin risk for prospective academic and language delays. The present study utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to test whether exposure to poverty and extreme socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with neural activity during an auditory statistical learning task in an early childhood sample. We hypothesized that poverty would associate with neural activation patterns in cortical regions associated with language and executive function, including the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG0 and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We also explored whether metrics of parent-child communication patterns, such as the total amount of turns and proportion of turn-taking, served as potential experiential factors that drive neural activation differences. Our results indicated that socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with alterations in neural activation patterns during statistical learning process at left IFG and left DLPFC. Parent-child communication pattern, as measured by total amount of turns and proportion of turn-taking, was also correlated with neural activation patterns during statistical learning at regions subserving language development. Findings from the current study further verified the importance of early environment in the development of neural mechanisms subserving implicit learning processes that are predictive of key cognitive and language outcomes in critical developmental periods of early childhood.