Brooke Wortsman

Significance: The first three years of life represent a period of heightened neural plasticity, during which early adversity—such as poverty and maternal stress—can shape long-term developmental trajectories. However, little is known about how these adversities are linked to neural network organization in infants and toddlers living in low-resource settings.Aim: This study examined how prenatal exposure to maternal poverty and mental health symptoms relates to neural network organization in early childhood.Approach: We conducted a longitudinal study with 42 children (6–36 months old) from economically-vulnerable households in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Maternal multidimensional poverty and mental health symptoms were assessed around conception and during pregnancy. Two years later, children’s development was measured using the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI), and resting-state brain activity was recorded using portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Graph-theoretic metrics of functional connectivity, including segregation, integration, and small-worldness, were computed to characterize neural network organization.Results: Greater exposure to poverty was associated with reduced network segregation and integration. In contrast, higher maternal mental health symptoms were linked to increased segregation and integration. These findings suggest that deprivation and maternal stress differentially relate to early neural network architecture.Conclusions: Our results align with dimensional models of adversity, and suggest that deprivation (related to poverty) and threat/unpredictability (related to maternal mental health and caregiving) may become biologically embedded. These findings underscore the importance of addressing both structural poverty and maternal mental health during pregnancy and early childhood to promote healthy brain development in high-adversity contexts.

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), nearly 20% of primary school-aged children are out-of-school (OOS; UNESCO, 2019), either having dropped out or never having enrolled (Inoue et al., 2015; Jasińska and Guei, 2022; Wortsman et al., 2024). While examining risks related to being OOS is crucial, identifying factors that help children at highest risk of being OOS remain enrolled (defined here as educational resilience) is equally important, yet understudied. We examined child- and caregiver-level risk and resilience factors associated with school enrollment of primary school-aged children in rural Côte d’Ivoire (N = 851, Mage= 9.14, SDage= 2.38). Older children (11- to 15-year-olds) who experienced a higher number of risk factors were more likely to be OOS. Specifically, older children who participated in child labor and those with lower socioeconomic status were at greater risk. Children who were at high risk of being OOS but remained enrolled (i.e., educationally resilient) were more likely to have caregivers who believed more strongly in teachers’ ability to impact educational outcomes. Results suggest that caregiver subjective beliefs may contribute to schooling decisions.

Many refugee children face challenges that negatively affect behavioral and academic outcomes post-resettlement. The present study explored socioemotional well-being (SEWB) and language and literacy skills in Syrian refugee children (N=60, Mage=13.63) in the longer-term (1-13 years) after resettlement in Canada. SEWB was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire. Language and literacy skills were assessed with a comprehensive battery of standardized measures. Although most participants exhibited typical SEWB, a significant portion exhibited low SEWB. Participants displayed difficulties in all language and literacy skills. Low SEWB was found to be significantly related to poor word reading, phonological awareness and passage comprehension. Time since resettlement was not related to SEWB or literacy, suggesting literacy difficulties persist post-resettlement. Our findings demonstrate a relation between SEWB and academic outcomes, and show the importance of interventions that bolster not only academics, but the mental health needs of target populations.

Child labour disrupts education, but there is scant research on the reciprocal relationship: education disrupting child labour. We examined the link between school quality and child cocoa agricultural work in a sample of 2168 fifth-grade children from forty-one primary schools in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Children attending a higher quality school were less likely to work on a cocoa plantation. Specifically, quality infrastructure and teaching materials were associated with reduced cocoa agricultural activities, but not with domestic and economic activities. Against the backdrop of a global focus on improving education quality, we suggest that investments in quality education may serve the dual purpose of reducing child labour alongside improving children’s learning outcomes.

Executive Functions (EF; inhibitory control [IC], cognitive flexibility [CF] and working memory [WM]) mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status and reading. However, little is known of the roles of individual EF components in mediating the socioeconomic-reading achievement gap, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In Côte d’Ivoire, children experience many socioeconomic disadvantages (i.e., fewer household resources, maternal illiteracy), and kinship fostering (child in care of extended family while parents pursue economic opportunities elsewhere) is prevalent. This study examines the relation between EF components, socioeconomic risks, and reading among 5th grade children in rural Côte d’Ivoire (N=369). Poorer WM mediated the relationship between higher cumulative socioeconomic risk (poverty, maternal illiteracy, fostering) and lower reading scores. Further, WM fully mediated the negative effects of fostering risk on reading scores. Results suggest that EF components are differentially impacted by environmental socioeconomic risks and play different roles in supporting reading development.

We examined child-, family-, and school-level risk and resilience factors associated with dropout using longitudinal data of fifth-grade students in rural Côte d’Ivoire (N=1195, Mage=10.75, SDage=1.42). Children who dropped out were older, involved in more child labour, had poorer literacy, owned fewer books, and attended schools with poorer learning environments. Cumulative risk (CR) indices revealed that child-level CR most strongly predicted dropout (b=-0.86, OR=0.42); further, children with low child-level CR were more likely to drop out when family-level CR was high (b=0.23, OR=1.25). Better school infrastructure and teachers were protective for children who were at high risk of dropout yet remained enrolled. Although child- and family-level factors contribute to risk of dropout, school-level factors may mitigate risks and promote academic resilience amongst students in West Africa.

Child labour disrupts education, but there is scant research on the reciprocal relationship: education disrupting child labour. We examined the link between school quality and child cocoa agricultural work in a sample of 2168 fifth-grade children from forty-one primary schools in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Children attending a higher quality school were less likely to work on a cocoa plantation. Specifically, quality infrastructure and teaching materials were associated with reduced cocoa agricultural activities, but not with domestic and economic activities. Against the backdrop of a global focus on improving education quality, we suggest that investments in quality education may serve the dual purpose of reducing child labour alongside improving children’s learning outcomes.