Familial Income Volatility and Brain Development: Assessing Brain Structure in Infancy and Childhood
Date of Award
Summer 8-22-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Psychology
Organizational Unit
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
First Advisor
Pilyoung Kim
Second Advisor
Julia Dmitrieva
Third Advisor
Jenalee Doom
Fourth Advisor
Angela Narayan
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
Adolescence, Brain structure, Development, Income instability, Infancy, SES
Abstract
Background: Environmental factors, including exposures in-utero, have been associated with brain development. Income instability is an environmental stressor impacting families and children. Income instability during the prenatal period may influence the in-utero environment for the developing fetal brain via birthing parent physiological stress response. Income instability during childhood may influence brain development via child physiological stress response to unstable environmental input. Methods: Paper one includes 88 infants from a longitudinal study of pregnant individuals and their infants. Infants completed an MRI after birth during natural sleep. Paper two utilized publicly available data from Data Release 6.0 of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, including 4,707 youth with usable neuroimaging data at the fourth follow-up visit and household income data reported for all timepoints. Negative income shocks were calculated from report of household income for both studies. Shocks were defined as Arc Percent Change (APC) > 25% between timepoints. Paper one examined associations between the number of prenatal negative monthly income shocks and infant hippocampus and amygdala volumes after birth. Paper two examined associations between the number of annual negative income shocks and youth hippocampus and amygdala volumes as well as cortical thickness, cortical volume, and cortical surface area. Results: Both papers revealed that a greater number of negative income shocks was associated with smaller right amygdala volume. Paper one demonstrated that a greater number of prenatal household income losses was associated with smaller right amygdala volume in infants after birth. Paper two demonstrated that a greater number of annual household income losses from age 9-10 years to age 13-14 years was associated with smaller right amygdala volumes at age 13-14 years controlling for average household income over that time span. Paper two also demonstrated a greater number of annual household income losses was associated with smaller total cortical volume, total surface area, and mean cortical thickness in early adolescence controlling for average household income. Conclusions: Both papers provide evidence that familial income volatility is associated with child brain structure. These findings provide support for the development of public programs that promote income stability for families across developmental periods.
Copyright Date
8-2026
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Genevieve Patterson
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
123 pgs
File Size
1.9 MB
Recommended Citation
Patterson, Genevieve, "Familial Income Volatility and Brain Development: Assessing Brain Structure in Infancy and Childhood" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2796.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2796
Included in
Biological Psychology Commons, Child Psychology Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons