Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2024 May;348:116807. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116807. Epub 2024 Mar 28.
Exposure to neighborhood violence may have negative implications for adults' cognitive functioning, but the ecological sensitivity of these effects has yet to be determined. We first evaluated the link between exposure to neighborhood violence and two latent constructs of cognitive function that incorporated laboratory-based and ambulatory, smartphone-based, cognitive assessments. Second, we examined whether the effect of exposure to violence was stronger for ambulatory assessments compared to in-lab assessments.
We used data from 256 urban-dwelling adults between 25 and 65 years old (M = 46.26, SD = 11.07); 63.18% non-Hispanic Black, 9.21% non-Hispanic White, 18.41% Hispanic White, 5.02% Hispanic Black, and 4.18% other. Participants completed baseline surveys on neighborhood exposures, cognitive assessments in a laboratory/research office, and ambulatory smartphone-based cognitive assessments five-times a day for 14 days.
Exposure to neighborhood violence was associated with poorer performance in a latent working memory construct that incorporated in-lab and ambulatory assessments, but was not associated with the perceptual speed construct. The effect of exposure to neighborhood violence on the working memory construct was explained by its effect on the ambulatory working memory task and not by the in-lab cognitive assessments.
This study shows the negative effect that exposure to neighborhood violence may have on everyday working memory performance in urban-dwelling adults in midlife. Results highlight the need for more research to determine the sensitivity of ambulatory assessments to quantify the effects of neighborhood violence on cognitive function.
接触邻里暴力可能对成年人的认知功能产生负面影响，但这些影响的生态敏感性尚未确定。我们首先评估了接触邻里暴力与认知功能的两个潜在结构之间的联系，这些结构包含了基于实验室和基于移动设备的认知评估。其次，我们研究了与实验室评估相比，暴露于暴力对移动评估的影响是否更强。
我们使用了 256 名年龄在 25 至 65 岁之间的城市居民（M=46.26，SD=11.07）的数据；63.18%为非西班牙裔黑人，9.21%为非西班牙裔白人，18.41%为西班牙裔白人，5.02%为西班牙裔黑人，4.18%为其他。参与者完成了基线调查，内容包括邻里环境暴露、在实验室/研究办公室进行的认知评估，以及在 14 天内每天 5 次的基于移动设备的认知评估。
接触邻里暴力与一项潜在的工作记忆结构的表现较差有关，该结构包含了实验室和移动评估，但与知觉速度结构无关。接触邻里暴力对工作记忆结构的影响可以用其对移动工作记忆任务的影响来解释，而不是用实验室认知评估来解释。
这项研究表明，接触邻里暴力可能对中年城市居民的日常工作记忆表现产生负面影响。结果强调了需要更多的研究来确定移动评估的敏感性，以量化邻里暴力对认知功能的影响。
