Deviations in neurodevelopment may underlie the association between lower childhood socioeconomic status and difficulties in cognitive and socioemotional domains. Most previous investigations of the association between childhood socioeconomic status and brain morphology have used cross-sectional designs with samples that span wide age ranges, occluding effects specific to adolescence. Sex differences in the association between socioeconomic status and neurodevelopment may emerge or intensify during adolescence. In a sample representative of the San Francisco Bay Area, we used whole-brain tensor-based morphometry to examine sex differences in the cross-sectional association between variation in family income-to-needs ratio (INR) and cortical and subcortical gray and white matter volume during early adolescence (ages 9–13 years; N = 147), as well as in the longitudinal association between INR and change in volume from early to later adolescence (ages 11–16 years, N = 109). Biological sex interacted with INR to explain variation in volume in several areas cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Effects were primarily in cortical gray matter areas, including regions of the association cortex and sensorimotor processing areas. Effect sizes tended to be larger in boys than in girls. Biological sex may be an important variable to consider in analyses of the effects of family income on structural neurodevelopment during adolescence.

神经发育的偏离可能是儿童期较低的社会经济地位与认知和社会情感领域的困难之间的联系的基础。以往有关儿童社会经济地位与大脑形态之间关系的大多数研究都采用横断面设计，其样本涵盖了较宽的年龄范围，从而遮盖了青春期特有的影响。社会经济状况和神经发育之间的关联中的性别差异可能会在青春期出现或加剧。在旧金山湾区的一个样本代表中，我们使用基于全脑张量的形态计量方法来检查家庭收入与需求比率（INR）的变化与皮质和皮质下灰白之间的横截面关联中的性别差异。青春期早期（9-13岁；N = 147），以及从INR到青春期早期到后期的体量变化之间的纵向关联（年龄11-16岁，N = 109）。生物性别与INR相互作用以解释横截面和纵向几个区域的体积变化。影响主要在皮质灰质区域，包括皮层和感觉运动处理区域相关区域。男孩的效果大小倾向于大于女孩。在分析家庭收入对青春期结构神经发育的影响时，生物性别可能是要考虑的重要变量。