Acculturation, mood and stress response in Mexican-American mother-infant dyads

项目7.项目摘要 PI目前是加州州立大学圣马科斯分校心理学系的助理教授。她 长期目标是维持一个独立的研究生涯，研究社会文化之间的机制 围产期影响因素、母亲影响和婴儿结局。拟议研究的目的是 研究文化适应（一种文化适应另一种文化规范的过程）的作用之间的联系。 大多数文化），产前母亲的心理健康和随后的压力脆弱性在美国的婴儿 墨西哥人口。三个假设将被检验：1）更大的母亲文化适应将预测增加 妊娠期母体抑郁水平和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴活动; 2） 母亲的文化适应、母亲的抑郁和皮质醇水平的提高将预示着 新生儿头发皮质醇水平作为胎儿HPA轴活动的替代指标; 3）母体 文化适应、抑郁和皮质醇可以预测急性婴儿唾液皮质醇反应的增加， 压力源根据获得的信息，我们还将确定胎儿皮质醇水平是否会调节或介导 母体变量与婴儿HPA活性之间的关系。拟议的研究将在 185名墨西哥裔妇女和她们的婴儿在一个主要为拉丁美洲人服务的社区诊所。这 研究对公共卫生有直接的影响，因为墨西哥裔美国人是最迅速的 越来越多的美国和墨西哥裔美国妇女报告说，怀孕期间抑郁症的程度很高。 社会文化变量可能在孕产妇心理健康风险增加中发挥作用，特别是 文化适应然而，这种情况发生的机制尚不清楚。此外，负 怀孕期间抑郁症的后果超出了抑郁症患者的范围，影响到她的后代， 抑郁母亲的后代表现出压力反应的改变和神经精神疾病的增加。 因此，文化适应也可能通过其对母亲的影响直接对后代的心理健康产生负面影响。 抑郁症或直接影响本身，但这还有待确定。学生将直接参与各个层次的活动 建议的项目，包括招募和留住参与者，唾液和头发收集，样本 皮质醇测定的管理和性能。该项目将提供关键的翻译 学生的研究经验，重点是鼓励种族/少数民族学生在高等教育 教育，符合CSUSM和AREA的使命。这项研究直接涉及NIH的优先领域 “关于压力和应对的文化差异，以了解与文化相关的压力源 影响健康”，并提供了一个基础，可以导致产前干预措施，以适应社会文化， 高危墨西哥裔美国人

Item 7. Project Summary The PI is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cal State San Marcos. Her long-term goal is to sustain an independent research career examining mechanisms between socio-cultural factors, maternal affect and infant outcomes in the perinatal period. The aim of the proposed research is to examine the associations between the role of acculturation (the process of one culture adapting the norms of a majority culture), prenatal maternal mental health and subsequent stress vulnerability in infants in the US Mexican population. Three hypotheses will be tested: 1) greater maternal acculturation will predict increased levels of maternal depression and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis activity during pregnancy; 2) Greater levels of maternal acculturation and maternal depression and cortisol will predict an increase in newborn hair cortisol levels as a proxy measure of fetal HPA axis activity; 3) Greater levels of maternal acculturation and depression and cortisol will predict an increased acute infant salivary cortisol response to a stressor. With information gained we will also determine if fetal cortisol levels moderate or mediate the relationship between maternal variables and infant HPA activity. The proposed research will be conducted in 185 women of Mexican descent and their infants at a community clinic that primarily attends to Latinos. This research has direct consequences for public health as the Mexican-American population is the most rapidly growing group in the US and Mexican-American women report high levels of depression during pregnancy. Socio-cultural variables may play a role in this increased risk for maternal mental health, specifically acculturation. However, the mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. In addition, the negative consequences of depression during pregnancy extend beyond the depressed individual to her offspring as the offspring of depressed mothers show altered stress responsivity and increases in neuropsychiatric disorders. Therefore, acculturation may directly also negatively impact offspring mental health via its effects on maternal depression or a direct effect itself, but this has yet to be determined. Students will directly involved at all levels of the proposed projects including recruitment and retention of participants, saliva and hair collection, sample management and performance of cortisol assays. The proposed project will provide critical translational research experience for students, with an emphasis on encouraging racial/ethnic minority students in higher education, in line with the missions of CSUSM and AREA. This study directly addresses an NIH priority area "on cultural differences of stress and coping to understand the mechanics by which culturally related stressors affect health" and provides a foundation that can lead to prenatal interventions directed toward acculturation in the high-risk Mexican-American population.