Doctoral Dissertation Research: Maternal early life adversity, maternal care, and offspring survival

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Adverse environmental conditions during growth and development can affect physiological function and well-being later in life. This dissertation project will investigate, in a primate model system, whether early-life adversity in primate mothers additionally influences traits in their offspring. Using longitudinal and newly collected data for a natural population of long-lived primates allows researchers to investigate intergenerational effects that may inform evolutionary theory and human health research without having to obtain multi-generation life history data from humans. The project will support international research collaborations, public and K-12 science outreach, and scientific training and mentoring for students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. The Amboseli baboons have been under near-daily observation since 1971, resulting in extensive longitudinal demographic, environmental, and behavioral data. The investigators will use these existing data in conjunction with newly collected data on maternal care to test the hypothesis that mothers who experienced adversity during their developmental period provide relatively low quality maternal care to their offspring, leading to deficits in offspring survival. The research will therefore advance knowledge about proximate mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of stress.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.