Experimental Evidence of the Impact of Parental Income on Child Mental Health and Neuroimmune Function

Growing up in a lower-income family robustly predicts worse mental health in adolescence and early adulthood. How does variability in family income "get under the skin" of the developing child and via what mechanisms does it increase risk for mental illness? Moreover, could supplements to family income at critical developmental periods help to prevent later youth mental illness? To address these questions, we leverage an innovative existing double blind randomized controlled trial of 3-years of substantial income supplements to parents.

By experimentally studying the impacts of these income supplements on families and subsequent youth development, we can examine causal pathways from family income to risk for mental illness via family stress and neuroimmune mechanisms in ways never done before. Moreover, by measuring the longer-term impact of 3 years of income supplements to parents on their child's neuroimmune signaling and risk for mental illness, we can examine the policy implications for child development of unconditional cash transfers to parents and identify how and for whom these supplements help. We will test these basic and translational questions in a sample of 1,200 youth with lower-income parents randomly assigned to receive either a substantial monthly income supplement or a minimal monthly supplement for 3 years, starting when youth were between age 5 - 14 years old. We will follow up with youth and their parent 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 years after the intervention and examine whether income supplements predict better youth mental health during adolescence, as well as whether factors like child age and neighborhood quality modulate intervention effects. Additionally, we explore family stress mechanisms through which the intervention may impact child mental health. Finally, we will measure peripheral inflammation (inflammatory biomarkers and classical monocytes) and use MRI to assess threat, reward, and regulatory neural activity and connectivity among 500 of these youth. Our central hypothesis is that income supplements will decrease family and youth stress and improve parenting, which will improve neuroimmune signaling and decrease risk for psychopathology. Moreover, these effects will remain years after termination of the transfers and be strongest among families who received the intervention earlier in the child's life. This research will provide timely, relevant public health knowledge that will help policy makers understand the longer-term brain, immune, and mental health impacts of cash transfers to parents, while also advancing the science of the sociocontextual and neuroimmune pathways through which variability in family income impacts risk for psychopathology.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Psychopathology; Poverty; Child Mental Health; Inflamation
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Psychological fMRI task; Other: Psychological fMRI task

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 500
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Trinh L Ha; Phone Number: ‪(847) 868-2409‬; Email: trinh.ha@northwestern.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Cary R Nusslock, PhD; Email: nusslock@northwestern.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Evanston, Illinois, United States, 60208
      • Recruiting
      • Northwestern University
      • Contact: Cary R Nusslock; Phone Number: ‪(847) 868-2409‬; Email: edcyouth@u.northwestern.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Child of a participant enrolled in the Every Dollar Counts intervention. Youth were between ages 5 and 14 at the start of the intervention (followed up when ages 10 to 18)
• Biological parent who lives with the child must be part of the original income study
• For the in-person neuroimaging subsample: family must live within a 2-hour drive of downtown Chicago

Exclusion Criteria:

• Youth not between ages 5 and 14 at the start of the intervention
• Parent not enrolled in the Every Dollar Counts program

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Monetary Incentive Delay fMRI task; fMRI task to engage cortical striatal neural circuity	Other: Psychological fMRI task; fMRI task to engage in cortical striatal neural circuitry during reward; Other: Psychological fMRI task; Emotional n-back fMRI task to engage in socioemotional and working memory
Experimental: Emotional N-back fMRI task; fMRI task to engage working memory and socioemotional processing neural circuitry	Other: Psychological fMRI task; fMRI task to engage in cortical striatal neural circuitry during reward; Other: Psychological fMRI task; Emotional n-back fMRI task to engage in socioemotional and working memory

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain response to fMRI tasks	The monetary incentive delay and emotional n-back tasks will increase neural activity in reward and working memory and socioemotional processes within the brain.	5 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northwestern University
• Collaborators: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 4, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2029
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2029

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 3, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 8, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): June 11, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 11, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 8, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Depression; Inflammation; Anxiety; Stress; Poverty; Child Mental Health; Psychopathology; Internalizing Disorders; Externalizing Disorders
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Behavioral Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavior; Anxiety Disorders; Depression; Mental Disorders; Inflammation
• Other Study ID Numbers: EXZVPWZBLUE8; 1R01MH139198-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No