Identification of individual and environmental modulators in studies of childhood poverty and cognitive development

LIPINA, SEBASTIAN J.

San Sebastian

Seminario; Seminarios del Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language; 2014

Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL)

Several studies have suggested that the associations between poverty and cognitive development during childhood are influenced by different individual and environmental factors at multiple levels of analysis (i.e., individual, family and social contexts). Specifically, the evidence suggest that the impact of those biological, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors on cognitive development could vary according to the type, number and accumulation of risks, the time in which these factors exert their influences, and the individual susceptibility to them. Complementary, during the past three decades, several interventions aimed at optimizing cognitive performance of children living in poverty contexts have been designed, implemented and evaluated. The effectiveness of some of these controlled interventions has been related to different aspects of program design, such as comprehensiveness, quality, intensity and directionality of interventions and teachers and family involvement. However, even in the case of well- designed interventions, they are not equally effective for all participating children, suggesting the existence of complex patterns of individual and environmental modulation of the impact of the interventions. In this context of discussion, I will present some studies that our research team has implemented with the aim of: (1) analyze the impact of social vulnerability on cognitive performance; (2) evaluate different interventions in school settings; and (3) analyze the modulation of individual and environmental factors in both types of studies.