Air pollution and age-dependent changes in emotional behavior across early adolescence in the U.S

Claire E Campbell; Devyn L Cotter; Katherine L Bottenhorn; Elisabeth Burnor; Hedyeh Ahmadi; W James Gauderman; Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez; Daniel Hackman; Rob McConnell; Kiros Berhane; Joel Schwartz; Jiu-Chiuan Chen; Megan M Herting

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.117390

Air pollution and age-dependent changes in emotional behavior across early adolescence in the U.S

Environ Res. 2024 Jan 1;240(Pt 1):117390. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117390. Epub 2023 Oct 21.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2520, USA.
² Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
³ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
⁶ Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁷ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90063, USA.
⁸ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90027, USA. Electronic address: herting@usc.edu.

PMID: 37866541
PMCID: PMC10842841 (available on 2025-01-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117390

Abstract

Recent studies have linked air pollution to increased risk for behavioral problems during development, albeit with inconsistent findings. Additional longitudinal studies are needed that consider how emotional behaviors may be affected when exposure coincides with the transition to adolescence - a vulnerable time for developing mental health difficulties. This study investigates if annual average PM_2.5 and NO₂ exposure at ages 9-10 years moderates age-related changes in internalizing and externalizing behaviors over a 2-year follow-up period in a large, nationwide U.S. sample of participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®. Air pollution exposure was estimated based on the residential address of each participant using an ensemble-based modeling approach. Caregivers answered questions from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at the baseline, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up visits, for a total of 3 waves of data; from the CBCL we obtained scores on internalizing and externalizing problems plus 5 syndrome scales (anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, rule-breaking behavior, aggressive behavior, and attention problems). Zero-inflated negative binomial models were used to examine both the main effect of age as well as the interaction of age with each pollutant on behavior while adjusting for various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Against our hypothesis, there was no evidence that greater air pollution exposure was related to more behavioral problems with age over time.

Keywords: Adolescence; Air pollution; Externalizing; Internalizing; Neurodevelopment.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Aggression
Air Pollution* / adverse effects
Anxiety
Child
Humans
Longitudinal Studies

Air pollution and age-dependent changes in emotional behavior across early adolescence in the U.S

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

MeSH terms

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