DeLTA Center Roundtable John Platt Epidemiology "Adversity, psychopathology, and adolescent intelligence: Evidence from a US-population representative sample"

Intelligence is defined by a generalized factor (g), composed of subdimensions, such as visuospatial reasoning, language, and working memory. One such dimension, fluid intelligence, reflects reasoning and the ability to solve novel problems. Adolescent intelligence has been linked with childhood adversity, and may also influence future mental health outcomes, however, much of this research has been based on small clinical samples. In this talk, I will summarize a set of papers that utilized a large population-representative sample of adolescents (ages 13-18) to understand the relationships between childhood adversity, fluid intelligence, and psychopathology. I will also engage with the conceptual, legal, and practical challenges that make intelligence research both contentious and important.