Socioeconomic factors are becoming ‘biologically embedded’ in children’s brains

Photo: Poor children playing on sidewalk, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. – 1935. Photo credit: Carl Mydans / FSA/OWI/RA via Library of Congress. No known restrictions. Article by Jon Hamilton. NPR – June 11, 2026. Research article: Science. ABCD Study: www.abcdstudy.org.

The most powerful factors affecting a child’s brain development involve socioeconomic opportunities, according to a study in the journal Science. The analysis of more than 2,300 9- and 10-year-olds found that environmental factors ranging from household income to education to neighborhood quality are associated with brain differences that can clearly be seen in MRI scans. The researchers also found that preteens who’d grown up in neighborhoods with lower incomes and limited social support had brain differences associated with less sleep and more stress. […]

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