Socio‐economic disadvantage increases exposure to life stressors. Animal research suggests early life stressors impact later neurodevelopment, including myelin developmental growth. To determine how early life disadvantage may affect myelin growth in adolescence and young adulthood, we analysed data from an accelerated longitudinal neuroimaging study measuring magnetisation transfer (MT), a myelin‐sensitive marker, in 288 participants (149 female) between 14 and 25 years of age at baseline. We found that early life economic disadvantage before age 12, measured by a neighbourhood poverty index, was associated with slower myelin growth. This association was observed for magnetization transfer in cortical, subcortical and core white matter regions, and also in key subcortical nuclei. Participant IQ at baseline, alcohol use, body mass index, parental occupation and self‐reported parenting quality did not account for these effects, but parental education did so partially. Specifically, positive parenting moderated the effect of socio‐economic disadvantage in a protective manner. Thus, early socioeconomic disadvantage appears to alter myelin growth across adolescence. This finding has potential translational implications, including clarifying whether reducing socio‐economic disadvantage during childhood, and increasing parental education and positive parenting, promote normal trajectories of brain development in economically disadvantaged contexts.

中文翻译：

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儿童时期的社会经济劣势预示着青春期和青年期的髓鞘生长减少。

社会经济劣势增加了生活压力源的暴露。动物研究表明，早期生活压力源会影响后来的神经发育，包括髓鞘发育生长。为了确定早期生活的不利因素如何影响青春期和青年期的髓鞘生长，我们分析了一项加速纵向神经影像学研究的数据，该研究测量了 14 至 25 岁之间的 288 名参与者（149 名女性）的磁化转移 (MT)，这是一种髓鞘敏感标记物基线年龄。我们发现，以社区贫困指数衡量的 12 岁之前的早期生活经济劣势与髓鞘生长较慢有关。在皮质、皮质下和核心白质区域以及关键的皮质下核中观察到这种关联。参与者在基线时的智商、酒精使用情况、体重指数、父母的职业和自我报告的养育质量并未解释这些影响，但父母教育部分地解释了这些影响。具体来说，积极的养育方式以保护性的方式缓和了社会经济劣势的影响。因此，早期的社会经济劣势似乎会改变整个青春期的髓鞘生长。这一发现具有潜在的转化意义，包括阐明是否减少儿童时期的社会经济劣势，增加父母教育和积极的养育方式，是否促进经济弱势环境中大脑发育的正常轨迹。早期的社会经济劣势似乎会改变整个青春期的髓鞘生长。这一发现具有潜在的转化意义，包括阐明是否减少儿童时期的社会经济劣势，增加父母教育和积极的养育方式，是否促进经济弱势环境中大脑发育的正常轨迹。早期的社会经济劣势似乎会改变整个青春期的髓鞘生长。这一发现具有潜在的转化意义，包括阐明是否减少儿童时期的社会经济劣势，增加父母教育和积极的养育方式，是否促进经济弱势环境中大脑发育的正常轨迹。