Childhood deprivation and threat linked to lower executive-function scores in Brazil

Researchers analysed data from more than 2,000 children in a population-based birth cohort in Pelotas, Brazil. Caregiver questionnaires and filmed observations were used to assess adverse childhood experiences at age 4. The researchers grouped exposures into deprivation and threat domains and their subtypes, then examined associations with composite measures of inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and working memory at ages 4 and 6–7, using adjusted linear regression models.

At age 6–7, children in the highest versus lowest tertile of total deprivation had executive-function scores 0.67 standard deviations lower (β = −0.67; 95% CI, −0.78 to −0.56). Total threat was also associated with lower scores (β = −0.28; 95% CI, −0.39 to −0.17). Material and interactional deprivation, and direct threat, were associated with lower scores at both ages; household threat showed no evidence of association.

The findings describe associations, not proof that these exposures caused poorer executive function. They support attention to deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early adversity, but the abstract does not establish which interventions improve outcomes. The analysis is from one Brazilian cohort, and the full text was not available in the supplied material.