Commentary: Dimensionality in environmental adversity, mechanisms of emotional socialization, and children’s characteristics and cognitive growth – a reflection on Miller et al. (2020)

Abstract

Disentangling the dimensionality in environmental adversity offers nuanced insights at both theoretical and practical levels, such as the ways that disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances during childhood development may contribute to adolescent psychopathology. Miller and colleagues (2020) provide evidence into how early deprivation and threat may exacerbate later psychopathology. Yet, how certain factors in this early environment differentially facilitate children’s cognitive and socioemotional growth may modulate the severity of later psychopathology. In this commentary, we reflect on the promising evidence offered by Miller and colleagues and extend additional considerations regarding academic growth, cognitive abilities, and protective environmental factors.