Mental Health Prevention Science for Child Maltreatment

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application for a mentored research scientist development award proposes a 5-year career development plan to launch the applicant's career as an independent child maltreatment prevention scientist. The applicant's long-term goals are to understand the mechanisms underlying intergenerational cycles of maltreatment and problematic parenting, and to develop, implement, and evaluate novel prevention programs to interrupt these cycles and subsequent child mental health. Proposed training activities will support the applicant's career development in four areas: (a) the measurement of child maltreatment and psychopathology; (b) quantitative analysis of longitudinal child maltreatment data; (c) mental health intervention development and prevention research design; (d) the responsible conduct of ethical research, specifically with traumatized populations and in the community. Training in each of these areas will be pursued through (a) direct mentoring and supervision from child maltreatment scientists in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and pediatrics; (b) workshops, coursework, and tutorials; (c) participation in clinical case conferences and case studies; and (d) participation in local and off-site working groups, seminar series, and professional meetings and conferences. The proposed, four-part research plan will address the associations between mothers' childhood experiences of abuse and neglect and PTSD and several aspects of their parenting, including their perpetration of physical abuse and neglect and problematic parenting behaviors. The hypotheses will be tested that these associations are (a) mediated by mothers' states of mind with respect to attachment and social information processing patterns related to discipline and behavior; and (b) moderated by mothers' supportive relationships with attachment figures, peers, partners, and psychotherapists. First, associations between mothers' childhood physical abuse and later parenting behaviors will be examined through secondary analyses of data from the longitudinal, multi-site LONGSCAN project (N = 820). Second, a new, prospective longitudinal inquiry will address the associations between pregnant women's histories of childhood physical abuse and neglect, PTSD, and psychiatric distress and their subsequent parenting behaviors (N = 200). Third, an R01 grant proposal will be developed to conduct further longitudinal research on the associations between childhood maltreatment, parenting and child mental health outcomes. Fourth, an R21 grant proposal will be developed to plan an empirically-based prevention program for pregnant women who experienced childhood maltreatment (physical abuse and neglect) and who are at high risk of perpetrating physical abuse, neglect, and/or problematic parenting behaviors that affect child behavioral outcomes and psychiatric functioning.