Editorial: Placing Parenting in Context: Neighborhood Crime, Early Brain Development, and Socioemotional Outcomes

Abstract

The past decade has seen scientific advances that have provided an unprecedented window into the earliest years of human brain development.¹ These discoveries have corroborated what many have long hypothesized: the human brain does not develop in isolation, but through close interactions with its environment. Evidence converges to support the critical importance of the parent-child relationship-the immediate caregiving environment that comprises foundational building blocks of the child's early socioemotional development.^2-4 Attention is being increasingly directed to the role of the broader environment,^5,6 the surrounding context in which immediate caregiving takes shape. Much remains to be understood as to how the broader environment intersects with the immediate caregiving environment to shape early developmental trajectories, especially in the face of adversities known to undermine early development (eg, poverty, crime, pollution, racism). The need for such work is timely, with growing public recognition of the deeply embedded inequities that our socioeconomically disadvantaged children face.