The Environment of Poverty: Multiple Stressor Exposure, Psychophysiological Stress, and Socioemotional Adjustment

Using a short-term longitudinal design (6 months), this study examined cumulative contextual risk as a predictor of effortful control (EC) and social competence in a community sample of children (N = 80, ages 33-40 months at time 1). Maternal parenting was examined as a mediator of contextual risk. EC was assessed using laboratory tasks, and parenting was assessed using observational ratings. Time 1 contextual risk was negatively related to time 2 EC after controlling for time 1 EC. Mothers' limit setting and scaffolding predicted higher time 2 EC and accounted for the effect of contextual risk. Time 1 EC, contextual risk, and parenting predicted time 2 social competence, and contextual risk had an indirect effect on social competence through parenting. Results suggest that contextual risk predicts smaller relative increases in EC and that parenting accounts for this effect. Knowledge of the factors that divert or promote effortful control can provide targets for intervention to enhance effortful control abilities and better adjustment.

Place-based programs are being noticed as key opportunities to prevent disease and promote public health and safety for populations at-large. As one key type of place-based intervention, nature-based and green space strategies can play an especially large role in improving health and safety for dwellers in urban environments such as US legacy cities that lack nature and greenery. In this paper, we describe the current understanding of place-based influences on public health and safety. We focus on nonchemical environmental factors, many of which are related to urban abandonment and blight. We then review findings from studies of nature-based interventions regarding impacts on health, perceptions of safety, and crime. Based on our findings, we suggest that further research in this area will require (1) refined measures of green space, nature, and health and safety for cities, (2) interdisciplinary science and cross-sector policy collaboration, (3) observational studies as well as randomized controlled experiments and natural experiments using appropriate spatial counterfactuals and mixed methods, and (4) return-on-investment calculations of potential economic, social, and health costs and benefits of urban greening initiatives. KEYWORDS Urban nature, Green space, Place-based interventions, Public health, CrimeThere is growing support of place-based programs to help prevent disease and promote public health and safety. [1][2][3][4][5] This movement is largely motivated by increasing findings that public health interventions targeted at individuals or behaviors have limited effect on health and safety outcomes at a population scale. 6 For example, educational programs that promote behavioral change among very specific, targeted population groups may not impact broader societal issues such as the actual contexts within which unhealthy behaviors like tobacco use, lack of exercise, poor diet, distracted driving, and violence occur. 7-9 Moreover, programmatic impact is rarely sustained beyond the small study populations that are targeted. When funding ends, program impact thus also often ends unless, in very rare instances, the program itself somehow becomes institutionalized or part of a larger social norm.Place-based programs rest on increasing evidence that in addition to biological and individual attributes, everyday environments have a potentially strong and Kondo is with the USDA-Forest Service, Northern Research Station,

We tested a conceptual model involving the inter-relations among affective decision-making (indexed by a gambling task), autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in a largely impoverished, inner city sample of first through third grade children (N=63, 54% male). The present study hypothesized that impaired affective decision-making and decreased sympathetic and parasympathetic activation would be associated with higher levels of ADHD and ODD symptoms, and that low sympathetic and parasympathetic activation during an emotion-inducing task would mediate the relation between affective decision-making and child externalizing symptoms. In support of our model, disadvantageous decision-making on a gambling task was associated with ADHD hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms among boys, and attenuated sympathetic activation during an emotion-inducing task mediated this relation. Support for the model was not found among girls. KeywordsADHD; ODD; Psychophysiology; Decision-making Both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is characterized by problems with attention, hyper-activity, and impulsivity, and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), which is defined by a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and oppositional behaviors toward adults, are relatively common in childhood (American Psychiatric Association 2000), and are associated with numerous negative correlates and sequelae. These correlates include deficient social problem-solving skills and impaired social functioning (Frankel and Feinberg 2002;Matthys et al. 1999), poor academic achievement Rapport et al. 1999), and co-occurring internalizing disorders Jensen et al. 2001). In addition, ADHD and ODD are related prospectively to substance use, poor academic achievement, conduct disorder (CD), and antisocial behavior (Masten et al. 2005;van Bokhoven et al. 2005), though the association between ADHD and CD may be accounted for by co-occurring ODD (Lahey et al. 2002;van Lier et al. 2007).Despite some similar correlates and outcomes, research has shown significant differences among children with ADHD vs. ODD in terms of cognitive functioning and academic performance Keenan and Wakschlag 2000), prenatal/perinatal complications (Harvey et al. 2007 Drabick et al. 2004), and family psychiatric history Harvey et al. 2007). Similarly, the ADHD-predominantly inattentive (ADHD-I) and ADHDpredominantly hyperactive-impulsive (ADHD-H) subtypes differ in terms of correlates. For instance, the ADHD-I subtype is associated with higher levels of academic difficulties and internalizing problems, whereas the ADHD-H subtype is associated with social impairment, motor inhibition deficits, and externalizing symptoms (Eiraldi et al. 1997;Gadow et al. 2000Gadow et al. , 2004McBurnett et al. 1999;Nigg et al. 2002). Despite these differences, most studies compare ADHD-I and the combined subtype of ADHD (ADHD-I + ADHD-H), likely because of the relatively lower base rates of pu...