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• Posted January 9, 2026

Babies' Brain Development Lags In Cash-Crunched Families, Study Shows

A family’s financial difficulties might shape how an infant’s brain develops, potentially altering the course of their life, a new study says.

Babies tend to have signs of delayed brain development if their caregivers are struggling to make ends meet, researchers reported Jan. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A cash-crunched family might not have either the time or the resources to fully support their baby’s cognitive growth, researchers said.

“Early brain development is shaped not only by biology, but by the everyday experiences infants have with their caregivers and their environment,” co-lead researcher Dr. Carol Wilkinson, a neuroscientist in developmental medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in a news release.

For the new study, researchers tracked nearly 300 babies during well-child visits that occurred at 4 months, 9 months and 12 months old.

During these visits, doctors recorded the infants’ brain activity using an EEG scan that took 10 minutes, while parents completed brief surveys about their household income.

Results showed that infants showed signs of delayed brain maturation if they were growing up in homes where caregivers felt their income was never adequate.

These delays were most apparent in EEG measures of alpha and beta brain activity, which are known to track early brain development and later cognitive function, researchers said.

“Children grow up in complex, dynamic environments where stressors are interconnected,” co-lead researcher Haerin Chung, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in a news release.

“By using a network approach, we can identify which factors are most central — much like identifying influential nodes in a social network,” she said. “Changing those central factors may have ripple effects across a child’s developmental environment.”

The results suggest that meeting a child’s basic needs — nutrition, housing, emotional support — is important for shaping their brain development.

Further, families barely scraping by might have less time or energy for activities that support early learning, such as play, language exposure or social interaction.

“Understanding which pathways matter most is an important next step for future research,” Wilkinson said. “Policies that strengthen supports affecting day-to-day financial stability during infancy may have lasting developmental benefits.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on child developmental milestones.

SOURCE: Boston Children’s Hospital, news release, Jan. 5, 2026