The influence of socioeconomic variability on language and cognitive development is present from toddlerhood to adolescence and calls for investigating its earliest manifestation. Response to joint attention (RJA) abilities constitute a foundational developmental milestone that are associated with future language, cognitive, and social skills. How aspects of the family home environment shape RJA skills is relatively unknown. We investigated associations between family socioeconomic status (SES) —both parent education and family percentage of the federal poverty level (FPL)— parent depressive and anxiety symptoms and infant RJA performance in a cross‐sectional sample of 173 infants aged 8–18 months and their parents from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Results suggest that, correcting for age and receptive language, infants in families with greater economic resources respond to relatively less redundant, more sophisticated cues for joint attention. Although parent depressive and anxiety symptoms are negatively correlated with SES, parent depressive and anxiety symptoms were not associated with infant RJA. These findings provide evidence of SES‐related differences in social cognitive development as early as infancy, calling on policymakers to address the inequities in the current socioeconomic landscape of the United States.

中文翻译：

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婴儿对共同注意力线索做出反应的能力因家庭社会经济地位而异


社会经济变异对语言和认知发展的影响从幼儿期到青春期都存在，需要研究其最早的表现。对共同注意力（RJA）能力的反应构成了与未来语言、认知和社交技能相关的基本发展里程碑。家庭环境如何影响 RJA 技能尚不清楚。我们以 173 名 8-18 个月婴儿的横断面样本为研究对象，调查了家庭社会经济地位 (SES)（父母教育程度和家庭占联邦贫困线 (FPL) 的百分比）、父母抑郁和焦虑症状与婴儿 RJA 表现之间的关系，以及他们的父母来自不同的社会经济背景。结果表明，在校正年龄和接受语言后，经济资源较多的家庭中的婴儿会对相对较少冗余、更复杂的共同注意力线索做出反应。虽然父母的抑郁和焦虑症状与 SES 呈负相关，但父母的抑郁和焦虑症状与婴儿 RJA 无关。这些发现提供了早在婴儿期社会认知发展中与社会经济地位相关的差异的证据，呼吁政策制定者解决美国当前社会经济格局中的不平等问题。