Abstract
Background
Adversity has been linked to accelerated maturation. Molar eruption is a simple and
scalable way to identify early maturation, but its developmental correlates remain
unexplored. Thus, we examined whether accelerated maturation as indexed by molar eruption
is associated with children’s mental health or cognitive skills.
Methods
Molar eruption was evaluated from T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in 117 children
(63 female; ages 4–7 years). Parents reported on child mental health with the Child
Behavior Checklist. Children completed standardized assessments of fluid reasoning,
working memory, processing speed, crystallized knowledge, and math performance. Relationships
between molar eruption and developmental outcomes were examined using linear models,
with age, gender, and stress risk as covariates.
Results
Earlier molar eruption was positively associated with children’s externalizing symptoms
(false discovery rate-corrected p [pFDR] = .027) but not internalizing symptoms, and the relationship with externalizing
symptoms did not hold when controlling for stress risk. Earlier molar eruption was
negatively associated with fluid reasoning (pFDR < .001), working memory (pFDR = .033), and crystallized knowledge (pFDR = .001). The association between molar eruption and both reasoning and crystallized
knowledge held when controlling for stress risk. Molar eruption also partially mediated
associations between stress risk and both reasoning (proportion mediated = 0.273,
p = .004) and crystallized knowledge (proportion mediated = 0.126, p = .016).
Conclusions
Accelerated maturation, as reflected in early molar eruption, may have consequences
for cognitive development, perhaps because it constrains brain plasticity. Knowing
the pace of a child’s maturation may provide insight into the impact of a child’s
stress history on their cognitive development.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 17, 2023
Accepted:
February 9,
2023
Received in revised form:
February 4,
2023
Received:
September 28,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society of Biological Psychiatry.
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