Study on How Parental Income Influences Child Mental Health and Brain Immune Function Using Income Supplements and Brain Imaging in Youth Ages 10 to 18

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are investigating how growing up in a lower-income family affects mental health during adolescence and early adulthood. The study explores the impact of family income variability on child development and mental illness risk, focusing on family stress and neuroimmune mechanisms. It evaluates whether income supplements to parents during critical developmental periods can help prevent youth mental illness by examining causal pathways and policy implications. The study involves a double-blind randomized controlled trial where 1,200 youth with lower-income parents were assigned to receive either substantial or minimal monthly income supplements for three years, starting when the children were aged 5 to 14. Researchers will measure brain activity through fMRI tasks that engage neural circuits related to reward, working memory, and socioemotional processing. The interventions long-term effects on neuroimmune signaling and mental health risk will be assessed up to four years after the income supplements end. Participants will be followed from ages 10 to 18, with neuroimaging conducted on a subsample of 500 youth living within a 2-hour drive of Chicago. Assessments include brain response to specific fMRI tasks, inflammatory biomarkers, and classical monocyte levels. The study measures family and youth stress, parenting quality, and mental health outcomes to understand how income supplements influence brain immune function and psychopathology risk over time.

Experimental Evidence of the Impact of Parental Income on Child Mental Health and Neuroimmune Function