Dynamical Systems Tools: Modeling multi-level processes in parent-child relations

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The current proposal for this NIH Roadmap grant is designed to utilize insights gained from interdisciplinary collaboration to develop and integrate two complementary methodological tools aimed at assessing and modeling multiple levels of individual functioning within a dynamical systems framework. Through integrating unique contributions from the diverse disciplines of Engineering, Developmental Psychopathology, and Quantitative Psychology in service of a shared vision of furthering assessment and analysis capabilities and methodologies. It is our intent that the tools arising from this interdisciplinary partnership will further understanding of dynamic, coupled processes occurring at multiple levels of functioning in parents and children and associated implications for physical and mental health outcomes. The specific aims of the research application are: 1) to develop protocols, algorithms and sensors for unobtrusive mote-based wireless sensing systems that will reduce energy usage and memory requirements by capturing only relevant data during real- time, co-occurring physiological and behavioral processes among mothers and children during live interactions in a stress-inducing paradigm; 2) to utilize these data to develop and refine new dynamical systems methods utilizing latent differential equations for modeling; and 3) to examine the influence of socioeconomic status and child maltreatment on variation in dynamic co-regulating physiological and behavioral processes, in order to advance understanding of the implications of differences in regulation of these processes for physical and mental health. To achieve these aims, the research team will utilize observational paradigms of mother-child interaction from families who differ in levels of stress in order to develop a mote-based wireless sensing system for extracting behavioral and physiological data. The data obtained from these assessments will then be used to develop the dynamic modeling techniques. Finally, the team will collaborate on building an integrated assessment and modeling tool for dissemination for future research endeavors. The tools to be developed in the present application will be of substantial interest to several NIH institutes cutting across different mission priorities and research objectives. The tools developed here will have many applications for assessing physiological and behavioral processes across the age span (of relevance to NIA) and in other ecological contexts (of relevance to IEHS). The modeling of processes between mothers and children and associated developmental, physical and mental health outcomes will be of relevance to both NICHD and NIMH. Finally, the National Hearth Lung and Blood Institute will be able to utilize the sophistication of the sensors in examining research pertaining to cardiac functioning and health outcomes. Relevance. The tools produced from this project will have important public health significance through the derivation of new methods for investigating dynamic patterns of physiological and behavioral regulation of stress in individuals and families from varying ecological niches. The tools will have the potential to lead to new discoveries of how aberrations in early stress regulation contribute to risk for physical and mental health disorders.