Abstract:
The amount of schooling we receive has implications for later-life cognition, but less is known about upstream contextual factors that could also play a role in this process. Previous research has been limited in expanding outside of traditional socioeconomic variables in childhood. Early-life conditions related to household and school factors may serve as an area of emphasis when attempting to uncover critical precursors to educational and cognitive outcomes later in life. Through the implementation of a sequential mediation model, this study aimed to identify which early-life contextual factors uniquely predict later-life cognition and whether educational attainment serves as a mechanism of these relationships. This talk will address the importance of including an ecological and life-course perspective of cognition as well as potential points of policy intervention aimed at decreasing disparities in cognitive aging.