Investigation of the Prolonged Impact of Severe Socioeconomic Hardship and Mother's Perceived Social Support on Neurocognitive Development in Young Children in the Rural Ecuadorian Amazon.

Children living in conditions of severe socioeconomic (SES) hardship are at elevated risk for neurocognitive delays, yet most developmental neuroscience research has focused on children in high-income, Western populations, limiting our understanding of diverse developmental contexts. This study examined maternal perceived social support as a potential buffer against the stressors associated with SES hardship on child neurocognitive development in a longitudinal sample of Indigenous families in the rural Ecuadorian Amazon. Twenty-eight children (M age = 28.02 months at T1; 57.6 months at T2) participated in the study completing an assessment of early cognitive ability at T1 and an inhibition task while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measured cortical activation at T2. A three-level linear mixed model revealed a significant interaction between early cognitive ability and maternal perceived social support on functional activation. Specifically, children of mothers with high social support showed no association between early cognitive ability and cortical activation, while those with low support exhibited atypical patterns (hyper- or hypoactivation), suggesting that increased maternal perceived social support may help buffer the risk exposure of chronic stressors associated with SES hardship. These findings underscore the importance of culturally embedded social resources in promoting resilience among children facing cumulative risk. Supporting maternal social networks may be a promising pathway for improving child neurodevelopment in underrepresented, low-resource communities and contributes to more inclusive global models of brain development.