Figure 2. Association between Family Income and Hippocampal Volume is Stronger in States with Higher Costs of Living, But Weaker in U.S. States with More Generous Anti-Poverty Policies.
Figure adapted from Weissman et al. (2023).78 3-way interactions between state-level cost of living and generosity of anti-poverty programs and individual family income-to-needs ratio (log-transformed). Cash assistance was based on both monthly Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits in that state and the average monthly Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in that state. Higher cost of living was associated with smaller hippocampal volume among low-income participants, but this was attenuated when states also offered more generous cash benefits. Postal abbreviations for the 17 states in the ABCD study (CA: California; CO: Colorado; CT: Connecticut; FL: Florida; MD: Maryland: MI: Michigan; MN: Minnesota; MO: Missouri; NY: New York; OK: Oklahoma; OR: Oregon; PA: Pennsylvania; SC: South Carolina; UT: Utah; VT: Vermont; VA: Virginia; WI: Wisconsin) are placed along the X-axis in the location corresponding most closely to their cost of living and cash assistance relative to the other states. Hippocampal volume estimates are equivalent to the random intercept of the relation between income and hippocampal volume for that state when family income is 1 SD above (high income) or below (low income) the mean.