Dissertation Research: Socioecology of Mother and Infant Health Among the Panare

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This project examines the extent to which social and ecological stressors influence mother and infant health among the Eastern Panare of Venezuela. The people of this community are swidden horticulturists who have no access to institutional healthcare, few social or economic ties with outsiders, and whose daily activities reflect traditional patterns of subsistence and social organization. This socio-ecological environment provides an excellent opportunity for a longitudinal investigation of the effects of social tension and residential movement on mother-infant health. The central hypothesis of this study is that social stressors have a negative effect on health, independent of nutrition. Data on salivary immune factors, milk energy, health, anthropometrics, maternal stress, and family mobility will be collected from a series of mother-infant pairs to test whether infants of more highly stressed mothers exhibit evidence of poorer health and growth disruptions. While the influence of nutrition on early childhood well-being has been extensively studied, this will be the first study to combine ethnographic, psychoneuroimmunological, and energetic methods to longitudinally track mother and infant health. Consequently, this work will provide us with a much richer understanding of how both social and ecological factors influence maternal well-being and thus shape infant health status.