ArticlePsychology and aging2020
Adverse childhood experiences and domain-specific cognitive function in a population-based study of older adults in rural South Africa.
Article in Psychology and aging, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse childhood experiences and cognitive outcomes among older adults in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2026Pooled it
- Is parental unemployment associated with increased risk of adverse childhood experiences? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Association of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cognitive Health in Older Adults: Rush Memory and Aging Project.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry. Open science, education, and practice · 2026Article
- The "long arm of childhood" on mortality in older adulthood in the United States and Brazil: examining the role of educational attainment and differences by gender.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of Childhood Adversity on Late-Life Cognition in Older Puerto Rican Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- The association between cumulative distal and proximal adversity with depression and anxiety among township grassroots civil servants in China.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Childhood adversity and late-life cognitive and brain health in a diverse cohort.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences and Later-Life Cognitive Aging: Persistent Methodological Challenges Limit the Evidence Base.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024Article
- The effect of childhood family adversity on adulthood depression among Chinese older migrant workers: gender differences in the mediating role of social-ecological systems.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Allostasis, health, and development in Latin America.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- A cross-cultural examination of adverse childhood experiences in low-and middle-income countries and their relation with adolescent educational aspirations.Child abuse & neglect · 2024Article
- The long-term effects of childhood circumstances on older individuals: A systematic review.Aging medicine (Milton (N.S.W)) · 2024Review
- Time-lagged associations between two adverse childhood experiences and later-life cognitive function through educational attainment and stroke.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2024Article
- Exposure to Adversity and its Impact on Later Life Cognitive, Mental, and Physical Health.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- Adverse childhood experiences and cognitive function in later life: the sequential mediating roles of education level and adult loneliness.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- No Association Found: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cognitive Impairment in Older Australian Adults.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2024Article
- Article
- Distinct domains of childhood disadvantage and cognitive performance among older Brazilians: Evidence from ELSI-Brazil.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Cognition and Cognitive Changes in a Low-Income Sub-Saharan African Aging Population.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Research on early life adversity and later-life cognitive function is conflicting, with little evidence from low-income settings. We investigated associations between adverse childhood experiences and cognitive function in an older population who grew up under racial segregation during South African apartheid. Data were from 1,871 adults aged 40-79 in the population-representative "Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa" in 2015. The adverse childhood experiences were having a parent unemployed for > 6 months; having parents who argued or fought often; having a parent who drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems; and physical abuse from parents. Executive function, language, visuospatial ability, and memory were assessed with the Oxford Cognitive Screen-Plus, a validated cognitive assessment designed for low-income, low-literacy settings. We estimated associations between adverse childhood experiences and latent cognitive domain z-scores using multiple-indicator, multiple-cause structural equation models. Childhood adversities were reported by 15% (parental unemployment for > 6 months), 25% (parents argued or fought often), 25% (a parent drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems), and 35% (physical abuse from parent) of respondents. They were not associated with cognition, except that having a parent who drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems was associated with lower memory z-scores (-0.07; 95% CI [-0.13, -0.01]). This is one of the first investigations into later-life cognitive outcomes associated with early adversity in a population with a historical context of pervasive trauma, and suggests that later-life memory may be vulnerable to early adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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