Author Note
This project was supported by National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development grant HD057066 and National Institute of Mental Health
grant MH130397 awarded to B.G. The content is solely the responsibility
of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of
the National Institutes of Health.
Correspondence should be addressed to Brandon E. Gibb, Ph.D., Department
of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York,
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA; Email: bgibb@binghamton.edu.
Abstract
Research has shown that exposure to higher rates of neighborhood
disadvantage and contextual threat increases risk for the development of
psychopathology in youth, with some evidence that these effects may
differ across racial/ethnic groups. Although studies have shown that
direct exposure to stress impacts neural responses to threat-relevant
stimuli, less is known about how neighborhood characteristics more
generally (e.g., living in neighborhood characterized by high crime
risk, whether or not the individual directly experiences any crime) may
impact children’s neural responses to threat. To address this question,
we examined links between census-derived indices of neighborhood crime
and neural reactivity to emotional stimuli in a sample of 100 children
(Mage = 9.64, 54% girls, 65% non-Hispanic White) and
whether these relations differ for children from minority backgrounds
compared to non-Hispanic White children. Focusing on the late positive
potential (LPP) event-related potential (ERP) component, we examined
neural reactivity to threat-relevant stimuli (fearful faces) as well as
non-threat relevant negative (sad faces) and positive (happy faces)
stimuli across low, medium, and high intensities (morph levels). We
found that levels of neighborhood crime were associated with LPP
response to high intensity fearful, but not happy or sad, faces, but
only among children from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds. This
suggests that levels of crime within one’s neighborhood may be a more
salient stressor for children from minority racial-ethnic groups than
for non-Hispanic White children.
Keywords : Neighborhood stress, Threat, Late positive potential
(LPP)
Neighborhood crime risk and
racial/ethnic differences in
children’s neural reactivity to emotional
stimuli
Neighborhood context during childhood and adolescence contributes to the
development of self and perceptions of the world that are maintained
into adulthood (Dupéré et al., 2012). Children from lower income
neighborhoods have been shown to be exposed to more psychosocial
stressors than their peers, including greater exposure to community
violence (Evans and English, 2002). In turn, children and adolescents
from lower income neighborhoods experiencing greater levels of crime are
more likely to experience chronic stress and are at increased risk for
psychopathology (Dupéré et. al., 2012; Jorgensen et. al., 2023;King et.
al., 2022; Lowe et. al., 2016; Ramey and Harrington, 2019). Although the
precise mechanisms by which this risk is conveyed are not clear, a
promising candidate is heightened reactivity to threatening stimuli.
Childhood exposure to threat, whether that be negative life events,
childhood abuse, or experiences of corporal punishment, have been
associated with increased neural reactivity to threat-relevant stimuli
(Cuartas et. al., 2021; Gollier-Bryant et. al., 2016; Puetz et. al.,
2020; White et. al., 2019). Further, adolescents who had experienced or
witnessed violence (e.g. gun/knife violence and physical altercations)
exhibited heightened amygdala responses to angry emotional facial
stimuli (White et. al., 2019). Each of these studies focused on direct
experiences and less is known about how contextual markers such as
simply living in an area with higher crime rates may impact neural
reactivity to threat. This type of investigation is important because
many children live in high crime areas, even if they are not personally
the victim of crime themselves.
The primary goal of this study, therefore, was to examine links between
neighborhood indices of crime risk and children’s neural reactivity to
threat-relevant stimuli. In doing so, we focused on the late positive
potential (LPP), which is an event-related potential (ERP) component
commonly used to study neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, with
larger LPPs observed for emotional or personally salient stimuli than
for neutral stimuli (REFs). To determine whether the findings were
specific threat-relevant stimuli (fearful faces), we also included
non-threat-relevant negative stimuli (sad faces) and positive stimuli
(happy faces). We predicted that children from areas with higher levels
of neighborhood crime would exhibit larger LPP responses specifically to
threat-relevant stimuli. Given evidence that threat exposure may also
increase children’s sensitivity to milder or ambiguous displays of
threat (e.g., neutral stimuli), we examined three levels of emotional
stimuli – low, medium, and high – though we did not make specific
hypotheses regarding the different intensity levels.
A secondary aim was to determine whether links between neighborhood
crime risk and children’s neural reactivity to emotional stimuli may
differ for children from minority racial/ethnic backgrounds compared to
non-Hispanic White children. There is evidence for greater neural
reactivity to threat relevant stimuli in Black compared to White
individuals, particularly among those exposed to higher levels of stress
(Fani et. al., 2021; Harnett et. al., 2019) There is also evidence from
one study that higher levels of parent-reported levels of neighborhood
disadvantage are associated with greater neural reactivity to threat in
children and adolescents from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds but not
among White youth (Jorgensen et al., 2023). Given this, we predicted
that the link between neighborhood crime risk and LPP reactivity to
threat-relevant stimuli would be stronger among racial/ethnic
minorities, compared to Non-Hispanic White children.
Method