Stress, Autonomic Reactivity, and Mental Health in Low Income, Latino Children

描述（由申请人提供）：生活在贫困中的移民儿童不成比例地暴露在家庭/社会，经济，文化和社区层面的逆境中。自主神经系统（ANS）通过激活交感神经系统（飞行或战斗反应）和撤回副交感神经系统（静息反应）对逆境或应激源作出反应。自主反应性，这种生理反应的量度，可能受到早期逆境的影响，并可能作为脆弱性的调节剂（例如，心理健康问题）。由于没有以前的纵向研究，它是不知道的，如果幼儿暴露于累积逆境，从婴儿期到五岁，影响他们的生物模式的休息和响应的挑战，到五岁，如果这些生物反应影响儿童以后的心理健康。萨利纳斯母亲和儿童健康评估中心（CHAMACOS）是一项纵向出生队列研究（出生于2000年），研究对象是生活在加利福尼亚州萨利纳斯山谷农业社区的大约500名经济贫困的拉丁美洲移民母亲和儿童。这一人群面临心理健康问题的高风险。在多个时间点（6个月，1，2，31/2，5，7年），我们收集了来自母亲的信息，并从许多环境压力因素的家访。对其中389名儿童，我们还进行了ANS的休息和反应性措施的评估。当孩子们7岁时，我们收集了他们的攻击性和抑郁症状的信息，由他们的母亲，老师和他们自己评定。该应用程序旨在进行二次数据分析，以检查6个月至5岁期间暴露于逆境的变化与自主静息和反应性测量变化之间的关系，并确定其自主轨迹是否预测7岁时的攻击和抑郁症状。这项拟议的研究将直接回应最近IOM的呼吁，从神经元到社区，进行更多的研究，以研究生物学和理解儿童发展的经验之间的相互作用。我们的研究结果可以提供有关儿童的弹性/脆弱性和预防心理健康问题的关键信息，在这个不断增长的高危人群。 公共卫生相关性：贫穷的移民儿童在生命的前五年中暴露于许多家庭/社会，经济，文化和社区逆境中，可能会对环境产生抑制或增强的生理反应。此外，5岁时心率较慢的儿童可能会出现攻击性症状，而心率较快的儿童可能会在学龄前出现抑郁症状。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Immigrant children living in poverty are disproportionately exposed to family/social, economic, cultural, and community level adversities. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) responds to adversities or stressors by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (the flight or fight response) and withdrawal of the parasympathetic nervous system (the resting response). Autonomic reactivity, a measure of this physiologic response, may be influenced by early adversities and may function as a moderator of vulnerabilities (e.g., mental health problems) later in life. Because there are no prior longitudinal studies, it is not known if young children's exposure to cumulative adversities, from infancy to five years of age, affects their biologic patterns of resting and response to challenge by five years of age and if these biologic responses affect children's later mental health. The Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) is a longitudinal birth cohort study (born in 2000) of approximately 500 economically impoverished immigrant Latino mothers and children living in the agricultural community of the Salinas Valley, CA. This population is at high risk for mental health problems. At multiple points (6 months, 1, 2, 31/2, 5, 7 years), we collected information from the mothers and from home visits on many environmental stressors. On 389 of these children, we also conducted assessments of resting and reactivity measures of ANS. When the children were seven years of age, we collected information on their symptoms of aggression and depression, as rated by their mothers, teachers and themselves. This application aims to conduct secondary data analyses to examine the relationship between changes in exposure to adversities and changes in autonomic resting and reactivity measures from six months to five years of age and to determine whether their autonomic trajectory predicts symptoms of aggression and depression at seven years of age. The proposed study will directly address the call of the recent IOM, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, for additional research to examine the interaction between biology and experience in understanding child development. Our research findings may provide key information about children's resiliency/vulnerability and prevention of mental health problems in this growing at-risk population. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Poor, immigrant children exposed to many family/social, economic, cultural, and community adversities during the first five years of life may develop a dampened or heightened physiologic response to their environment. Also, children with slow heart rates at five years of age may develop symptoms of aggression, while children with fast heart rates may develop symptoms of depression by school-age.