# The Role of Socioeconomic Status, Cortisol, and the Home Environment in the Development of Infants' Attentional Control

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · 2020 · $32,860

## Abstract

The negative impacts of economic stress on infants' development persist across the lifespan (Melrose et al.,
2014). As such, understanding how early deficits pertaining to socioeconomic status (SES) emerge, and what
processes potentially underlie the development of such deficits is a critical step toward the creation of efficient
and effective intervention programs. It has been proposed that negative outcomes related to lower-SES or
poverty are mediated by deficits in effortful control, and a model has been proposed suggesting that the link
between SES and effortful control is mediated by allostatic load through processes such as a dysregulation of
the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis resulting in maladaptive elevations in cortisol levels (Lengua, 2012).
While the importance of effortful control is not contested, and the link between low-SES and decreased
effortful control is well established, the mediating effect of cortisol on the link between low-SES and any
cognitive outcomes is severely lacking in direct empirical support (Piccolo et al., 2014), and the full model has
never been tested as it relates to effortful control specifically. Additionally, to my knowledge, no study has
examined this model or even components of this model within the first six months of life. This is surprising
given that cognitive outcomes pertaining to attentional control, an early developing component of effortful
control, are significantly associated with SES by 6 months of age (Clearfield & Jedd, 2013). Thus, the current
investigation seeks to advance the field's understanding of the emergence of SES related cognitive deficits by
following infants at 3.5, 5, and 6.5 months of age and examining their attentional control capabilities in the
context of their SES and basal cortisol levels. Furthermore, to establish a more complete picture of the
developmental context of these infants, data about the stability of the home environment will be collected.
Previous research has demonstrated significant mediating effects of factors of the home on the association
between SES and infant cognitive abilities (Rubio-Codina, Attanasio, Grantham-McGregor, 2016). Accordingly,
factors of the home environment, specifically chaos and adherence to routines, will be examined as potential
mediators of the link between SES and basal cortisol levels. Given the fact that decreased effortful control is
associated with poorer coping strategies in the context of economic stress in adolescence (Taylor, Widaman, &
Robins, 2017), this project has the potential to greatly increase the mental health outcomes of economically
disadvantaged youth by determining when and how such deficits emerge. This project would also be a great
training opportunity as it would foster the development of an interdisciplinary research program incorporating
physiological, behavioral, and environmental measures. This will be accomplished through supplementing my
research skills and interdisciplinary background with 1)...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9872023
- **Project number:** 5F31HD096790-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
- **Principal Investigator:** Hannah B White
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $32,860
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-03 → 2020-08-01

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9872023

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9872023, The Role of Socioeconomic Status, Cortisol, and the Home Environment in the Development of Infants' Attentional Control (5F31HD096790-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9872023. Licensed CC0.

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