Stress, Autonomic Reactivity, and Mental Health in Low Income, Latino Children

描述（由申请人提供）：生活在贫困中的移民儿童不成比例地暴露于家庭/社会、经济、文化和社区层面的逆境中。自主神经系统（ANS）通过激活交感神经系统（逃跑或战斗反应）和退出副交感神经系统（休息反应）对逆境或压力源作出反应。自主反应是衡量这种生理反应的一种方法，它可能受到早期逆境的影响，并可能在以后的生活中起到调节脆弱性（如心理健康问题）的作用。由于没有先前的纵向研究，因此尚不清楚幼儿从婴儿期到五岁期间所遭受的累积逆境是否会影响他们五岁时休息和应对挑战的生物模式，以及这些生物反应是否会影响儿童后来的心理健康。萨利纳斯母亲和儿童健康评估中心（CHAMACOS）是一项纵向出生队列研究（2000年出生），研究对象是生活在加州萨利纳斯山谷农业社区的大约500名经济贫困的拉丁裔移民母亲和儿童。这些人有心理健康问题的风险很高。在多个时间点（6个月、1岁、2岁、31岁半、5岁、7岁），我们从母亲和家访中收集了许多环境压力因素的信息。我们还对其中389名儿童进行了ANS的静息和反应性评估。当这些儿童7岁时，我们收集了他们的攻击和抑郁症状的信息，由他们的母亲、老师和他们自己打分。本应用程序旨在进行二次数据分析，以检验6个月至5岁时逆境暴露变化与自主神经静息和反应性测量变化之间的关系，并确定其自主神经轨迹是否预测7岁时的攻击和抑郁症状。这项提议的研究将直接回应最近IOM的呼吁，从神经元到社区，进一步研究生物学和理解儿童发展经验之间的相互作用。我们的研究结果可能为这一日益增长的高危人群提供有关儿童的复原力/脆弱性和预防心理健康问题的关键信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Immigrant children living in poverty are disproportionately exposed to family/social, economic, cultural, and community level adversities. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) responds to adversities or stressors by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (the flight or fight response) and withdrawal of the parasympathetic nervous system (the resting response). Autonomic reactivity, a measure of this physiologic response, may be influenced by early adversities and may function as a moderator of vulnerabilities (e.g., mental health problems) later in life. Because there are no prior longitudinal studies, it is not known if young children's exposure to cumulative adversities, from infancy to five years of age, affects their biologic patterns of resting and response to challenge by five years of age and if these biologic responses affect children's later mental health. The Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) is a longitudinal birth cohort study (born in 2000) of approximately 500 economically impoverished immigrant Latino mothers and children living in the agricultural community of the Salinas Valley, CA. This population is at high risk for mental health problems. At multiple points (6 months, 1, 2, 31/2, 5, 7 years), we collected information from the mothers and from home visits on many environmental stressors. On 389 of these children, we also conducted assessments of resting and reactivity measures of ANS. When the children were seven years of age, we collected information on their symptoms of aggression and depression, as rated by their mothers, teachers and themselves. This application aims to conduct secondary data analyses to examine the relationship between changes in exposure to adversities and changes in autonomic resting and reactivity measures from six months to five years of age and to determine whether their autonomic trajectory predicts symptoms of aggression and depression at seven years of age. The proposed study will directly address the call of the recent IOM, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, for additional research to examine the interaction between biology and experience in understanding child development. Our research findings may provide key information about children's resiliency/vulnerability and prevention of mental health problems in this growing at-risk population. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Poor, immigrant children exposed to many family/social, economic, cultural, and community adversities during the first five years of life may develop a dampened or heightened physiologic response to their environment. Also, children with slow heart rates at five years of age may develop symptoms of aggression, while children with fast heart rates may develop symptoms of depression by school-age.