The Link Between Low Childhood SES and Adult Stress: Evidence from EEG

Abstract

Low childhood SES has been associated with diminished health and neurocognitive outcomes (Noble et al., 2005), though few studies have examined how the neurological stress response in adults is impacted by socioeconomic factors from childhood. This study uses EEG measures of frontal midline theta (FMT) and P300 to index cognitive control and arousal during economic threat and aversive stimuli presentation. Participants who grew up in lower SES environments showed an increased need for cognitive control indexed by FMT during threat. In those from low SES backgrounds, need for control was found to mediate the relationship between economic uncertainty and distress during aversive stimuli indexed by increased P300 amplitudes during auditory oddball. The results suggest that hypervigilance towards threat and adaptive goal- monitoring for survival in impoverished upbringings may create conflict-processing loops that increase one’s neuro-physiological response towards stressful stimuli later in life. A neurocognitive mechanism of increased stress and reduced emotion regulation (ER) in low childhood SES individuals is presented. Implications for protective factors against reduced ER are discussed.