Childhood Family Instability, Adult Stress Reactivity, and Consequences for Health

 儿童出生和成长的家庭环境对他们的行为，教育和健康有着深远的影响（Amato 2001; Cherlin 1999; McLanahan & Sandefur 2009）。随着人口统计和社会趋势的重叠，结婚年龄推迟，离婚和非婚生育的接受程度提高，以及更多的同居，美国家庭的景观是多样化和动态的。根据最近的人口普查，29%的美国儿童只与亲生父母生活在一起，3.5%的儿童与亲生父母都不生活在一起（Vespa et al. 2013）。然而，这种跨部门的估计掩盖了家庭结构的真正复杂性和动态性。儿童不仅越来越多地生活在不同的家庭形式中，而且童年时期的家庭结构经历也是动态的，儿童在成年时可能生活在各种家庭中（Cavanagh &休士顿，2006年; Graefe & Lichter，1999年; Heuveline et al.，2003年）。 使用全国代表性的综合人口，社会，背景和生物数据的儿童在美国，拟议的研究将跟踪的生物途径，通过童年家庭不稳定影响成年人的健康。研究者假设，家庭不稳定会产生强烈的慢性压力，这在成年人压力反应性的测量中会很明显，并会产生负面的长期健康后果。该项目将评估幼儿和青少年敏感发育阶段不稳定的重要性，并调查压力反应过程中的性别、种族和民族差异。该项目通过研究儿童期接触动态家庭结构的持久健康后果，对这一领域作出贡献，这是当今儿童的一种共同生活经历。研究结果将进一步加深我们对社会环境“深入皮肤”影响生理功能和生物过程的方式的理解，这些生理功能和生物过程对健康有影响。从该项目中获得的知识将有助于更有效地针对关键的发展时期制定儿童福利政策，并更好地了解和减少健康差距。 一个由敬业和高技能导师组成的跨学科团队制定了个性化的培训计划，以支持研究者追求她的研究和职业目标。为了完成拟议的研究，研究者需要通过课程作业、指导阅读、研讨会和讲习班获得额外的生物学实质性和技术培训。研究者的专业发展将通过加强她的出版记录，以及她的赠款写作和沟通技巧得到支持。这些活动将为调查员提供必要的培训，以发展生物社会研究方面的专业知识，并在社会科学和生物医学科学的交叉点从事富有成效的跨学科研究。培训还将促进研究者向独立研究的过渡， 以实现她的职业目标，在一所领先的研究型大学获得教职。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The family environments in which children are born and raised have a profound influence on their behavior, education, and health (Amato 2001; Cherlin 1999; McLanahan & Sandefur 2009). With the overlapping demographic and social trends of later age at marriage, greater acceptability of divorce and non-marital childbearing, and more cohabitation, the landscape of American families is diverse and dynamic. According to the recent Census, 29% of American children live with only one biological parent, and 3.5% reside with neither biological parent (Vespa et al. 2013). Such cross-sectional estimates, however, belie the true complexity and dynamism of family structures. Not only do children increasingly live in diverse family forms, but the childhood experience of family structure is dynamic, with children likely to live in a variety of families by the time they reach adulthood (Cavanagh & Huston 2006; Graefe & Lichter 1999; Heuveline et al. 2003). Using nationally representative integrated demographic, social, contextual and biological data on children in the United States, the proposed study will trace the biological pathways through which childhood family instability influences adult health. The Investigator hypothesizes that family instability creates intense and chronic stress that will be evident in measures of adult stress reactivity and that have negative long-term health consequences. The project will evaluate the importance of instability during sensitive developmental stages of early childhood and adolescence, and investigate gender, race and ethnic differences in stress response processes. This project contributes to the field by examining the enduring health consequences of childhood exposure to dynamic family structures, a common life experience for today's children. Findings will further our understanding of the ways in which the social environment "gets under the skin" to influence physiological functioning and biological processes that have consequences for health. Knowledge gained from this project will help more effectively target child welfare policies to crucial developmental periods, and to better understand and reduce health disparities. An interdisciplinary team of dedicated and highly skilled mentors developed a personalized training plan to support the Investigator in pursuit of her research and career goals. To accomplish the proposed research, the Investigator requires additional substantive and technical training in biology to be achieved through coursework, guided reading, seminars and workshops. The Investigator's professional development will be supported by strengthening her publication record, as well as her grant writing and communication skills. These activities will provide the Investigator with the training necessary to develop expertise in biosocial research and engage in productive interdisciplinary research at the intersection of social and biomedical sciences. The training will also facilitate the Investigator's transition to independent research, and enable her to attain her career goal of securing a faculty position at a leading research university.