Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intergenerational effects of prenatal stress on physiological and psychosocial outcomes

近几十年来，研究强调了早期生活经历的重要性，特别是那些发生在子宫中的经历，作为影响整个生命过程中生物结果的因素。越来越多的证据表明，一些早期生命的生物效应，如由心理社会压力引发的效应，可以持续到成年，在某些情况下会影响后代和外周后代的发育。这项博士研究项目将使用现有的调查数据，以及新收集的数据和生物样本，来研究处于高度不利社会条件下的年轻母亲经历的早期生活压力的生命过程和代际影响。这项研究将促进对人类应激多代影响的潜在生物学途径的了解，并有助于我们更广泛地理解人类生物学和文化之间的复杂相互作用。该项目的成果将有助于为公共卫生研究和政策提供有价值的数据。该项目还将支持学生培训、国际研究合作和科学推广活动。研究人员提出，可能存在几代人的生物“记忆”途径，通过这种途径，一个人的生物学不仅反映了他们自己和他们母亲的经历，而且潜在地也反映了他们祖母的经历。下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴是身体应激反应系统的中心组成部分，也是可能受到这种多代可塑性影响的候选结果之一。这项研究提供了一个独特的机会来追踪早期生活应激暴露对生物和社会差异的长期影响，重点关注暴露于此的个体的生理和福祉，以及他们未暴露于此的后代的生育结果和应激生理。该项目将利用现有和新收集的数据，对一群妇女及其子女和孙辈进行跟踪调查，这些妇女、子女和孙辈经历了近30年的恶劣社会和环境条件。研究人员将首先评估母亲早年的压力经历对其成年生物学和幸福感的长期影响，然后探索对其后代的下游影响。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In recent decades, research has underscored the importance of early life experiences, especially those that occur in utero, as factors that influence biological outcomes across the life course. Growing evidence suggests that some early life biological effects, such as those triggered by psychosocial stress, can persist into adulthood and in some cases influence offspring and grandoffspring development. This doctoral research project will use existing survey data, and newly collected data and biological samples, to examine life course and intergenerational effects of early life stress experienced by now young-adult mothers who were exposed to highly adverse social conditions. The research will advance knowledge about potential biological pathways of multigenerational effects of stress in humans, and contribute more broadly to our understanding of the complex interplay between human biology and culture. The outcomes of this project will contribute valuable data that may inform public health research and policy. The project will also support student training, international research collaborations, and science outreach activities. Researchers have proposed that there may be multigenerational pathways of biological "memory" whereby an individual's biology reflects not only their own experiences and that of their mothers, but potentially also their grandmothers' experiences. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a central component of the body's system of stress response and is among the candidate outcomes likely to be influenced by such multigenerational plasticity. This study provides a unique opportunity to trace the long-term impacts of early life stress exposure to biological and social disparities, focusing on both the physiology and well-being of exposed individuals, and the birth outcomes and stress physiology of their unexposed offspring. This project will utilize existing and newly collected data for a cohort of women, their children, and grandchildren, that has been followed for nearly 30 years and that experienced highly adverse social and environmental conditions. The investigators will first assess long-term effects of the mother's stress experiences during her own early life on her adult biology and well-being, before exploring downstream impacts on her offspring.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.