Ameliorating social disadvantage in rural and semi-rural Malaysia: Why cognitive stimulation in adolescence, ethnicity and single parent status duration in childhood matters Insights from maternal education-adult executive function moderation and mediation models.

It is an established finding that individuals from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are at risk for poorer adult executive function, which is important to promote intergenerational mobility and disrupt the social transmission of disadvantage. This thesis identified the brain mechanisms responsible for lower adult executive function in individuals from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. This thesis also identified risk factors that may place individuals from socially disadvantaged backgrounds at greater risk for lower adult executive function and protective factors that may lessen the harmful effects of lower adult executive function in individuals from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.