Prenatal and Early Life Predictors of Child Psychopathology

项目总结 大量的理论研究表明，精神健康障碍的根源在于儿童早期 精神病理学的症状在一定程度上是自我调节技能崩溃的结果 在生命中很早就出现。然而，紧急精神病理学和/或跨诊断表型的早期预测指标，如自我诊断表型 监管，人们对此知之甚少。利用来自大样本(N=270)的母亲及其子女的前瞻性数据， 目前的研究旨在通过以下方式解决这一差距：a)检验婴儿负面情绪(NA)破坏的假设 儿童新出现的执行功能(EF)，而EF中与NA相关的缺陷是通过 早期情绪调节困难在3岁时传递精神病理学的风险(目标1)；b)检查 产前应激缓和3岁时NA、EF和精神病理学之间的关联(目标2)；c)测试母亲是否 孕期免疫激活和/或婴儿期免疫激活在母婴间的关系中起中介作用 产前应激和儿童症状学(目标3)。这项研究的结果将有助于及早识别和 干预。 本研究计划的执行与所述的培训活动相结合，将提供 具有独立、创新研究项目技能的申请者，旨在了解 精神变态学。培训计划有助于丰富她强大的发展背景和更多的独立性 以及在儿童时期接受更多的精神病理学评估和观察培训。此外，它还包括强大的 心理神经免疫学培训，包括免疫系统在精神病理学中的作用(在母亲和 以及孕期母体免疫激活可能影响儿童风险的机制 精神变态学。培训目标包括：a)学习与病因学、病因学、 和儿童精神病理学的发病机制，b)熟悉临床评估问题和诊断 任务涉及整个童年的研究应用，c)将她的发展专长 临床人群包括将与精神病理学理论和实践有关的发展发现概念化， D)获得进行临床措施研究和临床高危人群研究的实践经验，e)学习 与研究免疫系统和炎症-精神病理学联系有关的理论和方法，f)更好 了解孕期母体免疫激活可能影响胎盘发育的机制 开发大脑，进而增加儿童患精神病的风险，g)获得实践经验收集和 分析相关生物样本并了解当代分子和免疫学方法 分析炎症信号网络，以及h)进一步培训负责任的研究行为，包括 临床人群特有的伦理考虑，以及在i)研究写作和传播中，因为它与 精神病理学、心理健康和心理神经免疫学领域。

PROJECT SUMMARY Substantial theoretical work suggests that mental health disorders have their roots in early childhood development, and that symptoms of psychopathology are in part the result of breakdowns in self-regulatory skills that emerge early in life. Yet early predictors of emergent psychopathology, and/or trans-diagnostic phenotypes such as self- regulation, are poorly understood. Utilizing prospective data from a large sample (N=270) of mothers and their children, the current study aims to address this gap by: a) testing the hypothesis that infant negative affect (NA) undermines children's emerging executive functioning (EF), and that NA-associated deficits in EF are one mechanism through which early emotion-regulatory difficulties convey risk for psychopathology at 3 years of age (Aim 1); b) examining whether prenatal stress moderates associations among NA, EF, and psychopathology at age 3 (Aim 2); c) testing whether maternal immune activation during pregnancy and/or child immune activation in infancy mediate the association between maternal prenatal stress and child symptomatology (Aim 3). The results of this research will inform early identification and intervention. The execution of this research plan, in conjunction with the training activities described, will provide the applicant with the skills for an independent, innovative research program aimed at understanding the earliest origins of psychopathology. The training plan assists in enriching her strong background in development with more independence and more training in assessment and observation of psychopathology in childhood. Additionally, it includes strong training in psychoneuroimmunology, including the role of the immune system in psychopathology (in both the mother and child) as well as the mechanisms through which maternal immune activation during pregnancy may influence child risk for psychopathology. Thetraining objectives include:a) learning theory and methods related to the etiology, nosology, and pathogenesis of childhood psychopathology, b) becoming acquainted with clinical assessment issues and diagnostic assignment as it pertains to research application throughout childhood, c) translating her developmental expertise to clinical populations including conceptualizing developmental findings in relation to psychopathology theory and practice, d) gaining hands-on experience conducting research with clinical measures and clinically at risk populations, e) learning theory and methods related to studying the immune system and inflammation-psychopathology associations, f) better understanding the mechanisms through which maternal immune activation during pregnancy may influence the developing brain and, by extension, child risk for psychopathology, g) gaining hands-on experience collecting and analyzing relevant biological samples and learning about contemporary molecular and immunological methods for analyzing inflammatory signaling networks, and h) further training in the responsible conduct of research, including ethical considerations specific to clinical populations, and in i) research writing and dissemination as it pertains to the field of psychopathology, mental health, and psychoneuroimmunology.