Abstract
A growing body of research has shown a diminished association between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and a wide range of neuroimaging indicators for racial and ethnic minorities compared to majority groups. However, less is known about these effects for resting-state functional connectivity between various brain networks. This study investigated racial and ethnic variation in the correlation between parental education and resting-state functional connectivity between the cingulo-opercular (CO) and cingulo-parietal (CP) networks in children. This cross-sectional study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study; we analyzed the resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rsfMRI) data of 8,464 American pre-adolescents between the ages of 9 and 10. The main outcome measured was resting-state functional connectivity between the CO and CP networks calculated using rsfMRI. The independent variable was parental education, which was treated as a nominal variable. Age, sex, and family marital status were the study covariates. Race and ethnicity were the moderators. Mixed-effects regression models were used for data analysis, with and without interaction terms between parental education and race and ethnicity. Higher parental education was associated with higher resting-state functional connectivity between the CO and CP networks. Race and ethnicity both showed statistically significant interactions with parental education on children's resting-state functional connectivity between CO and CP networks, suggesting that the correlation between parental education and the resting-state functional connectivity was significantly weaker for Black and Hispanic pre-adolescents compared to White and non-Hispanic pre-adolescents. In line with the Minorities' Diminished Returns theory, the association between parental education and pre-adolescents resting-state functional connectivity between CO and CP networks may be weaker in Black and Hispanic children than in White and non-Hispanic children. The weaker link between parental education and brain functional connectivity for Blacks and Hispanics than for Whites and non-Hispanics may reflect racism, racialization, and social stratification that collectively minimize the returns of SES indicators, such as parental education for non-Whites, who become others in the US.
Highlights
A growing body of research has shown a diminished association between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and a wide range of neuroimaging indicators for racial and ethnic minorities compared to majority groups
Built on the Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) theory 48,77, we hypothesized that parental education would have a weaker effect on resting-state functional connectivity between CO and CP networks for Hispanic and Black pre-adolescents compared to non-Hispanic White pre-adolescents. This means that we considered Black and Hispanic pre-adolescents' resting-state functional connectivity between the CO and CP networks to remain at risk regardless of their parental education, whereas we expect the lowest risk in resting-state functional connectivity between CO and CP networks among non-Hispanic White pre-adolescents with high parental education
Model 2 and Model 3 showed a better fit when compared to Model 1, suggesting that interaction between parental education and race or ethnicity helped explain the variance of the outcome
Summary
A growing body of research has shown a diminished association between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and a wide range of neuroimaging indicators for racial and ethnic minorities compared to majority groups. Purpose: This study investigated racial and ethnic variation in the correlation between parental education and resting-state functional connectivity between the cingulo-opercular (CO) and cingulo-parietal (CP) networks in children. Results: Higher parental education was associated with lower resting-state functional connectivity between the CO and CP networks. Advancement of neuroimaging modalities, such as resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI), has led to the advancement of our understanding regarding children’s brain development 1-3, and how early life experiences such as childhood socioeconomic status (SES) influence brain development 4-7. Socioeconomic status (SES) indicators, such as parental education, are linked to function and structure of the brain 15,19-22 which correlate with various aspects of emotion and cognitive development in domains such as language 23, self-regulation (the ability to monitor and control one’s behavior and emotions) 20,24, memory[25], socio-emotional processing 25, and behaviors 26. High parental education is linked to a lower risk of antisocial behavior 39, aggressive behavior 40, behavioral problems 41, mental disorders 42,43, and cognitive problems 44 in children and adolescents
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