Social and Genetic Contributions to Children's Sleep, Health, and Functioning

描述(申请人提供)：通过我们不同种族的纵向双胞胎研究，我们的目标是了解婴儿、幼儿和儿童家庭社会文化环境影响睡眠质量和健康相关行为之间日常联系的遗传和环境机制。此外，我们还解释了儿童中期动态睡眠过程与身体健康和学习功能之间的纵向联系的机制。如果不使用遗传知情设计，就无法推断环境原因，因为睡眠质量是可遗传的，家庭环境的组成部分也可以通过基因-环境相关性遗传，因此它们的共同变异可能是遗传或环境中介的。环境的显著方面包括a)家庭价值观和压力源(包括特定于文化的压力源)，b)家庭稳定和混乱，以及c)响应性和消极的育儿方式。具体地说，在目标1下，我们模拟了人在童年中期的动态睡眠和健康行为过程，以及社会文化环境在调节这些过程中的作用。在目标2中，我们根据两年前儿童的平均和动态睡眠和健康行为过程来预测身体健康和学习功能。我们还考察了这些动态过程在多大程度上调节了社会文化环境与后来的身体健康和学术功能之间的联系。在目标3中，我们使用孪生方法来记录遗传和环境对儿童睡眠、健康和学习结果的多个组成部分的贡献。在目标4中，我们使用孪生方法来确定测量的社会文化环境在多大程度上调节睡眠和健康行为的遗传性。这项研究将是第一次使用遗传信息动态的日常方法来了解社会文化环境与睡眠的关系。这项拟议的研究形成了一个年轻的调查团队的新合作，这些调查人员具有互补的专业知识。该项目以其发展的文化和遗传方法而闻名，该方法揭示了基因与环境的相互作用，对大脑发育敏感期的社会文化环境进行了广泛的评估，建立了昼夜节律，并形成了就寝习惯和习惯。在弹性框架下，我们研究保护性和风险过程，因为保护性环境，如敏感的父母养育和睡前习惯可能抵消睡眠问题的遗传或环境风险。结合这些设计特征，通过阐明支持预防性干预努力的过程，成倍地增加科学贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): With our ethnically diverse longitudinal twin study, we aim to understand the genetic and environmental mechanisms by which the infant, toddler and childhood family sociocultural environments impact day-to-day associations between quality of sleep and health-related behaviors. Also, we elucidate mechanisms accounting for the longitudinal association between dynamic sleep processes and physical health and academic functioning in middle childhood. Without the use of a genetically-informed design, environmental causation cannot be inferred because quality of sleep is heritable, components of the family environment are also heritable through gene-environment correlation, and thus their covariation may be genetically or environmentally mediated. Salient aspects of the environment include a) family values and stressors (including culture-specific stressors), b) home stability and chaos and c) responsive and negative parenting. Specifically, under Aim 1 we model within person dynamic sleep and health behavioral processes in middle childhood, and the role of the sociocultural environment in moderating these processes. Under Aim 2, we predict physical health and academic functioning from children's average and dynamic sleep and health behavioral processes two years earlier. We also examine the extent to which these dynamic processes mediate the associations between the sociocultural environment and later physical health and academic functioning. With Aim 3, we use the twin method to document genetic and environmental contributions to multiple components of children's sleep, health and academic outcomes. Under Aim 4, we use the twin method to determine the extent to which the measured sociocultural environment moderates the heritability of sleep and health behaviors. This study would be the first to use a genetically-informative dynamic daily approach to understand sociocultural environment-sleep relations. The proposed study forms a new collaboration of a young team of investigators with complementary expertise. The project is notable for its developmental cultural and genetic approach that uncovers gene-environment interplay, extensive assessment of the sociocultural environment during a sensitive period for brain development, establishment of a circadian rhythm, and formation of bedtime routines and habits. Under a resilience framework, we study protective as well as risk processes, as protective environments such as sensitive parenting and bedtime routines likely offset genetic or environmental risk for sleep problems. Combining these design features exponentially increases the scientific contribution by elucidating processes that support preventive intervention efforts.