Children exposed to early adversity are at increased risk for a broad range of developmental difficulties affecting both cognitive and emotional adjustment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2021: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Early-life adversity exposure raises children's risk for developmental difficulties in both cognitive and emotional domains. → Bick 2016

Evidence¶

Bick 2016¶

Bick, J., Nelson, C. (2016). Early Adverse Experiences and the Developing Brain. Neuropsychopharmacol. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2015.252

q2 · i? · review · r?

The review's framing statement asserts, based on the body of evidence it reviews, that children exposed to early adversity are "at increased risk for a broad range of developmental difficulties" spanning cognitive and emotional adjustment. No effect size is printed in the supplied text.

"Children exposed to various forms of adversity early in life are at increased risk for a broad range of developmental difficulties, affecting both cognitive and emotional adjustment."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Early intervention can remediate neurodevelopmental consequences associated with maltreatment or institutional rearing
• Exposure to adverse early circumstances affects the developing brain in ways that increase risk for later problems — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Trauma exposure is widespread among school students and is associated with adverse cognitive, academic, behavioral, and socioemotional outcomes — related
• Early life stress produces structural and functional alterations in prefrontal-hippocampal-amygdala circuits in animals and humans, with reduced hippocampal volume among the most reliable human findings — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Chronicity, developmental timing, and intensity of adversity exposure shape children's neurobiological stress responses — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The probability of school failure increases as a function of the timing and length of children's exposure to relational adversity — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Stress-exposed adolescents show impaired cognitive flexibility in reversal learning — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Threat and deprivation show overlapping effects on PFC-amygdala connectivity and hippocampal volume — a narrower finding that bears on this claim