How a “happy” school shapes developing brains

Echoing previous research

Tao's work builds on decades of research. An earlier nationwide study in China involving about 100,000 children found that students in more supportive schools tend to perform better and experience fewer mental health issues. But the biological mechanisms behind these effects remained unclear.

To probe deeper, the researchers followed a cohort of 400 Chinese children, aged 6 to 12, since 2016, examining behavioral assessments alongside brain imaging data. They also asked children about their school experiences — whether they felt safe and orderly, supported and treated fairly, and whether the environment encouraged independence, cooperation, and a sense of belonging.

"We're particularly interested in understanding how, after children enter formal schooling, their cognitive, emotional, and social development interacts with their environment," says Tao. "We want to know how those interactions may affect the brain, and vice versa."

The results aligned with previous research, showing that a positive school environment enhances children's reading skills and mental health. These benefits were especially pronounced for children from families with socioeconomic disadvantages, suggesting that schools can help mitigate those challenges.

How the school shapes young brains

But that's not the whole story. Zooming into the brain, the team discovered that students in supportive schools showed more signs of “cortical thinning,” a process linked to healthy brain maturation. During childhood and adolescence, the brain naturally refines its circuitry by trimming away weaker connections to strengthen those used most. These changes appeared in the hubs for visual processing and sensorimotor integration.

“It’s an interesting finding because we expected to see changes in higher-order cognitive networks linked to attention or executive function [high-level cognitive skills],” says Tao. “Instead, the strongest signals appeared in more fundamental systems, suggesting that environmental influences may begin at very basic levels of how the brain processes the world.”

What the study can, and cannot, tell us

While the findings suggest that a supportive school can shape children's behavior, strengthen their learning, and influence how their brains mature, the study cannot determine causality. Brain imaging data offers only a snapshot in time, according to Tao, and long-term studies will be necessary to observe how these events unfold. A new national-wide longitudinal neuroimaging project, the “Chinese Child Brain Study” is already underway to follow 26,000 six- to seven-year-old children in China over time.

"It's important to recognize that a positive school environment is something we can actively create, and it doesn't require fancy technology or a lot of money," says Tao. "What it really depends on is establishing a space where every child feels safe and at ease. Only in such an environment can children truly learn, adapt, and develop abilities they will need for the future and for a better society.”