Environmental Influences using Linked External Data in ABCD: A Review of the First Decade

Environmental contextual factors, including neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, built environments, and environmental exposures, exert complex and multifaceted influences on neurodevelopmental outcomes. Understanding how these contexts shape child and adolescent brain development requires accurate, high-resolution geocoded residential addresses and geospatial data linkages. We synthesize a decade of Linked External Data Environment and Policy (LED-E&P) research within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD) Study – a longitudinal cohort of ~11,800 U.S. youth – highlighting how geospatial, environmental, and policy data have been systematically integrated. We first describe an overview of the LED-E&P working group, describe the geographical coverage of the ABCD Study dataset, and then summarize key findings across neighborhood characteristics, as well as built and urban environments. Across environmental domains, findings consistently demonstrate that adolescent neurodevelopment, cognition, as well as mental and physical health are shaped by complex and cumulative influences spanning neighborhood deprivation, community opportunity, physical and built environments, and broader social and structural contexts. Moving forward, continued refinement of residential geocoding and exposure methods, integration with biological data, and translation to intervention science will advance understanding of modifiable environmental influences. This work enhances our ability to characterize developmental environments and identify modifiable targets to promote healthy development across adolescence and beyond.