Socioeconomic factors like family income and neighborhood conditions shape cognitive skills and well-being, with timing playing a crucial role in their effects.
United States: This new study in Nature Neuroscience claims that parts of our social and economic conditions are linked to distinct patterns in the brain and behaviors, and these patterns change based on the age when they develop.
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Using data from 4,200 young adults living in China, researchers review the influence of family income, neighborhood stressful conditions, and local economic situation on how well people remember, what their personalities are, and their mental health and brain health.
According to the findings, while early experiences shape a person, things that happen during adolescence and early adulthood have a stronger impact on mental well-being and thinking skills, psypost.org reported.
The study found that the loss of income, worse neighborhoods, and time away from each parent explained up to 60% of the harm.
— Josh Wood (@J_K_Wood) May 14, 2025
But unseen factors like emotional stress and family breakdown carry deep consequences. pic.twitter.com/J2nC77mKEC
Experts have also found that particular brain regions and networks might be responsible for how socioeconomics impacts people’s behavior.
The physical and mental health of a person is, in most cases, affected by their socioeconomic status.
A person’s lower position in society has been associated with health problems such as heart disease, depression, anxiety, and mental decline.
Researchers have not fully succeeded in understanding how various disadvantages, for example, low family income, unsafe neighborhoods, or poor infrastructure in a region, work separately or together or if the timing of these factors influences the impact on a person’s development.
Things get more complicated since socioeconomic status is very broad and can be looked at from several angles, psypost.org reported.
It consists of income as well as education, the place someone works, their society, and the available resources, which are usually related.
Therefore, researchers can’t always single out the most important factors in poverty and know exactly when they make a difference.
To handle the complexity, the writers of the new research wanted to look at the effects of different socioeconomic factors and times.
The purpose of the team’s research was to discover how things in a child’s environment, such as their neighborhood and economy, can influence their brain and behavior as an adult.