Income Inequality Based Variations in Trajectories of Brain and Psychopathology Development in Youth

Higher levels of income inequality is associated with poor mental and physical health. Often stress is considered the underlying factor creating poorer health outcomes in regions of higher inequality. Even with peaked interest in investigation of income inequality and health there has been no study of the association between income inequality and brain development. Moreover, the study of mental illness in relation to income inequality has not addressed the potential impact on the development of psychopathology in the pediatric population. We hypothesize that differences in income inequality will lead to variations in cortical brain development as well as differences in the risk mental illness and progression of symptoms. Therefore, the proposed research will investigate the association between income inequality and both brain and mental illness development in children and adolescents (age 6-18).

Faculty Supervisor:

Tomas Paus

Student:

Partner:

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Globalink Research Award