Adolescent neighborhood disadvantage and memory performance in young adulthood

Citation

Noppert, Grace A.; Martin, Chantel L.; Zivich, Paul N.; Aiello, Allison E.; Harris, Kathleen Mullan; & O'Rand, Angela (2022). Adolescent neighborhood disadvantage and memory performance in young adulthood. Health & Place. vol. 75

Abstract

Objective Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we estimated the average causal effect of neighborhood disadvantage in adolescence on memory performance in young adulthood. We contrasted several different ways of operationalizing a continuous measure of neighborhood disadvantage including a continuous neighborhood disadvantage score and ordinal measures. Results Neighborhood disadvantage was measured in Wave I when participants were a mean age of 15.41 years (SE: 0.12) and memory performance was measured in Wave IV when participants were a mean age of 28.24 years (SE: 0.12). We found that adolescent neighborhood disadvantage was associated with decreased memory performance in young adulthood. Notably, we observed a linear decline in word recall score among those in the less disadvantaged tail of the distribution (neighborhood disadvantage <1), a finding not observed using traditional ordinal variable classifications of disadvantage. Conclusion Experiencing neighborhood disadvantage in adolescence may have lasting impacts on cognitive health throughout the life course.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102793

Keyword(s)

Neighborhood disadvantage

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Health & Place

Author(s)

Noppert, Grace A.
Martin, Chantel L.
Zivich, Paul N.
Aiello, Allison E.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
O'Rand, Angela

Year Published

2022

Volume Number

75

ISSN/ISBN

1353-8292

DOI

10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102793

Reference ID

9662