Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2025 Aug 6. doi: 10.1097/WAD.0000000000000679. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Suspension and expulsion are common in US schools and disproportionately target structurally marginalized children. No research has examined whether these punitive practices may have long-term cognitive-aging implications.
METHODS: In the prospective National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data (N=8021), we used confounder-adjusted linear models to investigate associations between early-life suspension or expulsion and global cognition, memory, and attention z-scores at age 50. Using interaction terms, we tested for additive scale effect modification by race, gender, and at their intersections.
RESULTS: In all, 21.5% of participants had been suspended and 4.4% expelled, with Black men and women overrepresented among these early-life experiences. Punitive school discipline was associated with lower midlife global cognition, memory, and attention z-scores (eg, global cognition, suspension:: -0.21; 95% CI: -0.26, -0.15; expulsion: :-0.27; 95% CI: -0.38, -0.16). The expulsion-cognition association was stronger for men than women.
DISCUSSION: Punitive school discipline-an exposure modifiable at multiple policy levels-is associated with lower cognitive performance in midlife, decades after school completion.
PMID:40767852 | DOI:10.1097/WAD.0000000000000679
Authors
Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, PhD
Neuropsychologist
