Vonnie C. McLoyd’s research while affiliated with University of Michigan and other places
What is this page?
This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.
Mother–child closeness, a mutually trusting and affectionate bond, is an important factor in shaping positive youth development. However, little is known about the neural pathways through which mother–child closeness is related to brain organization. Utilizing a longitudinal sample primarily from low-income families (N = 181; 76% African American youth and 54% female), this study investigated the associations between mother–child closeness at ages 9 and 15 years and structural connectivity organization (network integration, robustness, and segregation) at age 15 years. The assessment of mother–child closeness included perspectives from both mother and child. The results revealed that greater mother–child closeness is linked with increased global efficiency and transitivity, but not with modularity. Specifically, both the mother’s and child’s reports of closeness at age 15 years predicted network metrics, but report at age 9 years did not. Our findings suggest that mother–child closeness is associated with neural white matter organization, as adolescents who experienced greater mother–child closeness displayed topological properties indicative of more integrated and robust structural networks.
Enhancing the generalizability of neuroimaging studies requires actively engaging participants from under-represented communities. This paper leverages qualitative data to outline participant-driven recommendations for incorporating under-represented populations in neuroimaging protocols. Thirty-one participants, who had participated in neuroimaging research or could be eligible for one as part of an ongoing longitudinal study, engaged in semi-structured one-on-one interviews (84 % under-represented ethnic-racial identities and low-income backgrounds). Through thematic analysis, we identified nine relevant research practices from participants' reports, highlighting aspects of their experience that they appreciated and suggestions for improvement: (1) forming a diverse research team comprising members with whom participants can interact as equals; (2) increasing accessibility to research by providing transportation and flexible scheduling; (3) providing family-oriented spaces; (4) enriching the campus visits to include optional on-campus activities to connect with the University; (5) developing safe strategies to accommodate participants with tattoos during the MRI; (6) incorporating engaging and interactive tasks during neuroimaging sessions; (7) providing small gifts, such as a picture of one’s brain, in addition to financial compensation; (8) sharing research findings with the research participants; and (9) fostering long-term bidirectional relationships. The findings may be used to develop best practices for enhancing participant diversity in future neuroimaging studies.
Importance
Parenting is associated with brain development and long-term health outcomes, although whether these associations depend on the developmental timing of exposure remains understudied. Identifying these sensitive periods can inform when and how parenting is associated with neurodevelopment and risk for mental illness.
Objective
To characterize how harsh and warm parenting during early, middle, and late childhood are associated with brain architecture during adolescence and, in turn, psychiatric symptoms in early adulthood during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This population-based, 21-year observational, longitudinal birth cohort study of low-income youths and families from Detroit, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Chicago, Illinois, used data from the Future of Families and Child Well-being Study. Data were collected from February 1998 to June 2021. Analyses were conducted from May to October 2023.
Exposures
Parent-reported harsh parenting (psychological aggression or physical aggression) and observer-rated warm parenting (responsiveness) at ages 3, 5, and 9 years.
Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcomes were brainwide (segregation, integration, and small-worldness), circuit (prefrontal cortex [PFC]–amygdala connectivity), and regional (betweenness centrality of amygdala and PFC) architecture at age 15 years, determined using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and youth-reported anxiety and depression symptoms at age 21 years. The structured life-course modeling approach was used to disentangle timing-dependent from cumulative associations between parenting and brain architecture.
Results
A total of 173 youths (mean [SD] age, 15.88 [0.53] years; 95 female [55%]) were included. Parental psychological aggression during early childhood was positively associated with brainwide segregation (β = 0.30; 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.45) and small-worldness (β = 0.17; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.28), whereas parental psychological aggression during late childhood was negatively associated with PFC-amygdala connectivity (β = −0.37; 95% CI, −0.55 to −0.12). Warm parenting during middle childhood was positively associated with amygdala centrality (β = 0.23; 95% CI, 0.06 to 0.38) and negatively associated with PFC centrality (β = −0.18; 95% CI, −0.31 to −0.03). Warmer parenting during middle childhood was associated with reduced anxiety (β = −0.05; 95% CI −0.10 to −0.01) and depression (β = −0.05; 95% CI −0.10 to −0.003) during early adulthood via greater adolescent amygdala centrality.
Conclusions and Relevance
Neural associations with harsh parenting were widespread across the brain in early childhood but localized in late childhood. Neural associations with warm parenting were localized in middle childhood and, in turn, were associated with mental health during future stress. These developmentally contingent associations can inform the type and timing of interventions.
Associations between adversity and youth psychopathology likely vary based on the types and timing of experiences. Major theories suggest that the impact of childhood adversity may either be cumulative in type (the more types of adversity, the worse outcomes) or in timing (the longer exposure, the worse outcomes) or, alternatively, specific concerning the type (e.g., parenting, home, neighborhood) or the timing of adversity (e.g., specific developmental periods). In a longitudinal sample from the Future of Families and Wellbeing Study ( N = 4,210), we evaluated these competing hypotheses using a data-driven structured life-course modeling approach using risk factors examined at child age 1 (infancy), 3 (toddlerhood), 5 (early childhood), and 9 (middle childhood). Results showed that exposures to more types of adversity for longer durations (i.e., cumulative in both type and timing) best predicted youth psychopathology. Adversities that occurred at age 9 were better predictors of youth psychopathology as compared to those experienced earlier, except for neglect, which was predictive of internalizing symptoms when experienced at age 3. Throughout childhood (across ages 1–9), aside from the accumulation of all adversities, parental stress and low collective efficacy were the strongest predictors of internalizing symptoms, whereas psychological aggression was predictive of externalizing symptoms.
Children need stable environments with loving caregivers to develop into their best adult selves. Sufficient income and wealth provide a foundation of economic security that makes these circumstances more likely. Unfortunately, both income and wealth are unevenly distributed, with some households having very little while a few are extravagantly well off. This means that many families have little to invest in their children and face stress trying to make ends meet. Whether households face economic security or struggle is highly patterned by race. In addition to discussing pathways for how wealth influences child outcomes, this article delves deeply into the nature of the Black–White disparity in wealth, discussing both historical and contemporary factors. The article ends by exploring programs and policies that have been piloted to increase wealth for those at the bottom end of the wealth distribution, making asset-building inclusive and enabling more children to thrive.
Importance
Adverse childhood experiences are pervasive and heterogeneous, with potential lifelong consequences for psychiatric morbidity and brain health. Existing research does not capture the complex interplay of multiple adversities, resulting in a lack of precision in understanding their associations with neural function and mental health.
Objectives
To identify distinct childhood adversity profiles and examine their associations with adolescent mental health and brain connectivity.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This population-based birth cohort used data for children who were born in 20 large US cities between 1998 and 2000 and participated in the Future Families and Child Well-Being Study. Families were interviewed when children were born and at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years. At age 15 years, neuroimaging data were collected from a subset of these youths. Data were collected from February 1998 to April 2017. Analyses were conducted from March to December 2023.
Exposures
Latent profiles of childhood adversity, defined by family and neighborhood risks across ages 0 to 9 years.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Internalizing and externalizing symptoms at age 15 years using parent- and youth-reported measures. Profile-specific functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity across the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and frontoparietal network (FPN).
Results
Data from 4210 individuals (2211 [52.5%] male; 1959 [46.5%] Black, 1169 [27.7%] Hispanic, and 786 [18.7%] White) revealed 4 childhood adversity profiles: low-adversity (1230 individuals [29.2%]), medium-adversity (1973 [46.9%]), high-adversity (457 [10.9%]), and high maternal depression (MD; 550 [13.1%]). High-adversity, followed by MD, profiles had the highest symptoms. Notably, internalizing symptoms did not differ between these 2 profiles (mean difference, 0.11; 95% CI, −0.03 to 0.26), despite the MD profile showing adversity levels most similar to the medium-adversity profile. In the neuroimaging subsample of 167 individuals (91 [54.5%] female; 128 [76.6%] Black, 11 [6.6%] Hispanic, and 20 [12.0%] White; mean [SD] age, 15.9 [0.5] years), high-adversity and MD profiles had the highest DMN density relative to other profiles ( F (3,163) = 11.14; P < .001). The high-adversity profile had lower SN density relative to the low-adversity profile (mean difference, −0.02; 95% CI, −0.04 to −0.003) and the highest FPN density among all profiles ( F (3,163) = 18.96; P < .001). These differences were specific to brain connectivity during an emotion task, but not at rest.
Conclusions and Relevance
In this cohort study, children who experienced multiple adversities, or only elevated MD, had worse mental health and different neural connectivity in adolescence. Interventions targeting multiple risk factors, with a focus on maternal mental health, could produce the greatest benefits.
Many Black young adults engage in their communities through critical action, or activism, as they transition into adulthood. However, knowledge about predictors of critical action remain sparse. The present longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring links between critical action, ethnic-racial identity, and racial discrimination among 143 Black youth who were surveyed as adolescents ( M age = 15; 66% female) and again as young adults ( M age = 20). Using hierarchical logistic regression, we found that young adult experiences of racial discrimination were related to increased odds of critical action, accounting for adolescent racial discrimination, gender, caregiver education, and postsecondary enrollment. We also found that criminalizing discriminatory experiences (e.g., being stopped by the police) during young adulthood were related to increased odds of critical action. Our findings document changes in racial discrimination and ethnic-racial identity during the transition to adulthood and suggest that some marginalized youth may transform adverse experiences into critical action.
Unstable and unpredictable environments are linked to risk for psychopathology, but the underlying neural mechanisms that explain how instability relate to subsequent mental health concerns remain unclear. In particular, few studies have focused on the association between instability and white matter structures despite white matter playing a crucial role for neural development. In a longitudinal sample recruited from a population-based study (N = 237), household instability (residential moves, changes in household composition, caregiver transitions in the first 5 years) was examined in association with adolescent structural network organization (network integration, segregation, and robustness of white matter connectomes; Mage = 15.87) and young adulthood anxiety and depression (six years later). Results indicate that greater instability related to greater global network efficiency, and this association remained after accounting for other types of adversity (e.g., harsh parenting, neglect, food insecurity). Moreover, instability predicted increased depressive symptoms via increased network efficiency even after controlling for previous levels of symptoms. Exploratory analyses showed that structural connectivity involving the left fronto-lateral and temporal regions were most strongly related to instability. Findings suggest that structural network efficiency relating to household instability may be a neural mechanism of risk for later depression and highlight the ways in which instability modulates neural development.
Background
Stressful events, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, are major contributors to anxiety and depression, but only a subset of individuals develop psychopathology. In a population‐based sample (N = 174) with a high representation of marginalized individuals, this study examined adolescent functional network connectivity as a marker of susceptibility to anxiety and depression in the context of adverse experiences.
Methods
Data‐driven network‐based subgroups were identified using an unsupervised community detection algorithm within functional neural connectivity. Neuroimaging data collected during emotion processing (age 15) were extracted from a priori regions of interest linked to anxiety and depression. Symptoms were self‐reported at ages 15, 17, and 21 (during COVID‐19). During COVID‐19, participants reported on pandemic‐related economic adversity. Differences across subgroup networks were first examined, then subgroup membership and subgroup–adversity interaction were tested to predict change in symptoms over time.
Results
Two subgroups were identified: Subgroup A, characterized by relatively greater neural network variation (i.e., heterogeneity) and density with more connections involving the amygdala, subgenual cingulate, and ventral striatum; and the more homogenous Subgroup B, with more connections involving the insula and dorsal anterior cingulate. Accounting for initial symptoms, subgroup A individuals had greater increases in symptoms across time (β = .138, p = .042), and this result remained after adjusting for additional covariates (β = .194, p = .023). Furthermore, there was a subgroup–adversity interaction: compared with Subgroup B, Subgroup A reported greater anxiety during the pandemic in response to reported economic adversity (β = .307, p = .006), and this remained after accounting for initial symptoms and many covariates (β = .237, p = .021).
Conclusions
A subgrouping algorithm identified young adults who were susceptible to adversity using their personalized functional network profiles derived from a priori brain regions. These results highlight potential prospective neural signatures involving heterogeneous emotion networks that predict individuals at the greatest risk for anxiety when experiencing adverse events.
Accumulating literature has linked poverty to brain structure and function, particularly in affective neural regions; however, few studies have examined associations with structural connections or the importance of developmental timing of exposure. Moreover, prior neuroimaging studies have not used a proximal measure of poverty (i.e., material hardship, which assesses food, housing, and medical insecurity) to capture the lived experience of growing up in harsh economic conditions. The present investigation addressed these gaps collectively by examining the associations between material hardship (ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years) and white matter connectivity of frontolimbic structures (age 15 years) in a low-income sample. We applied probabilistic tractography to diffusion imaging data collected from 194 adolescents. Results showed that material hardship related to amygdala–prefrontal, but not hippocampus–prefrontal or hippocampus–amygdala, white matter connectivity. Specifically, hardship during middle childhood (ages 5 and 9 years) was associated with greater connectivity between the amygdala and dorsomedial pFC, whereas hardship during adolescence (age 15 years) was related to reduced amygdala–orbitofrontal (OFC) and greater amygdala–subgenual ACC connectivity. Growth curve analyses showed that greater increases of hardship across time were associated with both greater (amygdala–subgenual ACC) and reduced (amygdala–OFC) white matter connectivity. Furthermore, these effects remained above and beyond other types of adversity, and greater hardship and decreased amygdala–OFC connectivity were related to increased anxiety and depressive symptoms. Results demonstrate that the associations between material hardship and white matter connections differ across key prefrontal regions and developmental periods, providing support for potential windows of plasticity for structural circuits that support emotion processing.
... Some researchers take the approach of documenting the additive accumulation of multiple environmental risks as it relates to adolescent psychopathology 33,34 . Increasingly, though, researchers are identifying the cooccurring interplay among different environmental experiences to identify relative contributions of these environments on adolescent psychopathology 35,36 . A recent study using the ABCD Study provided evidence of four distinct profiles of perceived threat across family, school, and neighborhood systems 35 . ...
... The Future Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS; N = 4898) collected demographic, health, and behavioral data from families at birth of a child between 1998 and 2000, and followed up at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 22 (most recent wave of data collection occurring in 2024), with a 3:1 oversampling for non-marital births, from children born in 20 large U.S. cities (Hardi, Goetschius, Tillem, et al., 2023;Reichman et al., 2001). Due to this sampling strategy and the demographics of large American cities, 42 % of mothers reported a household income of $25, 000 or less, and 61 % reported an income of $50,000 or less at baseline (Reichman et al., 2001). ...
... We summarized the characteristics Table 1 Characteristics of the ten most recent (until end of 2023) developmental psychiatric neuroimaging studies at three key developmental journals. 4/10 replication 1/10 meta-analysis 1/10 mega-analysis of the most recent ten articles (start year: 2023) in child and adolescent psychiatry and magnetic resonance imaging research, sourced from three leading developmental psychiatry journals: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Son et al., 2023;Guldner et al., 2022;Petrican and Fornito, 2023;Ladouceur et al., 2023;Hardi et al., 2023a;Dimanova et al., 2023;Colich et al., 2023;Voldsbekk et al., 2023;Wiglesworth et al., 2023;Sullivan-Toole et al., 2023), the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (Bu et al., 2023;Hardi et al., 2023b;Pagliaccio et al., 2023;Graziano et al., 2022;Kirshenbaum et al., 2022;Mewton et al., 2022;Okada et al., 2022;Peterson et al., 2022;Yoon et al., 2022;Postema et al., 2021), and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Auerbach et al., 2022;Geisler et al., 2022;Wang et al., 2022;Vulser et al., 2023;Fortea et al., 2023;Romer et al., 2023;Weeland et al., 2022;Chen et al., 2022;Bahnsen et al., 2022;Dall'Aglio et al., 2023). ...
... But even before Coll et al.'s (1996) recommendations, and likely limited due to patterns of racism within the field, HDFS scholars have produced special issues on the topic of race, child development, and family systems since the late 1970s and early 1980s (Comer, 1985;Peters, 1978) and from that point continued to do so about once per decade until recently (Leman et al., 2017;McLoyd, 1990;Quintana et al., 2006). Although slow, HDFS has increasingly heeded the call to recognize and eradicate racially oppressive assumptions, a push that HDFS scholars of color have long been advocating for (Coll et al., 1996;McLoyd & Randolph, 1984;McLoyd, 2006aMcLoyd, , 2022Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020). ...
... Material hardship linked to poverty may lead to different amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity in late infancy, and leads to reduced amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex connections in adolescents, also related to anxiety and depression, indicating some preferential windows of plasticity for targeted supporting interventions (Hardi et al., 2022). ...
... � Our findings highlight the importance of a multifaceted approach to promoting cognitive resilience among children from low-income households in future intervention work. For example, given their roles in positive child outcomes (Goetschius et al., 2023;O'Malley et al., 2015;Raniti et al., 2022;Vella-Brodrick & Gilowska, 2022), it is possible that positive school environments or access to greenspaces may buffer the risk conferred by householdlevel factors. However, since studies examine individual factors, and typically in separate models, such interactions remain uninvestigated. ...
... In collaboration with the FFCWS, the Study of Adolescent Neural Development (SAND first wave; N = 237) followed up with the subsample of the cohort at age 15-17 (mean age 15.8) from 2014 to 2017 and subsequently at age 21-24 between 2019 to present (now called the Study of Adolescent to Adult Neural Development; SAND second wave; ~N = 500). The first wave of SAND (mean age 15.8) collected MRI data from a subsample of youth and parents from nearby cities (Detroit, Toledo, Chicago) (Gard et al., 2021;Goetschius et al., 2019;Hein et al., 2020). Additionally, extensive surveys, clinical interviews, discussion tasks, and biological measures (e.g., hair, saliva) were collected (Doom et al., 2022;Guzman et al., 2024;Hardi et al., 2024;Hein et al., 2020;Peckins et al., 2020). ...
... Finally, the present study indicated that the GMV of the right calcarine cortex partially mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and psychological resilience. Previous studies have found that stressful events, such as childhood maltreatment, may cause structural and functional changes in the brain, affecting the thinking and behavior patterns of individuals [49,50]. Psychological resilience is a dynamic and multidimensional process that varies with GMV and cortical thickness through brain development [51]. ...
... Different dimensions of adversity may be interactively associated with neurodevelopment and psychopathology. For example, social deprivation exacerbated the effects of childhood violence exposure on the development of amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex white matter connections (Goetschius et al., 2020). To our best knowledge, however, limited studies have examined the interactive effects of unpredictability and other dimensions of adversity on psychopathology and the neural underpinnings, hindering our understanding of the conditions under which unpredictability may have an impact. ...
... A major contributor to these health conditions may be the biological cascade of high allostatic load (Rogosch et al., 2011), including cortisol production, brain development, and connectivity in various regions (Aiyer et al., 2014;Cará et al., 2019;Demir-Lira et al., 2016;Goetschius et al., 2020;Peckins et al., 2012). There is some work suggesting that allostatic load leads to chronic inflammation of the neuroimmune network which could lead to both physical and mental health outcomes (Nusslock & Miller, 2016). ...