CHILDHOOD SOCIOECONOMIC ADVERSITY: AN INVESTIGATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS FOR COGNITIVE AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Childhood adversity, particularly socioeconomic disadvantage, poses significant risks to development, yet substantial heterogeneity exists in the cognitive and socioemotional outcomes of adversity-exposed youth. Despite growing interest in identifying ecological factors that promote resilience, the field is limited by insufficient attention to environmental contexts beyond the microsystem, under-examination of adolescence as a sensitive period, and reliance on cross-sectional, mono-modal designs that obscure temporal dynamics and exclude youth perspectives. The goal of this dissertation is to identify where (Chapter 2), how (Chapter 3), and when (Chapter 4) ecological factors shape cognitive and mental health outcomes among socioeconomically disadvantaged youth using person-centered, mixed-methods, and life course approaches across three studies. Chapter 2 applies latent profile analysis to the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (N = 9,839) to identify profiles based on multi-domain cognitive performance and socioeconomic resources, finding that 88.6% of youth in low-resource environments demonstrated cognitive performance that did not substantively differ from sample norms, whereas 11.4% exhibited markedly lower scores across all domains. Ridge regression revealed that ecological factors including suburban residence, bilingualism, pubertal maturity, and caregiver monitoring most strongly predicted resilience over vulnerability. Chapter 3 employs a convergent mixed methods design to investigate how neighborhood characteristics shape adolescent mental health in Washington, DC, integrating qualitative interviews with youth and caregivers alongside survey, geospatial, and administrative data. Findings revealed that perceived danger constrained adolescent autonomy, social fragmentation undermined belonging, and accessible greenspace and community amenities supported well-being. Chapter 4 uses longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,875) to test competing life course hypotheses regarding the timing of economic hardship and social assistance receipt on depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. No sensitive period was identified; rather, cumulative social assistance receipt across ages 1-15 was associated with reduced depression. Together, these studies challenge deficit-centered frameworks by documenting heterogeneity in adversity-exposed youth, demonstrate that resilience is shaped by modifiable factors across individual, family, neighborhood, and policy contexts, and underscore the value of methodological pluralism for equitable, developmentally informed policy.