# A mechanistic study of the association between poverty and executive functions in early childhood: Contributions of early brain development and the early caregiving environment

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2020 · $633,239

## Abstract

Project Summary
Chronic stress for children growing up in poverty may lead to lasting effects on social,
behavioral, and cognitive development. The difficulties of living in economic hardship has,
indeed, been associated with deficits in cognitive and academic performance. The current
study examines the link between poverty and executive functions (cognitive processes that
facilitate learning, self-monitoring, and decision making) which are known to undergo rapid
developmental change during the first years of life. Early neurological development will be
examined as a mediator of this association examined from pregnancy to age 3. In addition to
distal risk associated with living in poverty, we will investigate critical experiences within the
proximal context (i.e., language exposure, caregiver behavior, child sleep hygiene) that may
mediate the effect of this risk on child structural and functional brain development.
Participants (n= 230) will be seen during the 28th week of pregnancy, and at 5 visits across the
first 3 years of their child's life. Neuroimaging will be conducted at 2 weeks, 15 and 24 months
(with an accompanying lab visit at 15 months). We will focus on developing white matter tracts
that support cognitive processes of emerging executive functions: anterior cingulum (error
monitoring); uncinate (joint attention); arcuate fasciculus (language processing) and individual
differences in functional brain development, including resting state networks of salience,
attention, executive control, and default-mode. At 6 and 24 months of age, an intensive home
visit will include observational and objective measures of caregiver behavior, language
exposure (via speech recorders) and sleep hygiene (via actigraphy for 7 days). Child cognitive
development will be assessed at each assessment and an executive functioning battery will be
administered at 36 months of age.
This study will be the first to investigate the influence of poverty on emerging executive
functioning at age 3 via effects on child neurological development over the first two years of life.
In addition, findings will contribute critical information regarding whether specific measures of
proximal experience (language exposure, caregiver behavior, child sleep hygiene) may mediate
this risk.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9850609
- **Project number:** 5R01HD091148-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Cathi Barbra Propper
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $633,239
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-02-10 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9850609

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9850609, A mechanistic study of the association between poverty and executive functions in early childhood: Contributions of early brain development and the early caregiving environment (5R01HD091148-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9850609. Licensed CC0.

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