Acculturation, mood and stress response in Mexican-American mother-infant dyads

项目7.项目总结 PI目前是加州州立大学圣马科斯分校心理学系的助理教授。她 长期目标是保持独立的研究生涯，研究社会文化之间的机制 围产期的因素、母亲的情感和婴儿的结局。拟议研究的目的是 考察文化适应的作用(一种文化适应一种文化的规范的过程)之间的联系 大多数文化)，产前产妇心理健康和随后的应激脆弱性在美国婴儿 墨西哥人。三个假设将被检验：1)更大的母性文化适应将预示着 孕期母亲抑郁水平和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺(HPA)轴活动； 更高水平的母体文化适应和母体抑郁和皮质醇将预测 新生儿头发皮质醇水平作为胎儿HPA轴活动的替代测量；3)更高水平的母亲 文化适应、抑郁和皮质醇将预示婴儿唾液皮质醇对 压力源。根据获得的信息，我们还将确定胎儿皮质醇水平是否适中或调节 母体变量与婴儿HPA活性的关系拟议的研究将在#年进行 185名墨西哥裔妇女和她们的婴儿在一家主要为拉丁裔提供服务的社区诊所里。这 研究对公共健康有直接影响，因为墨西哥裔美国人的人口增长最快 在美国和墨西哥裔美国女性中，越来越多的人报告在怀孕期间抑郁程度很高。 社会文化变量可能在产妇心理健康风险增加中发挥作用，特别是 文化适应。然而，这种情况发生的机制尚不清楚。此外，负面的 怀孕期间抑郁的后果不仅限于抑郁的个体，还会蔓延到她的后代 抑郁母亲的后代表现出压力反应能力的改变和神经精神障碍的增加。 因此，文化适应也可能通过其对母亲的影响而直接影响子女的心理健康。 抑郁本身还是一种直接影响，但这一点还有待确定。学生将直接参与所有级别的活动 拟议的项目包括招募和留住参与者、唾液和头发采集、样本 皮质醇分析的管理和性能。拟议的项目将提供关键的翻译 为学生提供研究经验，重点是鼓励高等教育中的种族/少数民族学生 教育，与CSUSM和地区的使命相一致。这项研究直接涉及美国国立卫生研究院的一个优先领域 关于压力和应对的文化差异，以了解文化相关应激源的机制 影响健康“，并提供了一个基础，可导致针对文化适应的产前干预 墨西哥裔美国人的高危人群。

Item 7. Project Summary The PI is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cal State San Marcos. Her long-term goal is to sustain an independent research career examining mechanisms between socio-cultural factors, maternal affect and infant outcomes in the perinatal period. The aim of the proposed research is to examine the associations between the role of acculturation (the process of one culture adapting the norms of a majority culture), prenatal maternal mental health and subsequent stress vulnerability in infants in the US Mexican population. Three hypotheses will be tested: 1) greater maternal acculturation will predict increased levels of maternal depression and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis activity during pregnancy; 2) Greater levels of maternal acculturation and maternal depression and cortisol will predict an increase in newborn hair cortisol levels as a proxy measure of fetal HPA axis activity; 3) Greater levels of maternal acculturation and depression and cortisol will predict an increased acute infant salivary cortisol response to a stressor. With information gained we will also determine if fetal cortisol levels moderate or mediate the relationship between maternal variables and infant HPA activity. The proposed research will be conducted in 185 women of Mexican descent and their infants at a community clinic that primarily attends to Latinos. This research has direct consequences for public health as the Mexican-American population is the most rapidly growing group in the US and Mexican-American women report high levels of depression during pregnancy. Socio-cultural variables may play a role in this increased risk for maternal mental health, specifically acculturation. However, the mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. In addition, the negative consequences of depression during pregnancy extend beyond the depressed individual to her offspring as the offspring of depressed mothers show altered stress responsivity and increases in neuropsychiatric disorders. Therefore, acculturation may directly also negatively impact offspring mental health via its effects on maternal depression or a direct effect itself, but this has yet to be determined. Students will directly involved at all levels of the proposed projects including recruitment and retention of participants, saliva and hair collection, sample management and performance of cortisol assays. The proposed project will provide critical translational research experience for students, with an emphasis on encouraging racial/ethnic minority students in higher education, in line with the missions of CSUSM and AREA. This study directly addresses an NIH priority area "on cultural differences of stress and coping to understand the mechanics by which culturally related stressors affect health" and provides a foundation that can lead to prenatal interventions directed toward acculturation in the high-risk Mexican-American population.