Assari Shervin, Curry Tommy J
Department of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Educ Cult Stud. 2021;5(1):1-21. doi: 10.22158/jecs.v5n1p1. Epub 2020 Dec 3.
The thalamus is the hub of the brain and has a significant role in various brain activities.
This study explored racial differences in the association between parental education and thalamus volume among American children.
Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD), we analyzed the structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI) data of 11141 9-10 years old children. The main outcome was the left thalamus volume. The independent variable was parental education. Age, sex, ethnicity, family marital status, and intracranial volume were the covariates. Race was the moderator. To analyze the data, we used mixed-effects regression models.
In race-stratified models, high parental education was associated with smaller thalamus volume in White but not Black children. In the pooled sample, significant interactions were found between race and parental education suggesting that the effect of parental education on left thalamus volume is significantly smaller for Blacks and mixed/other race children than White children. We did not find similar findings for the right thalamus volume.
The effect of parental education on children's left thalamus volume seems to be weaker for Black and other/mixed-race children than their White counterparts. This finding is in support of Minorites' Diminished Returns (MDRs) that suggest due to social stratification and racism, economic resources have weaker-than-expected effects for minority than majority populations.
丘脑是大脑的枢纽，在各种大脑活动中发挥着重要作用。
本研究探讨了美国儿童中父母教育程度与丘脑体积之间关联的种族差异。
利用青少年大脑认知发展（ABCD）研究的数据，我们分析了11141名9至10岁儿童的结构磁共振成像（sMRI）数据。主要结果是左侧丘脑体积。自变量是父母教育程度。年龄、性别、种族、家庭婚姻状况和颅内体积为协变量。种族为调节变量。为分析数据，我们使用了混合效应回归模型。
在按种族分层的模型中，父母教育程度高与白人儿童而非黑人儿童的丘脑体积较小有关。在汇总样本中，发现种族与父母教育程度之间存在显著交互作用，这表明父母教育程度对黑人以及混血/其他种族儿童左侧丘脑体积的影响明显小于白人儿童。我们未在右侧丘脑体积上发现类似结果。
父母教育程度对黑人以及其他/混血儿童左侧丘脑体积的影响似乎比对白人儿童的影响弱。这一发现支持了少数群体收益递减（MDRs）理论，该理论认为由于社会分层和种族主义，经济资源对少数群体的影响比对多数群体的影响弱于预期。
