Researchers have discovered a link between poverty and smaller, slower growing brain regions.

Children in poverty are more likely to have cognitive and behavioral difficulties than their better-off peers. Plenty of past research has looked into the physical effects of childhood poverty, or documented mental health disparities between socioeconomic classes.

If we can prevent poverty, we can help circumvent some of these negative outcomes.

In their new study, researchers wanted to look at a suite of outcomes to determine whether poverty continues to affect people as they enter adulthood. And if so, how?

To answer these questions, Deanna Barch, chair and professor in the psychological and brain sciences department at Washington University in St. Louis, Joan Luby, a professor of child psychiatry in the School of Medicine, and colleagues collected data for 17 years from families who agreed to participate, including 216 preschoolers who were followed through early adulthood.

During the course of the study, the young participants underwent brain imaging to help tease out the relationships among their socioeconomic status in preschool, and provided information on a host of outcomes—including cognitive, social, and psychiatric—in early adulthood.

“First and foremost: yes,” Barch says, “Early poverty sadly continues to predict worse outcomes in all of these domains.” That holds true even if a child’s socioeconomic status changes before adulthood.

The risks for these outcomes, the research shows, are mediated through brain development.

“We think poverty and all of the things associated with it”—such as stress, inadequate nutrition, less access to health care—”impact brain development.” she says. “If we can prevent poverty, we can help circumvent some of these negative outcomes.”

Read the full article about poverty and brain development by Brandie Jefferson at Futurity.