Childhood Family Instability, Adult Stress Reactivity, and Consequences for Health

 描述(由申请人提供)：儿童出生和成长的家庭环境对他们的行为、教育和健康有深远的影响(Amato 2001；Cherlin 1999；McLanahan&Sandeur 2009)。随着晚婚人口和社会趋势的重叠，人们更容易接受离婚和非婚生育，以及更多的同居，美国家庭的格局是多样化和充满活力的。根据最近的人口普查，29%的美国儿童只与亲生父母之一生活，3.5%的儿童没有亲生父母(Vespa等人。2013)。然而，这种横截面估计掩盖了家庭结构的真正复杂性和活力。儿童不仅越来越多地生活在多样化的家庭形式中，而且童年时期对家庭结构的体验也是动态的，儿童成年后可能生活在不同的家庭中(Cavanagh&Huston，2006年；Graefe&Lichter，1999年；Heuveline等人)。2003年)。利用具有全国代表性的关于美国儿童的人口、社会、背景和生物综合数据，拟议的研究将追踪儿童家庭不稳定影响成人健康的生物学途径。研究人员假设，家庭不稳定会产生强烈和长期的压力，这种压力在成人压力反应能力的测量中会很明显，并会对长期健康产生负面影响。该项目将评估儿童早期和青春期敏感发育阶段的不稳定性的重要性，并调查压力反应过程中的性别、种族和民族差异。该项目通过研究儿童时期暴露在充满活力的家庭结构中的持久健康后果来为这一领域做出贡献，这是当今儿童的一种常见生活经历。这些发现将进一步加深我们对社会环境如何“深入”影响生理功能和生物过程的理解，这些生理功能和生物过程会对健康产生影响。从该项目中获得的知识将有助于更有效地针对关键发展时期的儿童福利政策，以及更好地了解和减少健康差距。一个由敬业和高技能导师组成的跨学科团队制定了个性化的培训计划，以支持调查员追求她的研究和职业目标。为了完成拟议的研究，调查员需要通过课程作业、指导性阅读、研讨会和讲习班获得更多的生物学实质性和技术性培训。调查员的专业发展将通过加强她的出版记录以及她的赠款撰写和沟通技能来支持。这些活动将为调查员提供必要的培训，以发展生物社会研究方面的专门知识，并在社会科学和生物医学科学的交汇处从事富有成效的跨学科研究。培训还将促进调查员过渡到独立研究，并使她能够 为了实现她在一所顶尖研究型大学获得教职的职业目标。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The family environments in which children are born and raised have a profound influence on their behavior, education, and health (Amato 2001; Cherlin 1999; McLanahan & Sandefur 2009). With the overlapping demographic and social trends of later age at marriage, greater acceptability of divorce and non-marital childbearing, and more cohabitation, the landscape of American families is diverse and dynamic. According to the recent Census, 29% of American children live with only one biological parent, and 3.5% reside with neither biological parent (Vespa et al. 2013). Such cross-sectional estimates, however, belie the true complexity and dynamism of family structures. Not only do children increasingly live in diverse family forms, but the childhood experience of family structure is dynamic, with children likely to live in a variety of families by the time they reach adulthood (Cavanagh & Huston 2006; Graefe & Lichter 1999; Heuveline et al. 2003). Using nationally representative integrated demographic, social, contextual and biological data on children in the United States, the proposed study will trace the biological pathways through which childhood family instability influences adult health. The Investigator hypothesizes that family instability creates intense and chronic stress that will be evident in measures of adult stress reactivity and that have negative long-term health consequences. The project will evaluate the importance of instability during sensitive developmental stages of early childhood and adolescence, and investigate gender, race and ethnic differences in stress response processes. This project contributes to the field by examining the enduring health consequences of childhood exposure to dynamic family structures, a common life experience for today's children. Findings will further our understanding of the ways in which the social environment "gets under the skin" to influence physiological functioning and biological processes that have consequences for health. Knowledge gained from this project will help more effectively target child welfare policies to crucial developmental periods, and to better understand and reduce health disparities. An interdisciplinary team of dedicated and highly skilled mentors developed a personalized training plan to support the Investigator in pursuit of her research and career goals. To accomplish the proposed research, the Investigator requires additional substantive and technical training in biology to be achieved through coursework, guided reading, seminars and workshops. The Investigator's professional development will be supported by strengthening her publication record, as well as her grant writing and communication skills. These activities will provide the Investigator with the training necessary to develop expertise in biosocial research and engage in productive interdisciplinary research at the intersection of social and biomedical sciences. The training will also facilitate the Investigator's transition to independent research, and enable her to attain her career goal of securing a faculty position at a leading research university.