Violence Exposure and Social Deprivation: Neural Connectivity Correlates and Protective Factors

Abstract

Dimensions of early adversity, such as violence exposure and social deprivation, may have different effects associated with socioemotional functioning in the developing brain and different factors may be protective. This dissertation examined the downstream effects of childhood violence exposure and social deprivation in data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study at birth, and ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years. Study one examined the association between violence exposure, social deprivation, and amygdala-prefrontal cortex white matter connectivity, a crucial circuit for emotion regulation. High violence exposure coupled with high social deprivation related to less amygdala–OFC white matter connectivity. Violence exposure was not associated with white matter connectivity when social deprivation was at mean or low levels (i.e., relatively socially supportive contexts). Therefore, social deprivation may exacerbate the effects of childhood violence exposure on the development of white matter connections involved in emotion processing and regulation. Conversely, social support may buffer against them. Study two investigated the association between violence exposure, social deprivation, and adolescent resting-state functional connectivity in two resting-state networks involved in socioemotional functioning (salience network, default mode network) using a person-specific modeling approach. Childhood violence exposure, but not social deprivation, was associated with reduced adolescent resting-state density of the salience and default mode networks. A data-driven algorithm, blinded to childhood adversity, identified youth with heightened violence exposure based on resting-state connectivity patterns. Childhood violence exposure was associated with adolescent functional connectivity heterogeneity, which may reflect person-specific neural plasticity and should be considered when attempting to understand the impacts of early adversity on the brain. Study three examined whether school connectedness was protective against violence exposure and social deprivation when predicting symptoms of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and positive function and if school connectedness was uniformly protective against both dimensions of adversity. Results suggest that school connectedness is broadly related to better outcomes and may confer additional protection against social deprivation. These findings highlight the important role that the school environment can play for youth who have been exposed to adversity in other areas of their lives. Additionally, the interactive effect of school connectedness with social deprivation, but not violence exposure, supports modeling risk and resilience processes using dimensional frameworks to better identify specific groups of youth that may benefit from interventions that boost social connectedness at school in future research. Overall, this dissertation provides evidence for the complex and person-specific ways through which risk and resilience relate to development and points to considerations for future research. This research has implications for understanding how dimensions of adversity affect the brain and behavior during development and what factors can be protective, which can inform future neuroscience-informed policy interventions.