IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i15p5451-d391272.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Meta-Analysis of Stressors from the Total Environment Associated with Children’s General Cognitive Ability

Author

Listed:
  • Frances M. Nilsen

    (Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27709, USA)

  • Jazmin D.C. Ruiz

    (Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27709, USA
    Honeywell International, Buffalo, NY 14210, USA)

  • Nicolle S. Tulve

    (Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27709, USA)

Abstract

General cognitive ability, often referred to as ‘general intelligence’, comprises a variety of correlated abilities. Childhood general cognitive ability is a well-studied area of research and can be used to predict social outcomes and perceived success. Early life stage (e.g., prenatal, postnatal, toddler) exposures to stressors (i.e., chemical and non-chemical stressors from the total (built, natural, social) environment) can impact the development of childhood cognitive ability. Building from our systematic scoping review (Ruiz et al., 2016), we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate more than 100 stressors related to cognitive development. Our meta-analysis identified 23 stressors with a significant increase in their likelihood to influence childhood cognitive ability by 10% or more, and 80 stressors were observed to have a statistically significant effect on cognitive ability. Stressors most impactful to cognition during the prenatal period were related to maternal health and the mother’s ability to access information relevant to a healthy pregnancy (e.g., diet, lifestyle). Stressors most impactful to cognition during the early childhood period were dietary nutrients (infancy), quality of social interaction (toddler), and exposure to toxic substances (throughout early childhood). In conducting this analysis, we examined the relative impact of real-world exposures on cognitive development to attempt to understand the inter-relationships between exposures to both chemical and non-chemical stressors and early developmental life stages. Our findings suggest that the stressors observed to be the most influential to childhood cognitive ability are not permanent and can be broadly categorized as activities/behaviors which can be modified to improve childhood cognition. This meta-analysis supports the idea that there are complex relationships between a child’s total environment and early cognitive development.

Suggested Citation

  • Frances M. Nilsen & Jazmin D.C. Ruiz & Nicolle S. Tulve, 2020. "A Meta-Analysis of Stressors from the Total Environment Associated with Children’s General Cognitive Ability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-35, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:15:p:5451-:d:391272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5451/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5451/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kerry Ard & Cynthia Colen & Marisol Becerra & Thelma Velez, 2016. "Two Mechanisms: The Role of Social Capital and Industrial Pollution Exposure in Explaining Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Kyle D. Buck & J. Kevin Summers & Lisa M. Smith & Linda C. Harwell, 2018. "Application of the Human Well-Being Index to Sensitive Population Divisions: a Children’s Well-Being Index Development," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1249-1280, August.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:5039 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:mpr:mprres:5983 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Frances M. Nilsen & Jessica Frank & Nicolle S. Tulve, 2020. "A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Investigating the Relationship between Exposures to Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressors during Prenatal Development and Childhood Externalizing Behaviors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-32, March.
    6. Viechtbauer, Wolfgang, 2010. "Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 36(i03).
    7. Alesia Ferguson & Helena Solo-Gabriele, 2016. "Children’s Exposure to Environmental Contaminants: An Editorial Reflection of Articles in the IJERPH Special Issue Entitled, “Children’s Exposure to Environmental Contaminants”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-10, November.
    8. Lovasi, G.S. & Quinn, J.W. & Rauh, V.A. & Perera, F.P. & Andrews, H.F. & Garfinkel, R. & Hoepner, L. & Whyatt, R. & Rundle, A., 2011. "Chlorpyrifos exposure and urban residential environment characteristics as determinants of early childhood neurodevelopment," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(1), pages 63-70.
    9. Monika A. Zielinska & Jadwiga Hamulka & Iwona Grabowicz-Chądrzyńska & Joanna Bryś & Aleksandra Wesolowska, 2019. "Association between Breastmilk LC PUFA, Carotenoids and Psychomotor Development of Exclusively Breastfed Infants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-18, March.
    10. Kristen M. Rappazzo & Evan Coffman & Erin P. Hines, 2017. "Exposure to Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances and Health Outcomes in Children: A Systematic Review of the Epidemiologic Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-22, June.
    11. Robert Plomin, 1999. "Genetics and general cognitive ability," Nature, Nature, vol. 402(6761), pages 25-29, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cañas, María & Ibabe, Izaskun & Arruabarrena, Ignacia & De Paúl, Joaquín, 2022. "The dyadic parent-child interaction coding system (DPICS): Negative talk as an indicator of dysfunctional mother-child interaction," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Whitney S Beck & Ed K Hall, 2018. "Confounding factors in algal phosphorus limitation experiments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Bart Verkuil & Serpil Atasayi & Marc L Molendijk, 2015. "Workplace Bullying and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Francesca Pilotto & Ingolf Kühn & Rita Adrian & Renate Alber & Audrey Alignier & Christopher Andrews & Jaana Bäck & Luc Barbaro & Deborah Beaumont & Natalie Beenaerts & Sue Benham & David S. Boukal & , 2020. "Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:6:p:972-988 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Jonas Schmidt & Tammo H. A. Bijmolt, 2020. "Accurately measuring willingness to pay for consumer goods: a meta-analysis of the hypothetical bias," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 499-518, May.
    6. Mario Herberz & Tobias Brosch & Ulf J. J. Hahnel, 2020. "Kilo what? Default units increase value sensitivity in joint evaluations of energy efficiency," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(6), pages 972-988, November.
    7. Piers Steel & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Herman Aguinis, 2021. "The anatomy of an award-winning meta-analysis: Recommendations for authors, reviewers, and readers of meta-analytic reviews," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(1), pages 23-44, February.
    8. Augusteijn, Hilde Elisabeth Maria & van Aert, Robbie Cornelis Maria & van Assen, Marcel A. L. M., 2021. "Posterior Probabilities of Effect Sizes and Heterogeneity in Meta-Analysis: An Intuitive Approach of Dealing with Publication Bias," OSF Preprints avkgj, Center for Open Science.
    9. Georgiou, George K. & Guo, Kan & Naveenkumar, Nithya & Vieira, Ana Paula Alves & Das, J.P., 2020. "PASS theory of intelligence and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Geller, Susann & Wilhelm, Oliver & Wacker, Jan & Hamm, Alfons & Hildebrandt, Andrea, 2017. "Associations of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism with working memory and intelligence – A review and meta-analysis," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 75-92.
    11. Anna Maria Santiago & Kristen A. Berg & Joffré Leroux, 2021. "Assessing the Impact of Neighborhood Conditions on Neurodevelopmental Disorders during Childhood," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-14, August.
    12. Gignac, Gilles E. & Bates, Timothy C., 2017. "Brain volume and intelligence: The moderating role of intelligence measurement quality," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 18-29.
    13. Stephan Kambach & Ingolf Kühn & Bastien Castagneyrol & Helge Bruelheide, 2016. "The Impact of Tree Diversity on Different Aspects of Insect Herbivory along a Global Temperature Gradient - A Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, November.
    14. Matzel, Louis D. & Bendrath, Sophie & Herzfeld, Margalit & Crawford, Dylan W. & Sauce, Bruno, 2019. "Mouse twins separated when young: A history of exploration doubles the heritability of boldness and differentially affects the heritability of measures of learning," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 34-42.
    15. repec:cup:judgdm:v:14:y:2019:i:3:p:234-279 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Senlin Zhou & Yunpeng Wu & Xizheng Xu, 2023. "Linking Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression to Mindfulness: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Mahesh Shumsher Rughooputh & Rui Zeng & Ying Yao, 2015. "Protein Diet Restriction Slows Chronic Kidney Disease Progression in Non-Diabetic and in Type 1 Diabetic Patients, but Not in Type 2 Diabetic Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials ," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    18. de la Cruz, Vera Ysabel V. & Tantriani, & Cheng, Weiguo & Tawaraya, Keitaro, 2023. "Yield gap between organic and conventional farming systems across climate types and sub-types: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    19. Christopher Winchester & Kelsey E. Medeiros, 2023. "In Bounds but Out of the Box: A Meta-Analysis Clarifying the Effect of Ethicality on Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 713-743, March.
    20. Kelly R Moran & Sara Y Del Valle, 2016. "A Meta-Analysis of the Association between Gender and Protective Behaviors in Response to Respiratory Epidemics and Pandemics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-25, October.
    21. Cyrielle Maroteau & Antonio Espuela-Ortiz & Esther Herrera-Luis & Sundararajan Srinivasan & Fiona Carr & Roger Tavendale & Karen Wilson & Natalia Hernandez-Pacheco & James D Chalmers & Steve Turner & , 2021. "LTA4H rs2660845 association with montelukast response in early and late-onset asthma," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, September.
    22. Liam S. Oliver & John P. Sullivan & Suzanna Russell & Jonathan M. Peake & Mitchell Nicholson & Craig McNulty & Vincent G. Kelly, 2021. "Effects of Nutritional Interventions on Accuracy and Reaction Time with Relevance to Mental Fatigue in Sporting, Military, and Aerospace Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:15:p:5451-:d:391272. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.