An Ethological Analysis of Children's Emotional Security

描述（由申请人提供）：暴露于高水平父母间冲突的儿童经历各种心理问题的风险高得不成比例，包括内化症状、外化问题、社会障碍和学习困难。因此，来自高冲突家庭的儿童所承受的负担以及由此给美国社会带来的心理、健康和经济成本是巨大的。儿童对冲突的情绪反应被认为是理解与暴露于父母间不和和冲突相关的风险的关键机制。因此，根据资助机会公告“PA-07-083”情绪的基础和转化研究“，本研究建议测试基于模式的EST重组，该重组基于行为学和进化框架（EST- r; Davies & Sturge-Apple, 2007; Davies & Woitach, 2008）。为了检验新型EST-R框架的实用性，本应用程序寻求解决以下具体目标：(1)确定五个概要之间相互关系的性质，每个概要对冲突的主观反应模式，以及概要随时间的稳定性和变化；(2)识别父母间、家庭和儿童的特征，这些特征作为区分不同反应性特征的关联和前兆；(3)区分儿童冲突反应行为特征的共同和独特的神经生物学和神经认知基础；(4)描述EST- R量表的心理和身体健康轨迹，包括在考虑主流测量方法后，测试特定量表预测儿童适应具体轨迹的增量能力；(5)通过描述与儿童反应的特定模式相关的可能干预点，促进旨在解决儿童应对和适应父母间冲突的干预举措。为了实现这些目标，该项目将在三次年度测量中跟踪250名母亲、父亲和他们四岁的孩子的样本。多方法、多信息来源和多层次的测量方法与强大、复杂的潜在和基于模式的定量方法相结合，将产生对新颖的、理论指导的研究问题和假设的权威检验。因此，该研究有可能显著提高对儿童健康轨迹背后的家庭和发展过程的认识，并为预防和干预举措提供信息，以减轻风险家庭环境对创伤相关精神病理学发展的影响，从而减轻儿童的精神疾病负担。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children exposed to high levels of interparental conflict are at disproportionately high risk for experiencing a wide array of psychological problems, including internalizing symptoms, externalizing problems, social impairments, and academic difficulties. Consequently, the burden experienced by children from high conflict homes and the resulting psychological, health, and economic costs to U.S. society are extensive. Children's emotional responses to conflict are regarded as pivotal mechanisms in understanding the risk associated with exposure to interparental discord and conflict. Thus, in accordance with the Funding Opportunity Announcement "PA-07-083 "Basic and Translational Research in Emotion", this study proposes to test a pattern-based reformulation of EST that is rooted in an ethological and evolutionary framework (EST-R; Davies & Sturge-Apple, 2007; Davies & Woitach, 2008). Toward the overarching objective of examining the utility of the novel EST-R framework, this application seeks to address the following specific aims: (1) Identify the nature of the interrelationships among the five profiles, the patterns of subjective reactivity to conflict underlying each profile, and stability and change in the profiles over time; (2) Identify the interparental, family, and child characteristics that serve as correlates and precursors in distinguishing between the different reactivity profiles; (3) Distinguish the common and distinctive neurobiological and neurocognitive underpinnings of children's behavioral profiles of reactivity to conflict; (4) Delineate the mental and physical health trajectories of the EST- R profiles, including testing the incremental power of the specific profiles to predict specific trajectories of children's adjustment after taking into account prevailing measurement approaches; and (5) Contribute to intervention initiatives aimed at addressing children's coping and adaptation to interparental conflict by delineating possible points of intervention associated with particular patterns of children's responding. To accomplish these aims, the project will follow a sample of 250 mothers, fathers, and their four year-old children over three annual measurement occasions. The multi-method, multi-informant, and multi-level measurement battery combined with powerful, sophisticated latent and pattern-based quantitative approaches will generate authoritative tests of the novel, theoretically guided research questions and hypotheses. Consequently, the study has the potential to significantly advance knowledge on family and developmental processes underlying children's trajectories of health and inform prevention and intervention initiatives to alleviate the impact of risky family environments on the development of trauma related psychopathology towards reducing the burden of mental illness in children.