Infant brain development reflects families’ financial ability to meet everyday needs
Decades of research show that early psychosocial stress, including chronic exposure to adversity, can shape how a child’s brain develops, with effects that last well beyond childhood. But families rarely experience just one source of stress at a time. Financial strain, caregiving stress, and other challenges often overlap, making it difficult to identify which factors matter most for early brain development.
New research led by Boston Children’s Hospital and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes a different approach. Instead of examining risk factors one by one, the team used a novel, network-based approach to examine how multiple family conditions interact and which ones are most strongly related to brain development.
The study team followed families during routine 4-, 9-, and 12-month well-child visits at a primary care clinic serving mostly low-income communities. Parents completed brief surveys about household income, whether that income felt sufficient to meet their family’s needs, and levels of caregiver stress. During the same visits, researchers recorded infants’ brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG), a noninvasive procedure that took about 10 minutes.
A clear pattern emerged. Caregivers who reported that their income was never sufficient to meet their household needs were also more likely to experience higher financial stress, lower educational attainment, and greater exposure to adverse life events. Notably, when looking at all these related stressors together, one factor stood out as most influencing their child’s brain development: caregiver-reported income sufficiency.
Infants growing up in households where caregivers felt their income was never adequate showed signs of delayed brain maturation across the first year of life. These differences were most apparent in EEG measures of alpha and beta brain activity—features known to track early brain development and later cognitive functioning.
“Children grow up in complex, dynamic environments where stressors are interconnected,” said Haerin Chung, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and co-first author of the study. “By using a network approach, we can identify which factors are most central—much like identifying influential nodes in a social network. Changing those central factors may have ripple effects across a child’s developmental environment.”
The findings also raise important questions about how families’ ability to meet basic needs becomes biologically embedded during infancy. The study was not designed to pinpoint specific pathways, but researchers note that multiple, overlapping mechanisms are likely involved.
Meeting basic needs may shape brain development through factors such as nutrition and housing stability, as well as through caregivers’ time, stress levels, and capacity to engage in developmentally supportive interactions. When families experience chronic financial strain, parents may have less time or energy for activities that support early learning, such as play, language exposure, and social interaction.
“Early brain development is shaped not only by biology, but by the everyday experiences infants have with their caregivers and their environment,” said Carol Wilkinson, MD, PhD, an attending physician and neuroscientist in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and co-first author of the study. “Understanding which pathways matter most is an important next step for future research. Policies that strengthen supports affecting day-to-day financial stability during infancy may have lasting developmental benefits.”
Taken together, the findings suggest that policies and programs that strengthen families’ ability to meet basic needs during the first year of life may have lasting developmental benefits.
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Article Title
Income insufficiency impacts early brain development in infants facing increased psychosocial adversity: A network-based approach
Article Publication Date
5-Jan-2026
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