An interdisciplinary approach to investigating mechanisms of vulnerability and resiliency following early-life adversity

Perry Rosemarie, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and supported by SBE's Science of Learning program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Clancy Blair at New York University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the social skill development of children growing up in environments of socioeconomic adversity. Nearly 20% of children in the United States are being raised in poverty. Impoverished families face a multitude of adversities, such as economic and housing obstacles, as well as difficulties seeking and maintaining employment. Such barriers can produce psychological stress and diminish time for family interactions and children's social skill development. The attainment of appropriate social skills is important for children's development across many areas of functioning, including mental health and academic achievement. Children with poor social skills are at higher risk for exhibiting violence, sexual offenses, and criminal behaviors in adolescence or adulthood. Despite the increased risk of poor social adjustment associated with living in poverty, some children exposed to poverty-related adversity have positive social adjustment. One finding that has consistently been linked to their resiliency is the presence of supportive adult-child relationships. The proposed studies will assess if quality peer relationships provide the same benefits that quality adult-child relationships provide in impoverished populations, by improving social development and biological regulation (i.e. stress physiology) despite exposure to poverty-related adversity. The studies are driven by the critical need to create readily accessible and scalable interventions to promote optimal social development for at-risk impoverished children. The proposed research utilizes an innovative cross-species human/rodent approach to explore peer relationship quality as a potential target for interventions aimed at promoting social skill and stress physiology resiliency in at-risk, impoverished children. To this end, the proposed studies will draw on existing data from the Family Life Project, a longitudinal sample of 1,292 human children recruited at birth (oversampled for poverty status), in order to complete longitudinal modeling related to the impact of poverty-related adversity on social skills and stress physiology, and the mediating role of peer relationships. The proposed research will also leverage a scarcity-adversity rodent model to study neurobiological mechanisms by which resource scarcity impacts the development of social behavior, and test interventions of neurobehavioral repair grounded in social learning theory. These interventions will aim to improve the quality of peer interactions via naturalistic and pharmacological manipulations. This research will inform the creation of targeted, sensitive, and scalable interventions for the improvement of child social skill development in high-risk environments This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.