Assessing prenatal and early childhood social and environmental determinants of health in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD)

The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, a multi-site prospective longitudinal cohort study, will examine human brain, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional development beginning prenatally and planned through early childhood. The charge of the HBCD Social and Environmental Determinants (SED) working group is to develop and implement a battery of assessments to broadly characterize the social and physical environment during the prenatal period and early life to characterize risk and resilience exposures that can impact child growth and development. The SED battery consists largely of measures that will be repeated across the course of the HBCD Study with appropriate modifications for the age of the child and include participant demographics, indicators of socioeconomic status, stress and economic hardship, bias and discrimination (e.g., racism), acculturation, neighborhood safety, child and maternal exposures to adversity, environmental toxicants, social support, and other protective factors. Special considerations were paid to reducing participant burden, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and adopting trauma-informed practices for the collection of sensitive information such as domestic violence exposure and adverse childhood experiences. Overall, the SED battery will provide essential data to advance understanding of child development and approaches to advance health equity across infant and child development.