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Principal Investigator: SETH D POLLAK
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $230,918
Funding agency: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The American Academy of Pediatrics includes child poverty on its list of the most-dire health issues facing
children. Child poverty is a multi-determined complex problem with well-documented correlations to profound
and enduring negative effects on health and behaviors across the lifespan. Critically, there are substantial gaps
in scientific understanding of neurobehavioral mechanisms linking poverty to these outcomes, making it difficult
to tailor effective interventions to youth at risk. This project addresses this significant public health issue by
testing the effectiveness of an existing anti-poverty program, subsidized housing, on the neural correlates of
decision-making and cognitive-control in youths. Though stable housing has never been directly tested with
regard to children’s biobehavioral outcomes, there is ample ancillary data from the chronic stress literature to
suggest that housing could be leveraged to improve children’s outcomes. The general aim of the proposal is to
assess whether receipt of stable housing in childhood can attenuate deficits in cognitive processes (e.g.,
decision-making, risk-valuation, attention) contributing to poorer academic outcomes and health-related
behaviors. The project aims to determine whether means-tested public programs, namely public housing and
housing voucher programs, moderate maladaptive judgment and decision-making and examine whether stable
housing in childhood is related to longer-term outcomes such as increased academic performance and
reduced risk-taking behavior in early adolescence. This exploratory project will determine if there is sufficient
evidence to support a full scale R01 to address: (1) Developmental change in adolescents ages 12-15 years,
covering transitions when academic problems and risky behaviors emerge, (2) Discrete neurodevelopmental
mechanisms that can reveal the efficacy of housing subsidies in mitigating negative outcomes of children
growing up in poverty, (3) Characterize aspects of both brain functioning, laboratory-based behavior, and
relevant behaviors in adolescents’ actual lives, and (4) Employ sophisticated computational rigor to study these
critical questions. Because the experience of childhood/adolescent poverty is a powerful determinant of many
subsequent academic and health problems, the high risk-high gain data generated from this project have the
potential to profoundly evaluate the efficacy of family housing subsidies in the U.S, and will provide critical
information and a framework for evaluating other federally- and state-funded programs. It will do so by
highlighting differences in key cognitive processes in the brain necessary for academic achievement and
effective decision-making in adolescence and beyond. The project holds potential to open pathways for new
research that defines and specifies mechanistic ways in which the environment creates long-term effects on
brain and behavior. These foci hold tremendous promise for advancement of knowledge and application to
improvement of public health.
Terms: <0-11 years old><12-20 years old><15 year old><15 years of age><Academic achievement><Academy><Address><Adolescence><Adolescent><Adolescent Youth><Age><Agreement><American><Area><Attainment Rate><Attention><Attenuated><Automobile Driving><Basic Research><Basic Science><Behavior><Behavior Control><Behavioral><Behavioral Manipulation><Behavioral Mechanisms><Brain><Brain Nervous System><COVID-19><CV-19><Child><Child Care><Child Development><Child Youth><Childhood><Children (0-21)><Chronic><Chronic stress><Communities><Complex><Consent><Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019><County><Data><Decision Making><Development><Economic Income><Economical Income><Emotional well being><Employment><Encephalon><Environment><Family><Feels well><Functional MRI><Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging><Funding><Generalized Growth><Graduation Rates><Growth><Health><Health behavior><Household><Housing><Housing and Urban Development><Impoverished><Income><Individual Differences><Infant and Child Development><Instruction><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Interview><Job loss><Judgment><Knowledge><Laboratories><Life><Life Cycle><Life Cycle Stages><Link><Literature><Long-Term Effects><Longterm Effects><Measures><Mechanisms of Behavior and Behavior Change><Medical Assistance><Neural Pathways><Neurobiology><Neurocognitive><Neurosciences><Normal mental condition><Normal mental state><Normal psyche><Nutritional><Outcome><Parents><Participant><Pathway interactions><Pediatrics><Performance><Policies><Poverty><Problem behavior><Procedures><Process><Psychological Well Being><Public Health><Public Housing><Public Policy><Puericulture><Race><Races><Randomized><Records><Research><Research Resources><Resources><Risk><Risk Behaviors><Risk Taking><Risky Behavior><Sampling><Schools><Sense of well-being><Skin><Specific qualifier value><Specified><Study Subject><Testing><Time><Tissue Growth><Treatment Efficacy><U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development><Waiting Lists><Well in self><Wisconsin><Youth><Youth 10-21><adolescence (12-20)><age 15 years><age group><ages><at risk behavior><attenuate><attenuates><behavior mechanism><behavior outcome><behavioral control><behavioral outcome><behavioral problem><biobehavior><biobehavioral><brain control><child poverty><child protection services><child protective service><cognitive control><cognitive process><coronavirus disease 2019><coronavirus disease-19><coronavirus infectious disease-19><determine efficacy><developmental><driving><early adolescence><early adversity><early childhood adversity><early life adversity><effective intervention><effectiveness testing><efficacy analysis><efficacy assessment><efficacy determination><efficacy evaluation><efficacy examination><emotional wellbeing><emotional wellness><evaluate efficacy><examine efficacy><experience><fMRI><fifteen year old><fifteen years of age><health economics><health related behavior><high risk><high school><improved><improved outcome><incomes><intervention efficacy><interventional strategy><juvenile><juvenile human><kids><life course><life span><lifespan><mental well-being><mental wellbeing><mental wellness><neural><neural correlate><neurobehavioral><neurobiological><new approaches><novel approaches><novel strategies><novel strategy><nutritious><ontogeny><parent><pathway><pediatric><postnatal><programs><psychological wellbeing><psychological wellness><racial><racial background><racial origin><randomisation><randomization><randomly assigned><recruit><self wellness><sense of wellbeing><sex><socio-economic><socio-economically><socioeconomically><socioeconomics><therapeutic efficacy><therapy efficacy><unemployment insurance><uptake><voucher><waitlist><youngster>