scholarly journals Early Life Determinants of Cognitive Ability: A Comparative Study on Madagascar and Senegal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Sahn ◽  
Heidi Kaila ◽  
Naveen Sunder
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Early Life

Does Age Moderate the Influence of Early Life Language Experiences? A Naturalistic Home Observation Study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina d'Apice ◽  
Sophie von Stumm
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Cognitive Testing ◽  
Parent Ratings ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Observation Study ◽  
Home Environments ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Audio Recordings

We explored if children’s age moderated associations between their early life language experiences and their linguistic and cognitive skills. For 107 British children, aged 24 to 48 months, and their families, we collected 3 day-long audio-recordings of their naturalistic home environments (M = 15.06 hours per day, SD = 1.87). Children’s cognitive ability was assessed by parent-ratings and with a cognitive testing booklet that children completed at home. We found that the quantity, lexical diversity and vocabulary sophistication of adult speech were associated with children’s linguistic and cognitive skills. However, these associations were not moderated by children’s age. Our findings suggest that the influence of early life language experience is not differentiated at age 24 to 48 months.

scholarly journals Early-life circumstances and the risk of function-limiting long-term conditions in later life

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Iveson ◽  
Chris Dibben ◽  
Ian J. Deary
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Functional Limitation ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Childhood Cognitive Ability ◽  
The Life Course

Older adults are particularly prone to function-limiting health issues that adversely affect their well-being. Previous work has identified factors from across the life course –childhood socio-economic status, childhood cognitive ability and education – that predict later-life functional outcomes. However, the independence of these contributions is unclear as later-in-the-life-course predictors are themselves affected by earlier ones. The present study capitalised on the recent linkage of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 with the Scottish Longitudinal Study, using path analyses to examine the direct and indirect associations between life-course predictors and the risk of functional limitation at ages 55 (N = 2,374), 65 (N = 1,971) and 75 (N = 1,534). The odds of reporting a function-limiting long-term condition increased across later life. At age 55, reporting a functional limitation was significantly less likely in those with higher childhood socio-economic status, higher childhood cognitive ability and higher educational attainment; these associations were only partly mediated by other predictors. At age 65, adult socio-economic status emerged as a mediator of several associations, although direct associations with childhood socio-economic status and childhood cognitive ability were still observed. At age 75, only childhood socio-economic status and adult socio-economic status directly predicted the risk of a functional limitation, particularly those associated with disease or illness. A consistent pattern and direction of associations was observed with self-rated health more generally. These results demonstrate that early-life and adult circumstances are associated with functional limitations later in life, but that these associations are partly a product of complex mediation between life-course factors.

scholarly journals Personality and Other Lifelong Influences on Older–Age Health and Wellbeing: Preliminary Findings in Two Scottish Samples

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 438-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew A. Harris ◽  
Caroline E. Brett ◽  
John M. Starr ◽  
Ian J. Deary ◽  
Wendy Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Subjective Wellbeing ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Early Life Factors

Recent observations that personality traits are related to later–life health and wellbeing have inspired considerable interest in exploring the mechanisms involved. Other factors, such as cognitive ability and education, also show longitudinal influences on health and wellbeing, but it is not yet clear how all these early–life factors together contribute to later–life health and wellbeing. In this preliminary study, we assessed hypothesised relations among these variables across the life course, using structural equation modelling in a sample assessed on dependability (a personality trait related to conscientiousness) in childhood, cognitive ability and social class in childhood and older age, education, and health and subjective wellbeing in older age. Our models indicated that both health and subjective wellbeing in older age were influenced by childhood IQ and social class, via education. Some older–age personality traits mediated the effects of early–life variables, on subjective wellbeing in particular, but childhood dependability did not show significant associations. Our results therefore did not provide evidence that childhood dependability promotes older–age health and wellbeing, but did highlight the importance of other early–life factors, particularly characteristics that contribute to educational attainment. Further, personality in later life may mediate the effects of early–life factors on health and subjective wellbeing. © 2016 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

Construction and Reconstruction of Social Event Sequences: A Developmental and Comparative Study

1985 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Oppenheimer ◽  
Monique Groot
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Event Sequence ◽  
Guttman Scale ◽  
Social Event ◽  
Event Sequences ◽  
Initial Event ◽  
Social Events

78 children from three age levels ( M ages 5.7, 7.5, and 9.0 yr.) and from Dutch and nonDutch parents were presented three tasks to index their abilities to construct and reconstruct sequences of social events. The results show that all tasks form a stochastic Guttman-scale indicating that all measures tap the same cognitive ability. The resulting hierarchy of the tasks suggests that the ability to complete an event sequence by selecting from two additional events, i.e., the initial and the final events, preceded ability to select from two alternative events either the correct final or the correct initial event. The latter two constructional abilities preceded ability to reconstruct sequences of social events involving memorizing the sequence and anticipatory and reversibility competences.

scholarly journals Birth weight is associated with brain tissue volumes seven decades later, but not with age-associated changes to brain structure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily N. W. Wheater ◽  
Susan D. Shenkin ◽  
Susana Muñoz Maniega ◽  
Maria Valdés Hernández ◽  
Joanna M. Wardlaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Weight ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Brain Tissue ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Mri Features

AbstractBirth weight, an indicator of fetal growth, is associated with cognitive outcomes in early life and risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease across the life course. Cognitive ability in early life is predictive of cognitive ability in later life. Brain health in older age, defined by MRI features, is associated with cognitive performance. However, little is known about how variation in normal birth weight impacts on brain structure in later life. In a community dwelling cohort of participants in their early seventies we tested the hypothesis that birthweight is associated with the following MRI features: total brain (TB), grey matter (GM) and normal appearing white matter (NAWM) volumes; whiter matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume; a general factor of fractional anisotropy (gFA) and peak width skeletonised mean diffusivity (PSMD) across the white matter skeleton. We also investigated the associations of birthweight with cortical surface area, volume and thickness. Birthweight was positively associated with TB, GM and NAWM volumes in later life (β ≥ 0.194), and with regional cortical surface area but not gFA, PSMD, WMH volume, or cortical volume or thickness. These positive relationships appear to be explained by larger intracranial volume rather than by age-related tissue atrophy, and are independent of body height and weight in adulthood. This suggests that larger birthweight is linked to increased brain tissue reserve in older life, rather than a resilience to age-related changes in brain structure, such as tissue atrophy or WMH volume.Significance StatementCognitive brain ageing carries a high personal, societal and financial cost and understanding its developmental origins is important for identifying possible preventative strategies. In a sample of older participants from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 we were able to explore the neurobiological correlates of birth weight, which is indicative of the fetal experience. We find that higher birth weight is related to larger brain tissue volumes in later life, but does not modify the trajectory of age-related change. This suggests that early life growth confers preserved differentiation, rather than differential preservation with regards to brain reserve. That these effects are detectable into later life indicates that this variable may be valuable biomarker in the epidemiology of ageing.

Early Life Exposure to Air Pollution, Cognitive Development, and Labor Market Outcome

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-95
Author(s):  
Rashesh Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Early Life Exposure ◽  
Pollution Exposure ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, I study the impact of early life exposure to air pollution caused by the 1997 Indonesian forest fires on cognitive ability, an important determinant of success in the labor market. To isolate the effect of pollution exposure, I use a difference-in-differences approach where exposure to pollution is determined by timing and region of birth. The results suggest that pollution lowered cognitive test score at age 8–9 years by 6 percent. I also estimate how this might translate into lost earnings on a different but comparable sample. The estimates suggest that natural disasters can reduce earnings by 5 to 8 percent by hampering cognitive ability. Lost earnings due to interrupted cognitive development could be an additional cost of exposure to air pollution.

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