Researchers have found that environmental supports in the first year of life, termed the thrive factor (T-factor), play a crucial role in brain, cognitive, and socioemotional development in children by age 3, underscoring the importance of quality environments for early childhood development.
By Vijay Kumar MalesuMar 19 2024Reviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc. In a recent study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, researchers evaluated how fundamental environmental supports, encapsulated as a thrive factor , during the first year of life significantly influences brain, cognitive, and socioemotional development by age 3.
About the study The present study involved mother-infant pairs, part of the Early Life Adversity Biological Embedding and Risk for Developmental Precursors of Mental Disorders project, a longitudinal investigation into how early life adversity affects neurodevelopment and the risk of mental disorders. These pairs were selected during pregnancy from a cohort within the Prematurity Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis.
Magnetic resonance imaging scans were conducted at 24 and 36 months to examine brain volumes and cortical folding, aiming to identify structural correlates of the environmental influences captured by the T-factor. The study used multiple imputations to handle missing data and applied stepwise linear regression to explore the relationships between the T-factor, PSD, and child development outcomes, including cognitive abilities, psychopathology, and brain structure.
Socioemotional outcomes, specifically externalizing and internalizing symptoms, were inversely related to the T-factor. This relationship suggests that better environmental supports can reduce negative socioemotional symptoms in children, a finding particularly pronounced for internalizing symptoms in contexts of higher PSD.
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