ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2020
Early-life socioeconomic status, adolescent cognitive ability, and cognition in late midlife: Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Cognitive impairment and dementia-Are they linked to childhood health and socioeconomic status? A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Diminished Returns of Higher Parental Education on Cognition for Black Adults in Middle and Later Life.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Monetary savings and neuropsychological functioning in older adults without dementia.Neuropsychology · 2026Article
- State Policy Liberalism in Adolescence and Risk for Dementia from 2000 to 2016 among Older U.S. Adults.Journal of health and social behavior · 2026Article
- Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Version of the Children's Self-Perceptions of Adequacy in and Predilection for Physical Activity (CSAPPA) Questionnaire for Primary School Children Aged 6 to 12 Years.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Number of living siblings, social engagement, and cognitive decline among older Mexican adults.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Observational
- Cumulative poverty across early adulthood and midlife cognition: findings from the national longitudinal survey of youth.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2026Article
- Childhood Opportunity Index 2.0 and Cognition via the NIH Toolbox.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2026Article
- Exposure to parental depression in childhood and memory trajectories in mid- and later life.PloS one · 2026Article
- Is early childhood education associated with better midlife cognition, especially for children facing socioeconomic marginalization?PloS one · 2026Article
- Popularity, but not likability, as a risk factor for low empathy: A longitudinal examination of within- and between-person effects of peer status and empathy in adolescence.Developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Cognitive reserve and mild cognitive impairment in older adults of low socioeconomic status: evidence from an observational study in Colombia.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Observational
- Sex Differences in the Associations Among Parenting, Socioeconomic Status, and Error Monitoring Among Adolescents.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- The influence of childhood socioeconomic status on indulgent consumption.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Cortical Surface Area Profile Mediates Effects of Childhood Disadvantage on Later-Life General Cognitive Ability.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Variation in Adult Cognition Across Domains and Life Course Place Effects in the UK.Journal of aging and health · 2024Article
- The role of Southern context in shaping life course exposures linked to dementia incidence for Black and White older adults in the United States.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Differential association between childhood trauma subtypes and neurocognitive performance in adults with major depression.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Disparate benefits of higher childhood socioeconomic status on cognition in young adulthood by intersectional social positions.Advances in life course research · 2024Article
- The effects of education on mortality: Evidence using college expansions.Health economics · 2024Article
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Abstract
Although the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and late-life cognition is well-established, the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. One important potential mediator seldom examined is adolescent cognitive ability. To address this gap, we examined 5,880 respondents from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which follows a random sample of high school students who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. Structural equation models were used to examine the direct and indirect effects of childhood SES on cognition in late midlife through adolescent cognitive ability, educational attainment, midlife economic condition, and midlife health. Cognitive function was measured as a latent variable composed of scores from 6 cognitive assessments including immediate and delayed recall, digit ordering, letter and category fluency, and a subset of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale similarities test. We found that childhood SES predicts cognition in late midlife, and this association is largely mediated by adolescent cognitive ability and educational attainment and to a lesser extent by midlife economic condition and health. The findings underscore the long-arm of childhood SES in cognitive function in later life and highlight the complex life-course pathways underlying the association between childhood SES and cognition.
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