Parental warmth buffers the negative impact of weaker fronto-striatal connectivity on early adolescents' academic achievement.

Beiming Yang, Zexi Zhou, Ya-Yun Chen, Varun Devakonda, Tianying Cai, Tae-Ho Lee, Yang Qu
Author Information
  1. Beiming Yang: School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. ORCID
  2. Zexi Zhou: Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA. ORCID
  3. Ya-Yun Chen: Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. ORCID
  4. Varun Devakonda: School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
  5. Tianying Cai: School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. ORCID
  6. Tae-Ho Lee: Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. ORCID
  7. Yang Qu: School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. ORCID

Abstract

In past decades, the positive role of self-control in students' academic success has attracted plenty of scholarly attention. However, fewer studies have examined the link between adolescents' neural development of the inhibitory control system and their academic achievement, especially using a longitudinal approach. Moreover, less is known about the role of parents in this link. Using large-scale longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study (N = 9574; mean age = 9.94 years at baseline, SD = .63; 50% girls), the current study took an integrative biopsychosocial approach to explore the longitudinal link between early adolescents' fronto-striatal connectivity and their academic achievement, with attention to the moderating role of parental warmth. Results showed that weaker intrinsic connectivity between the frontoparietal network and the striatum was associated with early adolescents' worse academic achievement over 2 years during early adolescence. Notably, parental warmth moderated the association between fronto-striatal connectivity and academic achievement, such that weaker fronto-striatal connectivity was only predictive of worse academic achievement among early adolescents who experienced low levels of parental warmth. Taken together, the findings demonstrate weaker fronto-striatal connectivity as a risk factor for early adolescents' academic development and highlight parental warmth as a protective factor for academic development among those with weaker connectivity within the inhibitory control system.

Keywords

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Grants

  1. /Center for Culture, Brain, Biology, and Learning at Northwestern University
  2. U24 DA041147/NIDA NIH HHS
  3. U01 DA051039/NIDA NIH HHS
  4. U01 DA041120/NIDA NIH HHS
  5. U01 DA051018/NIDA NIH HHS
  6. U01 DA041093/NIDA NIH HHS
  7. U24 DA041123/NIDA NIH HHS
  8. U01 DA051038/NIDA NIH HHS
  9. U01 DA051037/NIDA NIH HHS
  10. U01 DA051016/NIDA NIH HHS
  11. U01 DA041106/NIDA NIH HHS
  12. U01 DA041117/NIDA NIH HHS
  13. U01 DA041148/NIDA NIH HHS
  14. U01 DA041174/NIDA NIH HHS
  15. U01 DA041134/NIDA NIH HHS
  16. U01 DA041022/NIDA NIH HHS
  17. U01 DA041156/NIDA NIH HHS
  18. U01 DA050987/NIDA NIH HHS
  19. BCS-1944644/National Science Foundation
  20. U01 DA041025/NIDA NIH HHS
  21. U01 DA050989/NIDA NIH HHS
  22. U01 DA041089/NIDA NIH HHS
  23. U01 DA050988/NIDA NIH HHS
  24. U01 DA041028/NIDA NIH HHS
  25. U01 DA041048/NIDA NIH HHS

MeSH Term

Humans
Female
Male
Academic Success
Adolescent
Parent-Child Relations
Longitudinal Studies
Child
Corpus Striatum
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Frontal Lobe
Adolescent Development

Word Cloud

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