Members' Research Articles

Behavioural interventions in early life appear to show some effect in reducing childhood overweight and obesity. However, uncertainty remains regarding their overall effectiveness, and whether effectiveness differs among key subgroups. These evidence gaps have prompted an increase in very early childhood obesity prevention trials worldwide. Combining the individual participant data (IPD) from these trials will enhance statistical power to determine overall effectiveness and enable examination of individual and trial-level subgroups. We present a protocol for a systematic review with IPD meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of obesity prevention interventions commencing antenatally or in the first year after birth, and to explore whether there are differential effects among key subgroups.

The opioid epidemic in the United States has manifested differently across geographic regions and populations, with recent increases among racial/ethnic minorities and in the Western region of the U.S. This study provides an overview of the opioid overdose epidemic among Latinos in California and highlight high-risk areas in the state.

Using publicly available data from California, we examined trends in opioid-related deaths (e.g., overdose) and opioid-related emergency department (ED) visits among Latinos at the county-level, as well as changes in opioid outcomes overtime.

The impact of COVID-19-related stress on perinatal women is of heightened public health concern given the established intergenerational impact of maternal stress-exposure on infants and fetuses. There is urgent need to characterize the coping styles associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes in perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic to help mitigate the potential for lasting sequelae on both mothers and infants. This study uses a data-driven approach to identify the patterns of behavioral coping strategies that associate with maternal psychosocial distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large multicenter sample of pregnant women (N = 2876) and postpartum women (N = 1536). Data was collected from 9 states across the United States from March to October 2020. Women reported behaviors they were engaging in to manage pandemic-related stress, symptoms of depression, anxiety and global psychological distress, as well as changes in energy levels, sleep quality and stress levels. Using latent profile analysis, we identified four behavioral phenotypes of coping strategies. Critically, phenotypes with high levels of passive coping strategies (increased screen time, social media, and intake of comfort foods) were associated with elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and global psychological distress, as well as worsening stress and energy levels, relative to other coping phenotypes. In contrast, phenotypes with high levels of active coping strategies (social support, and self-care) were associated with greater resiliency relative to other phenotypes. The identification of these widespread coping phenotypes reveals novel behavioral patterns associated with risk and resiliency to pandemic-related stress in perinatal women. These findings may contribute to early identification of women at risk for poor long-term outcomes and indicate malleable targets for interventions aimed at mitigating lasting sequelae on women and children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant stress and anxiety among many people, individuals’ experiences varied. We examined whether specific forms of anxiety predicted distinct trajectories of anxiety, perceived stress, and COVID-related worries during 3 early months of the pandemic. In a longitudinal study (N = 291), adolescents’ (n = 194) social anxiety and generalized anxiety levels were assessed via parent reports and self-reports and clinical diagnostic interviews. Later, when these adolescents were young adults (n = 164), anxiety, stress, and COVID-related worries were assessed thrice during the pandemic. Prepandemic generalized anxiety predicted higher initial levels and maintenance of anxiety, stress, and COVID-related worries during the pandemic. In contrast, prepandemic social anxiety predicted lower initial levels of anxiety, stress, and COVID-related worries, but this initial effect on anxiety and stress was offset over time by social anxiety’s positive effect on the slope. Our results highlight the importance of understanding how prepandemic factors influence individuals’ experiences during the pandemic.

Changes in food choice often accompany globalization and economic growth. These changes have not been well documented in rural settings and among young people. To advance research on food choice, we demonstrate adolescents’ selection of local vs.non-local foods in a rural area of India where globalization is just reaching. A representative sample of 237 school-going adolescents in a village in Southern India completed a survey in 2019 to understand how adolescents decide among foods traditional to the area and foods arriving from other parts of the country and the world. Adolescents most frequently consumed local foods but also occasionally consumed non-local items. In hypothetical scenarios, 81% of the adolescents reported being most interested in substituting local foods with non-local foods if they were to have more money. Among the few who currently consumed non-local snacks and drinks, very few would be willing to replace them with local alternatives, particularly if they were to have more money (snacks: 10% and drinks: 5% respectively). Overall, adolescents were most interested in switching to non-local items when considering fruits, vegetables and snacks. As India faces the dual burden of undernutrition and overnutrition, understanding the changing food environment may help inform efforts to improve nutrition.

Fathers play a critical role in parenting and in shaping child outcomes. However, the neurobiological underpinnings of successful adjustment to fatherhood have not been well-specified. Empathy and mentalizing abilities may characterize more effective fathering. These abilities may be supported by the functional connectivity (FC) of brain regions associated with social cognition and executive control. We used a seed-region-based approach to assess resting-state FC (rsFC) of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in 40 expectant fathers. We tested associations between mPFC whole-brain rsFC and fathers’ self-report measures of empathy during pregnancy, as well as their ratings of father-infant bonding and fathering behaviors at six months postpartum. Stronger prenatal rsFC between the mPFC and precuneus, frontal pole, planum polare, and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was negatively associated with self-reported empathic concern and perspective-taking, whereas mPFC rsFC with the lateral occipital cortex (LOC) was positively associated with self-reported perspective-taking. Additionally, stronger prenatal connectivity between the mPFC rsFC and the superior parietal lobule and LOC regions predicted father reports of postpartum bonding with infants, and stronger prenatal mPFC rsFC with the LOC predicted more effective postpartum parenting. This study is the first to measure rsFC in expectant fathers as a predictor of subsequent adjustment to fathering.

Family-centered rounds (FCR) is the standard of care in inpatient pediatrics. Results of studies have revealed that Spanish-speaking families can experience communication challenges and decreased empowerment on rounds. In our study, we aim to identify variation in FCR practices for Spanish-speaking compared to English-speaking families and factors contributing to these disparities.

This is a cross-sectional observational study performed by secondary analysis of a quality improvement initiative conducted at a quaternary children’s hospital. Data were collected from June 2019 to March 2020 by using observational audits. Encounters were analyzed to compare key elements of FCR (including rounds location, elicitation of family questions, involvement in discharge planning) for English-speaking and Spanish-speaking families. Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare family involvement in FCR. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate unmeasured confounding.

Infants’ developing motor skills—including mastery of new postures such as sitting and standing—affect opportunities for learning that facilitate cognitive development. But how infant posture affects caregiver behavior is largely unexplored. Moreover, we know little about effects of posture on learning opportunities in infants with motor delay. This study asked how infants with typical development and infants with significant motor delay use various postures during play, and whether posture is related in real time to caregiver-provided cognitive learning opportunities. Infants were videotaped five times over the course of a year in a free play session with a caregiver, starting when they demonstrated initial sitting skills. Posture and cognitive opportunities were coded moment-by-moment to assess duration and temporal overlap. We found that infants with typical development and infants with motor delay displayed similar use of postures initially, but infants with typical development demonstrated more mature postures over time. We also found that for both groups of infants, caregivers were most likely to provide cognitive opportunities when infants were sitting independently, and least likely when infants were supine. Our findings highlight the importance of upright sitting in typical and atypical infant development and suggest potential areas of intervention for infants with motor delay.

The development of motor skills in infancy is a vital neurodevelopmental milestone. Although previous studies have explored the neurotoxic effects of agricultural pesticides on infants’ motor development, limited research has examined early postnatal household pesticide use on infants’ motor development, particularly among urban communities. This study examined the association between early postnatal household pesticide use and infants’ gross and fine motor development at 6 months of age.

COVID-19 has disrupted many of the preventive service sectors designed to promote infant mental health. The purpose of this study is to examine provider and supervisor transition strategies as well as maternal-child outcomes during the transition from in-person to virtual early childhood home visitation services in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County is one of the largest home visitation sectors in the U.S. and disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Transitioning from in-person to virtual home visitation was an important step in ensuring the continuity of infant mental health services. Home visitors reported relative ease in transitioning to virtual services themselves but noted that families encountered greater difficulty. The most helpful strategies to support this transition included training, ongoing reflective supervision, and provision of technology. Family level analysis revealed that positive screening rates for anxiety and depression decreased during the pandemic as did referrals for most support services. These findings likely highlight challenges in delivering virtual home visitation. Understanding how transitions in a key infant serving sector were managed serves an important role in forecasting for the future and preparing for future public heath emergencies.

While social workers have served as frontline workers responding to the needs of vulnerable populations during COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how social work professionals themselves have been impacted. This article explored the impact of COVID-19 on social work professionals’ mental health, physical health, and access to personal protective equipment (PPE). This was a cross-sectional web-based survey of social workers practicing in the United States (N = 3,118); data on demographic and workplace characteristics, physical and mental health, and safety concerns were collected between June and August of 2020. Univariate statistics were used to characterize the sample. Ordinal logistic and multinomial regression were used to achieve the research aims. The majority of participants reported either moderate or severe concerns related to mental (55 percent) and physical (55 percent) health; 36 percent of respondents indicated concerns about PPE access. Respondents’ concerns differed by demographic (e.g., race, age) and workplace characteristics (e.g., setting, role, region). Social workers of color are experiencing COVID-19-related concerns of significantly greater severity relative to their White counterparts. Findings highlight an immediate need to deepen understanding of the factors that contribute to these trends and identify mechanisms to support the frontline social work workforce most impacted.

Utilising telepractice videoconferencing technology to offer home visitation services has the potential to provide access and parenting support through a high-tech and high-touch service delivery option. Families can receive evidence-based, family support intervention from their home via videoconferencing technology, removing the need for the provider to be physically in the home. While the expansion of telehealth and telepractice services for families is essential for meeting the needs of both parents and their children, well-documented engagement barriers to digital health/computer-mediated interventions exist across treatment modalities and technology platforms. Semi-structured interviews with 15 providers were conducted and analysed to identify engagement strategies utilised to sustain families in a home visitation model offered through live videoconferencing technology on a telehealth platform. Analysis revealed four themes that were deemed essential for successfully attracting and maintaining families in a telepractice-based home visitation programme: (a) engagement strategies to encourage families to participate; (b) clinical skills used within sessions; (c) articulation of benefits to the family; and (d) exploration of rationale for ending services. This study was able to identify strategies for engagement and sustained involvement of families in telehealth-based home visitation. Findings include evidence that providers should be able to move between telehealth and on-ground service provision with relative ease.

Aperiodic activity contains important and meaningful physiological information that has been shown to dynamically change with age. However, no longitudinal studies have examined its development during early-to-mid adolescence. The current study closes this gap by investigating age- and sex-related longitudinal change in aperiodic activity across early-to-mid adolescence (N = 186; 54.3% female). Participants completed a resting state task and a Flanker task while EEG was record at age 13 years and again at age 15 years. Across different tasks and two time points, we observed significant age-related reductions in aperiodic offset and exponent. In addition, we observed significant sex-related differences in the aperiodic offset and exponent over time. We did not find any significant correlation between aperiodic activity and behavioral measures, nor did we find any significant condition-dependent change in aperiodic activity during the Flanker task. However, we did observe significant correlations between aperiodic activity across tasks and over time, suggesting that aperiodic activity may demonstrate stable trait-like characteristics. Collectively, these results may suggest a developmental parallelism between decreases in aperiodic components alongside adolescent brain development during this period; changes to cortical and subcortical brain structure and organization during early adolescence may have been responsible for the observed sex-related effects.

First-degree relatives of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) present hormonal and metabolic alterations compared to girls unrelated to PCOS. It is unknown whether glucose intolerance in the PCOS proband confers a more severe metabolic predisposition on their first-degree relatives. The object was to determine whether glucose tolerance status in women with PCOS is associated with worsened glucose metabolism and sex hormone levels in their peripubertal daughters or sisters.

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent phenomenon, yet no sufficiently effective treatment approach exists, leading researchers to consider how a reconceptualization of NSSI phenomenology may be necessary to optimize treatment. Multiple novel reconceptualizations seem to converge on the idea that NSSI provides certain benefits (e.g., affect regulation) that lead to nonlinear recovery processes in which cessation is not always possible. NSSI e-communities have also become increasingly studied given their popularity among those who self-injure, and they often contain harm-reduction content (e.g., wound care, safe cutting practices). The United Kingdom has approved harm reduction for NSSI treatment; however, its implementation remains uncommon. The current article integrates these novel and growing lines of research and theory and presents converging evidence for the inclusion of harm reduction in NSSI treatment approaches. Future directions and ethical considerations are discussed.

Large-scale social distancing measures launched by states and counties to combat the transmission of COVID-19 meant home visitors could no longer visit families in their homes, leaving high-risk mothers at even greater risk for pre-natal and post-partum mental health complications, parenting difficulties, and social isolation. To avoid gaps in services, there was an immediate industry wide shift to “virtual home visitation,” via telehealth service delivery platforms. Given recent reports during the COVID-19 pandemic that mothers are at increased risk for mental health difficulty, home visitation services could serve as an important preventive safety net for new mothers who are now encountering unprecedented social isolation and service disruption. The purpose of this study is to explore differences in early childhood home visitation service provision (enrollment and depression screening) among mothers receiving home visitation services prior to and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prevalence of pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) are higher among women of color with low SES. Dysregulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis and its end-product, cortisol, during pregnancy is hypothesized to be associated with excessive GWG. However, past studies have produced inconsistent findings and often did not include health disparities populations. This study examined the association between pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), third trimester diurnal cortisol, and GWG in low-income, predominantly Hispanic women.

We compared 572 pregnant women (319 first-time mothers) surveyed in spring 2020, during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States, with 99 pregnant women (all first-time mothers) surveyed before the pandemic (2014–2020). Compared with the prepandemic sample, women assessed during the pandemic showed elevated depression, anxiety, and stress and weaker prenatal bonding to their infants. These findings remained significant when restricting the pandemic sample to first-time mothers only and held after controlling for race/ethnicity, education, and pregnancy stage. Average levels of depression and anxiety within the pandemic group exceeded clinically significant thresholds, and women who estimated that the pandemic had more negatively affected their social relationships reported higher distress. However, pandemic-related changes to social contact outside the household were inconsistently associated with mental health and with some positive outcomes (fewer depressive symptoms, stronger prenatal bonding). Given that prenatal stress may compromise maternal and child well-being, the pandemic may have long-term implications for population health.

In the transition from NICU discharge to EI services, there are a variety of steps and multiple stakeholders that may cause a delay or even a complete failure of the referral, evaluation, and receipt of these important therapies despite state and federal regulations around provisions. Enrolling in EI and sustained participation has been demonstrated to be complex. Studied barriers to access to EI and subsequent delays in enrollment and participation include failed provider referrals,19 communication problems with pediatricians, parents not understanding the EI referral process, logistical challenges such as families losing the phone number to the EI program, and families confusing EI programs with child protective services.20 Litt et al. recently published a progress report, “Community based early intervention services for high risk infants: unanswered questions leave room for improvement” which underscores the  6 importance of family engagement in the timely enrollment of EI services and access for families.21  Our objectives were to describe constructs around individuals, health behaviors, patient navigation and provider factors to improve the connection to EI services after NICU discharge in a Medicaid sample.

Paid family leave may mitigate stress and health challenges across the transition to parenthood. The current study examined whether paid paternity leave is associated with first-time parents’ trajectories of depression, stress, and sleep from the prenatal to postpartum periods. Expectant parents (72 couples) reported on their depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and daytime fatigue during mid-to-late pregnancy and then again at six months postpartum. At one year postpartum, fathers reported on any paid or unpaid leave taken following their child’s birth. We used a repeated-measures design to compare couples in which the father either did or did not access paid paternity leave. When fathers took paid paternity leave, their partners’ stress and depressive symptoms showed smaller prenatal to postpartum increases than mothers whose partners did not take paid leave. Similarly, fathers who took paid paternity leave, compared to those who did not, reported smaller prenatal to postpartum increases in stress and daytime fatigue. These results remained largely unchanged when controlling for the length of fathers’ leave. The study’s longitudinal, within-subject design allows us to examine parents’ mental health relative to their own prenatal baseline, helping to account for some of the pre-existing differences between fathers who did and did not take paid paternity leave. The results suggest that paid paternity leave may be associated with greater well-being across the transition to parenthood for both fathers and mothers.

Internalising symptoms and disorders often emerge in childhood and are associated with negative health outcomes into adulthood. Studies have shown neighbourhood characteristics (e.g. socio-economic composition, greenspace exposure) to be associated with depression and anxiety symptoms in adults; however, research that explores these relationships longitudinally in children is lacking. This study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of neighbourhood characteristics with developmental trajectories of internalising symptoms in 202 children (ages 8–12) from the Mothers' and Their Children's Health (MATCH) Study.

Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is highly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Objectives of the study were to characterize autistic features in young children with TSC.

Emerging research suggests an association between exposure to violence, specifically indirect forms, and substance use among youth involved in the child welfare (CW) system. However, this has only been recently and tentatively explored. This study examined the associations among various forms of indirect violence exposure and substance use among subgroups of youth involved in the CW system. The analytic sample consisted of participants (aged 11 years or older) in the baseline year of the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (2008–2012), including youth and their caregivers. Latent class analysis was used to examine associations among distinct forms of indirect violence exposure and substance use and the potential identification of unique at-risk groups. Models for the overall sample suggested two classes of at-risk youth, with the higher-risk class having higher probabilities of alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug use, which coincided with higher probabilities of exposure to arrests, stealing, drug deals, and weapon use. However, stratified models suggested unique results for youth aged 13–14 and 15–17, suggesting that the confluence of these risks appears to differ developmentally. Prevention and intervention services for CW-involved youth should assess and address violence exposure types among youth as a potential opportunity to mitigate substance use and subsequent high-risk behavior.

Studies of large nationally representative databases have shown increasing rates of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among neonates and infants. Between 2001 and 2007, the annual rate of VTE increased by 70% in infants <28 days and 100% in infants 28 days to 1 year among patients in the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS). Similarly, the rate of VTE increased from 18.1 per 100,000 in 1994 to 49.6 per 100,000 in 2009 among infants in the National Inpatient Sample. Though not definitively established, the increasing rate of VTE among infants may be partially due to increased survival among the most premature and sickest infants, increased use of central venous catheters (CVCs), and increased screening and diagnosis.

Our purpose was to assess daily leg movement rate before and after a caregiver-provided in-home intervention for infants at risk for developmental disability. We also assessed adherence and quality of caregiver-child interaction.

The evidence that maternal non-nutritive sweetener (NNS) intake during pregnancy increases childhood obesity risk is conflicting. A potential reason for this is that all prior studies examined childhood body mass index (BMI) at only one timepoint and at different ages. We examined the extent to which NNS intake during pregnancy is associated with offspring BMI z-score and body fat longitudinally from birth to 18 years.

To examine whether a structured neonatal physical therapy program (SNP) improves neurobehavior and general movements in moderate to late preterm (MLP) infants.

Sixty MLP infants participated in this clinical trial. After baseline assessment using the Neurobehavioral Assessment of Preterm Infant (NAPI) and Prechtl General Movements (GMs) Assessment, infants were randomly allocated to a usual care (n = 30) or an SNP group (n = 30) and continued receiving usual care. The SNP group received intervention for 90 minutes/day, 6 days/week until discharge. Changes in neurobehavior and GMs were assessed at hospital discharge.

Changes in scores on scarf sign and motor development and vigor clusters of NAPI document an improvement in the SNP group. The proportion of infants with poor repertoire GMs also decreased more in the SNP group than in the usual care group.

The objective of this study was to assess the most effective methods used to meet social support needs during COVID-19 in perinatal women, the impact of COVID-19 on self-reported social support levels, and how perceived change in social support related to distress, depression, and mental health. The study found that perinatal women reported decreased social support during the COVID-19 pandemic which was associated with poorer mental health. Using virtual means of social support and support provided by friends had the largest positive effect on perceived social support levels.

Nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) are used as an alternative to nutritive sweeteners to quench desire for sweets while reducing caloric intake. However, studies have shown mixed results concerning the effects of NNSs on appetite, and the associations between sex and obesity with reward and appetitive responses to NNS compared with nutritive sugar are unknown. The objective of this study is to examine neural reactivity to different types of high-calorie food cues (ie, sweet and savory), metabolic responses, and eating behavior following consumption of sucralose (NNS) vs sucrose (nutritive sugar) among healthy young adults.

The outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has resulted in various international and national strategies, including non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing and travel bans, which have purportedly mitigated the health loss due to the pandemic but also given rise to a severe economic crisis. Both factors, the pandemic and the NPIs, can be expected to have an impact on the Health-Related Quality-of-Life (HRQoL) of the population. The objective of this study was to estimate the impact on HRQoL of the Swedish adult population during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a financial burden and worry that families of preterm infants experience after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The authors surveyed 365 parents of preterm infants and identified factors that could contribute to financial burden after NICU discharge that may advise future work to target financial support systems. 

Micronutrients are dietary components important for health and physiological function, and inadequate intake of these nutrients can contribute to poor health outcomes. The risk of inadequate micronutrient intake has been shown to be greater among low-income Hispanics and postpartum and lactating women. Therefore, the authors aimed to determine the risk of nutrient inadequacies based on preliminary evidence among postpartum, Hispanic women.

Limited research exists on the association of eating-related guilt and mental health across middle childhood to early adolescence. Therefore, this study was guided by two aims: (1) to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between eating-related guilt and mental health (i.e., internalizing symptoms and self-esteem) and (2) to examine how executive functioning deficits moderate the cross-sectional association between eating-related guilt and mental health. This study found that eating-related guilt and internalizing symptoms appear to track together across middle childhood and early adolescence; executive functioning deficits may explain risk for negative outcomes for children experiencing eating-related guilt.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) COVID-19 Task Force led the development of the ECHO COVID-19 questionnaires, which includes the Acute Stress Disorder Scale. The stress-related questions of this scale are based on the DSM5 criteria for acute stress disorder and can help inform how pandemic stressors may relate to symptoms of acute stress disorder. This document further explains the background and scoring of these questions for the ECHO COVID-19 Survey.

This study investigated bidirectional associations between observed parent-youth coalitions-wherein one parent and a child align themselves against the other parent-and family hostilities as they evolved in real-time during triadic family conflict discussions. Results indicated multiple concurrent links supporting the interconnectedness of cross generational coalitions and angry, critical exchanges within multiple family relationships. These patterns highlight the dynamic links between hostilities and coalitions, how such patterns spill over across family subsystems, and how these two insidious influences in parents' interactions with their adolescent youth may mutually reinforce each other. This study informs intervention efforts by identifying patterns and sequences of family hostilities surrounding parent-youth coalitions during adolescence.

Research on the role of incarceration history on the mental health of imprisoned mothers reveals contradictory findings. These inconsistencies are potentially attributable to the different incarceration histories across samples masked by the use of a dichotomized incarceration history measure. This study used incarceration trajectories over the life course to determine the nature and array of incarceration experiences detrimental to mental health. Findings suggested that incarceration trajectories were significantly associated with a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis and demonstrated a trend towards significance to be associated with anger symptoms and suicidal ideation. However, they were not significantly related to other mental health problems, such as depressive disorder and anxiety disorder. The authors concluded that mental health interventions need to be customized to the unique challenges encountered by subgroups of mothers with different incarceration experiences.

Parental cannabis use is associated with increased risks of cannabis use among offspring, yet few studies have explored the mechanisms influencing intergenerational continuity in cannabis use. To understand the mechanism by which intergenerational cannabis use is influenced, this work explores cannabis use across three generations using a family expansion of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Parents play an influential role in the cannabis use behaviors of adolescents. Future work should consider interventions that target both parent and adolescents, increasing knowledge and skills related to parent-child communication, parental monitoring, and positive parental role modeling to reduce intergenerational continuity of cannabis use.

Individuals with depression often demonstrate an altered peripheral inflammatory profile, as well as emotion perception difficulties. However, correlations of inflammation with overall depression severity are inconsistent and inflammation may only contribute to specific symptoms. Moreover, measurement of the association between inflammation and emotion perception is sparse in adolescence, despite representing a formative window of emotional development and high-risk period for depression onset. Inflammatory markers were sensitive to affective and somatic symptoms of depression and processing of emotional threat in adolescents. In particular, IL-6 was elevated in depressed adolescents and therefore may represent a specific target for modulating depressive symptoms and emotion processing.

Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a prevalent class of persistent pollutants, may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. The authors examined associations between PFAS exposure and glucose metabolism in youth. Youth exposure to PFHxS was associated with dysregulated glucose metabolism in females, which may be due to changes in β-cell β-cell function. These associations appeared during puberty and were most pronounced postpuberty.

The use of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) for mild hypoxic–ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) remains controversial and inconsistent. We analysed trends in TH and maternal and infant characteristics associated with short-term outcomes of infants with mild HIE. Variation in management of mild HIE persists, but therapeutic drift has become more prevalent over time. Further studies are needed to assess long-term outcomes alongside resource utilisation to inform evidence-based practice.

Previous research has shown that perceived discrimination and social isolation due to immigration policies have important health implications among US Hispanic populations. Moreover, the early postpartum period is characterized by periods of social isolation which may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic also coincided with a growing awareness of discrimination and structural racism experienced by marginalized communities. We evaluated differences in perceived discrimination and social isolation between early postpartum Hispanic women in Los Angeles before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher perceived discrimination and social isolation at one month postpartum during the COVID-19 pandemic vs. pre-pandemic periods suggest increased social inequities during the pandemic among US Hispanic women.

Prenatal chemical exposures are ubiquitous, can influence maternal, fetal and child health, and lead to adverse pregnancy and child health outcomes. The NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, –comprised of geographically, racially, and ethnically diverse prospective pregnancy and birth cohorts, provides an unparalleled opportunity for understanding environmental exposures among US pregnant women. Our study applies a new and efficient biomonitoring method for quantifying 100 priority chemicals in commerce among pregnant women and characterizes predictors of prenatal exposures. Our study is the largest to date to measure these mostly understudied chemicals for which we found widespread exposure in a diverse sample of U.S. pregnant women.

Exposure to ambient air pollutants (AAP) has been linked with the gut microbiome in young adults; however, this relationship has not been studied in infancy. This study aimed to examine the relationships between AAP and the infant gut microbiota. Early postnatal exposure to AAP was associated with the composition of the infant gut microbiota at 6-months of age. These results suggest that early life exposure to AAP may impact the developing gut microbiome, which may have important implications for infant development.

Human exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) is ubiquitous and has been associated with increased risk of metabolic disorders. Exposure during periods of development, including childhood, may exacerbate these effects. The purpose of this study was to identify metabolic pathways associated with youth exposure to PFAS and to test the generalizability of these associations in an independent cohort of young adults. Exposure to PFAS in youth is associated with alterations in important amino acid and lipid metabolism pathways in two independent cohorts. These associations may help explain the adverse metabolic effects of PFAS exposure.

Previous research has established an association between postnatal ambient air pollution (AAP) exposure and cognitive development in preschoolers and school-aged children. However, this association has not been examined during infancy, a critical neurodevelopmental window. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between postnatal AAP exposure and cognitive development in infants. Higher postnatal exposure to AAP in the first month of life was inversely associated with scaled motor, cognitive, and social-emotional scores at 24-months of age. Sex-specific findings for scaled cognitive score may suggest differential impacts of AAP exposure among females. These results indicate that AAP may negatively impact neurodevelopment in early life.

Exposure to metabolism disrupting lipophilic compounds, including organochlorine compounds and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, is prevalent. The aim of this study was to examine the potential diabetogenic effects of youth exposure to lipophilic chemicals. Our results indicate that youth exposure to lipophilic chemicals is associated with dysregulated glucose metabolism, which may increase risk for type 2 diabetes.

COVID-19 restrictions may prevent adults from achieving sufficient physical activity (PA) and may affect PA context. This study examined the early effects of COVID-19 on daily PA bouts and contexts during April–June 2020 using a daily diary approach. The study suggests that greater COVID-19-related restrictions in California versus Colorado affected the context and number of daily PA across time, with fewer bouts per day across time and fewer bouts in recreational spaces among residents of California.

Assessment of anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) most commonly includes parent questionnaires. However, due to the nature of the questions and verbal limitations often present in children with ASD, caregivers may have difficulty completing such measures. Caregivers of 144 children with ASD ages 6 to 12 completed the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory-4 ASD Anxiety Scale and rated their level of confidence in responding to each item. Results indicated that parents had a moderate to high level of confidence in rating their children’s anxiety symptoms. Parent confidence was not influenced by their child’s age, expressive language ability, or intellectual functioning, but was related to their child’s anxiety symptom count and ASD severity.

People differ from each other to the extent to which momentary factors, such as context, mood, and cognitions, influence momentary health behaviors. However, statistical models to date are limited in their ability to test whether the association between two momentary variables (i.e., subject-level slopes) predicts a subject-level outcome. This study demonstrates a novel two-stage statistical modeling strategy that is capable of testing whether subject-level slopes between two momentary variables predict subject-level outcomes.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with substance use, how cultural factors influence this association for Latinx youth is unknown. This study uses longitudinal data to examine associations of cultural factors, ACEs and substance use among Latinx young adults. Results suggest a predictive relationship between ACEs, and alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use, after accounting for cultural factors. Beyond acculturation, enculturation and ethnic identity, findings identify ACEs as a salient predictor of substance use among Latinx young adults.

Past observational studies highlight meaningful behavioral differences between aggressive and nonaggressive couples during conflict interactions. However, research is needed on how aggressive couples communicate in other, nonconflictual interactional contexts. This study investigates how dating partners’ perpetration of physical aggression relates to observed behaviors during a laboratory-based discussion during which dating couples planned a date together. The researchers also investigated whether negative anticipation of the upcoming discussion influences dating partners’ observed behaviors. Findings suggest that couple aggression spills over to and potentially degrades the discussion of even nonthreatening, potentially enjoyable communications. Results also underscore negative anticipation of an interaction as a potential risky process that increases the likelihood of antagonistic exchanges between partners.

Access and utilization of behavioral health services is a public health issue, yet disparities among racial/ethnic groups persist, resulting in fewer access points and lower utilization. Using pooled 2015 and 2016 California Health Interview Survey (N = 42,089) data of diverse adults, this study examines provider access points for behavioral health services use. Results advance knowledge of behavioral health services access points among racial, ethnic and immigrant groups, following passage of the California Mental Health Services Act. Findings suggest primary care may be an important entry point for behavioral health service use engagement among underserved populations.

The objective of this study is to explore early disparate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility preferences. This exploratory study highlights how the fertility preferences of racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and those experiencing mental health issues may be disparately influenced by the pandemic. Research is needed to examine further the disparate effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility preferences.

The purpose of this symposium is to explore the relationship between time and technology in our processes of work and organizing. We wish to deepen our theoretical understanding about this relationship by investigating it across multiple levels of analysis and in various contexts and conditions. CCF member, Dr. Chrstine Beckman, and Dr. Melissa Mazmanian, presented on "Temporal burdening and temporal commitment: How technology and time serve Ideal Workers."

When interviewing a child who may have witnessed a crime, the interviewer must ask carefully directed questions in order to elicit a truthful statement from the child. The presented work uses Granger causal analysis to examine and represent child–interviewer interaction dynamics over such an interview. The authors work demonstrates that Granger Causal analysis of psycholinguistic and acoustic signals from speech yields significant predictors of whether a child is telling the truth, as well as whether a child will disclose witnessing a transgression later in the interview. By incorporating cross-modal Granger causal features extracted from audio and transcripts of forensic interviews, we are able to substantially outperform conventional deception detection methods and a number of simulated baselines. The results suggest that a child’s use of concreteness and imageability in their language are strong psycholinguistic indicators of truth-telling and that the coordination of child and interviewer speech signals is much more informative than the specific language used throughout the interview.

Physical connection, particularly parent-to-infant touch, is critical for the well-being of infants and may support the development of the parent-infant bond. Physical touch has also been found to stimulate oxytocin levels. This study tested whether fathers' micro-coded touch behaviors during parent-child interaction predicted their subsequent oxytocin levels. The authors also compared two widely-used methods of oxytocin immunoassay that have been found to yield discrepant results in past studies. Results are consistent with previous work showing that physical touch, particularly playful proprioceptive touch, is associated with higher oxytocin levels in fathers. These results replicate previous research using unextracted oxytocin measurement, and extend this work, showing that many but not all associations hold when using the more rigorous method of extraction when measuring oxytocin.

Animal studies have shown that exposure to zinc in the prenatal and postnatal periods is essential for brain structure and functioning in rat pups. Yet, no human studies have examined whether zinc is associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolism in infants, the basis for neurodevelopmental outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to determine associations of maternal zinc intake in pregnancy with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain tissue microstructure and resting cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in newborns. The authors secondary aim was to examine associations of maternal zinc intake in lactation with neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left older adults around the world bereaved by the sudden death of relatives and friends. Dr. Emily Smith-Greenaway and colleagues examine if COVID-19 bereavement corresponds with older adults’ reporting depression in 27 countries, and test for variation by gender and country context. The study found that COVID-19 deaths have lingering mental health implications for surviving older adults. Even as the collective toll of the crisis is apparent, bereaved older adults are in particular need of mental health support.

In this parallel, double-blinded, NIH-funded study, CCF member Dr. Michael Goran and colleagues compare the effects of consuming sucrose-sweetened beverage (-SB), high fructose corn syrup (HFCS-SB), or a control beverage sweetened with aspartame on metabolic outcomes in humans. The study found that consumpting both sucrose- and HFCS-SB induced detrimental changes in hepatic lipid, insulin sensitivity, and circulating lipids, lipoproteins and uric acid in 2 weeks.

Engaging in physical activity (PA) may be a promising approach to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on daily affect. The study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the within-subject associations of day-level PA with same-day evening affect. Interactions between daily PA and overall stress related to COVID-19 predicting evening affect were also examined.

The goal of this study was to examine the role of race, ethnicity, and immigration status on prenatal perceived stress and depressive symptomatology trends across pregnancy in a low-income, minority population of pregnant women in urban Los Angeles.

Cross-sectional studies have shown positive associations between neighborhood park access and children’s physical activity (PA); however, research that examines the relationship longitudinally is lacking. This study investigates how neighborhood park access affects the longitudinal trajectory of PA in 192 children across 3 years.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether a relationship exists between the rates of state-level developmental screening by a health care provider and state-level provision of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C (IDEA Part C) early intervention services. Results indicate no relationship between state levels of screening by a health care provider and receipt of IDEA Part C services. Efforts to increase developmental screening may require strategies to ensure adequate service access.

Treatment of a child who has an anxiety disorder usually begins with the question of which treatment to start first, medication or psychotherapy. Both have strong empirical support, but few studies have compared their effectiveness head-to-head, and none has investigated what to do if the treatment tried first isn’t working well—whether to optimize the treatment already begun or to add the other treatment. Findings from this SMART study will identify treatment sequences that optimize outcomes in ethnically diverse pediatric patients from underserved low- and middle-income households who have anxiety disorders.

The objective of this study is to evaluate longitudinal changes in brain microstructure and volumes in very preterm infants during the first year of life with and without intervention. 

Previous research has established that lie-detection accuracy decreases with age; however, various mechanisms for this effect have yet to be explored, particularly when examining the detection of children’s lies. The present study investigated if younger and older adults detect children’s lies using different cues (verbal-content, verbal-auditory, non-verbal, global traits) to explore if cue usage may help to explain this age-related decline.

COVID-19 restrictions may prevent adults from achieving sufficient physical activity (PA) and may affect PA context. This study examined the early effects of COVID-19 on daily PA bouts and contexts during April–June 2020 using a daily diary approach.

One limitation to studying time limited eating (TLE) in adolescents is difficulty in reliably assessing adherence to fasting periods. Dietary recalls, which are currently used to monitor diet adherence, have been criticized due to potential error in reporting, omission bias and suboptimal compliance. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) may be a useful tool to overcome these barriers; however, it requires daily wear and understanding of expected glycemic excursions. The present study examines the feasibility of daily CGM use and its utility as a tool to monitor adherence to fasting periods in a diverse cohort of adolescents with obesity participating in a pilot study of 8-hour TLE.

Knowledge about the motivations for crack cocaine use and the long-term effects among people who inject heroin is limited. This study aims to understand motivations associated with this co-use drug pattern among aging men entrenched in established intergenerational heroin subcultures.

Animal studies have shown that exposure to zinc in the prenatal and postnatal periods is essential for brain structure and functioning in rat pups. Yet, no human studies have examined whether zinc is associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolism in infants, the basis for neurodevelopmental outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to determine associations of maternal zinc intake in pregnancy with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain tissue microstructure and resting cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in newborns. The researchers' secondary aim was to examine associations of maternal zinc intake in lactation with neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants.

The findings indicate that early exposure to zinc is associated with features of brain tissue microstructure, metabolism, and cognitive functioning in infants.

The researchers' prior studies revealed that human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have numerous health benefits for nursing infants, and can also change dynamically over 24 months of lactation. However, the extent to which HMOs vary over days of time and also in response to acute factors such as maternal diet has not been established. The aims of this study were to determine the stability of HMO concentrations over 7-days, and in response to a standardized meal and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) over 6-hours.

The findings reveal that HMOs are stable over one-week during early lactation, and are not acutely affected by maternal food and SSB consumption.

Pediatric Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is prevalent among Hispanics, which may partially result from a higher frequency of the C > G polymorphism in the patatin-like phospholipase 3 (PNPLA3) gene. The researchers' prior work showed an interaction between the GG genotype and high dietary sugar, resulting in higher liver fat. Additionally, studies show that extreme sugar depletion improves liver fat in children with obesity. This trial aimed to test whether a clinical intervention for sugar reduction versus standard diet advice in Hispanic youth differentially impacts liver fat, liver fibrosis, body weight and composition, and whether effects differed by PNPLA3 genotype.

In Hispanic Youth with obesity, a clinic-based intervention focused on sugar reduction did not affect liver fat, liver fibrosis, body weight or composition, regardless of PNPLA3 genotype. However, the reduction in sugar intake observed might not have been sufficient to shift liver fat. Further, our results suggest that reducing fat mass is essential to reducing liver fat.

This study explored the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between everyday emotion dimensions and internalizing symptoms during the transition to early adolescence. Dr. Dunton and colleagues tested associations between children’s intensity and instability of daily negative emotions (NE), positive emotions (PE), and daily NE differentiation (NED) with children’s self-reported and their mothers’ report of children’s internalizing symptoms, across six waves, each wave separated by six months.

Prior epidemiological and animal work has linked in utero exposure to ambient air pollutants (AAP) with accelerated postnatal weight gain, which is predictive of increased cardiometabolic risk factors in childhood and adolescence. However, few studies have assessed changes in infant body composition or multiple pollutant exposures. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine relationships between prenatal residential AAP exposure with infant growth and adiposity.

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of early exome sequencing (eES) relative to the current typical care (TC) in the diagnosis of newborns with suspected severe mitochondrial disorders (MitD). The results from the study found that trio and singleton eES are cost-effective and cost-minimizing alternatives to current TC in diagnosing newborns suspected of having a severe MitD.

Daughters of HIV positive women are often exposed to similar factors that placed their mothers at risk of HIV. Compared to women of other racial/ethnic groups, African American women have disproportionately higher rates of HIV/AIDS. This pilot study examines the relationship between African American HIV positive mothers and their daughters, and this relationship’s association with motherdaughter HIV risk communication and related domains. Results underscore the need to strengthen the mother-daughter communication around these topics in ways that may positively inuence the sexual behaviors of the daughter.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common childhood physical disability. Early intervention for children younger than 2 years with or at risk of CP is critical. The objective of this paper is to systematically review the best available evidence about CP-specific early interventions across 9 domains promoting motor function, cognitive skills, communication, eating and drinking, vision, sleep, managing muscle tone, musculoskeletal health, and parental support.

Child and family-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy (CFF-CBT/RAINBOW) is a psychosocial treatment model developed for Paediatric Bipolar Disorder (PBD). In this study, Dr. Amy West and colleagues describe its adaptation to a population of culturally and linguistically diverse youth with transdiagnostic emotional and behavioural dysregulation (EBD), with a particular focus on changes to parent and family interventions.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease impacts 15.2% of Hispanic adolescents and can progress to a build-up of scared tissue called liver fibrosis. If diagnosed early, liver fibrosis may be reversible, so it is necessary to understand risk factors. The aims of this study in 59 Hispanic adolescents with obesity were to: (1) identify potential biological predictors of liver fibrosis and dietary components that influence liver fibrosis, and (2) determine if the association between dietary components and liver fibrosis differs by PNPLA3 genotype, which is highly prevalent in Hispanic adolescents and associated with elevated liver fat

Scholars recognize parental employment as important for understanding parental time use. Yet, given data limitations, we know relatively little about how strain-based demands (demands that can produce negative psychological states) are associated with parent's time with children. This study examines how occupational resources and demands are associated with parents' childcare time.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a lifesaving treatment for critically ill neonates. While there is some information on hospital readmissions and survival in non-neonatal pediatric and adult ECMO patients, there is little published data reporting readmission for neonatal ECMO survivors. The goals of this analysis were to (1) establish early and late readmission rates, (2) identify associated demographic, socioeconomic, and co-morbidity factors, (3) and to determine prognosticators regarding readmission in ECMO survivors.

Throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) modeling has been the preeminent modeling method to inform policy making worldwide. Nevertheless, the usefulness of such models has been subject to controversy. An evolution in the epidemiological modeling field is urgently needed, beginning with an agreed-upon set of modeling standards for policy recommendations. The objective of this article is to propose a set of modeling standards to support policy decision making.

Because of the high cost, venue-based probability sampling of young men who have sex with men (YMSM) is largely inaccessible to social researchers. The aim of this study is to compare the feasibility of implementing geosocial networking application-based (GSNA) and venue-based probability sampling of young men who have sex with men. Findings indicate that research teams with limited resources may be able to implement probability-based recruitment by using GSNA. By lowering the cost of research and maintaining probability-based methodological rigor, GSNAs can increase the amount of social research with YMSM.

If the goal of care management is to provide quality of life through care planning that is congruent with the wishes of older adults, then models for care management need to proactively include the family caregiver when they are part of the older adults’ caring community. Family-centric care management improves outcomes and social networks that support older adults in the home. Policies and programs that successfully use a family and older adult care model will reduce healthcare costs, improve inclusion of diverse family values, and positively modify health disparities associated with diverse families of care.

This study evaluates the impact of depression treatment on economic behavior in Karnataka, India. Drs. Daniel Bennett and Manuela Angelucci cross-randomized pharmacotherapy and livelihoods assistance among 1000 depressed adults and evaluated impacts on depression severity, socioeconomic outcomes, and several potential pathways over 26 months. The pharmacotherapy treatments reduce depression severity, with benefits that persist after treatment concludes. They substantially increase child human capital investment, particularly for older children, and reduce risk intolerance and the incidence of negative shocks. These findings suggest two pathways through which depression may perpetuate poverty

The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationship between early motor skills, such as sitting, and the development of problem-solving skills in children with motor delays. The findings from the study suggest that overall baseline motor skills are predictive of current and future development of problem-solving skills and that children with significant motor delay have a stronger and more stable association between motor and problem-solving skills over time. This highlights that children with motor delays are at risk for secondary delays in problem solving, and this risk increases as degree of motor delay increases.

The findings from this study provide novel insights into neural representations of the two attributes in intertemporal decisions (i.e., the amount of the reward and the delay time), and offer a new approach to construct task‐based functional brain networks whose topological properties are related to impulsivity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left older adults around the world grieving the sudden death of relatives and friends. Emily Smith-Greenaway and colleagues examine if COVID-19 bereavement corresponds with older adults’ depressive symptoms in 27 countries, and test for variation by gender and country context.

Knowledge of within-day factors associated with binge-eating severity among middle-aged fathers is limited. The purpose of the current report was to examine within-day associations of affect, diet, and activity in relation to binge-eating severity using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in men.

Little is known about the relation between law enforcement interviewing behaviors and commercially sexually exploited children’s (CSEC) reluctance. Dr. Thomas Lyon and collegues study examined the relation between officers’ use of maximization, (references to) expertise, minimization, and support and adolescent CSEC victims’ reluctance in a small sample of police interviews.

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is a significant and growing public health problem, yet public health approaches to eliminating CAN have not been widely embraced in the United States or in social work education. Public health approaches require a large multidisciplinary infrastructure to scale evidence-based primary prevention strategies through multiple systems. The rapid growth in the workforce projected for the next decade, combined with the increasing ubiquity of social workers across family-serving systems, position social work to be a key mechanism to implement public health approaches to CAN prevention. Dr. Trabue, Dr. Cederbaum, and colleagues presents a rationale for expanding CAN training in social work education. They then describe the Social Work in Health Impact Model (SWHIM), an orientation to social work practice that underscores the importance of prevention and population health, and subsequently apply the SWHIM to the problem of CAN.

Children exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or maternal obesity in utero have an increased propensity to develop obesity. Little is known about the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. Dr. Shan Luo and colleagues aimed to examine relationships between exposure to GDM or maternal obesity and daily energy intake (EI), brain responses to food cues within reward regions, and adiposity in children.

We provide country-level estimates of the cumulative prevalence of mothers bereaved by a child’s death in 170 countries and territories. The study reveals enormous global disparities in mothers’ experience of child loss and identifies a need for more research on the downstream mental and physical health risks associated with parental bereavement.

Psychological stress has adverse effects on health-related behaviors, yet longitudinal research is lacking. Research examined how children’s and mothers’ perceived stress are associated with children’s physical activity and sedentary behavior trajectories across 3 years.

Prior epidemiological studies have found that in utero exposure to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. However, brain alterations associated with GDM are not known. The hippocampus is pivotal for cognition and emotional regulation. Therefore, this paper assessed relationships between in utero exposure to GDM and hippocampal morphology and subfield structure during childhood.

Social cognition may facilitate fathers' sensitive caregiving behavior. We administered the Why‐How Task, an fMRI task that elicits theory of mind processing, to expectant fathers (n = 39) who also visited the laboratory during their partner's pregnancy and provided a plasma sample for oxytocin assay. The study found that fathers' neural activation when engaging in a theory of mind task was associated with their prenatal oxytocin levels and their postpartum attunement parenting beliefs. Results suggest biological and cognitive components of fathering may track with the theory of mind processing.

The present study investigated whether the presence of a romantic partner in daily life is associated with attenuated sympathetic nervous system responses. Additionally, romantic attachment style was tested as a moderator. For one day, 106 heterosexual young adult dating couples wore ambulatory sensors that monitored electrodermal activity (EDA) – an index of sympathetic arousal.

Children of overweight and obese parents have an increased risk of obesity. Little is known the neural mechanisms underlying this relationship, specifically the brain systems implicated in self-regulation of food intake. The primary goal here is to examine relationships between maternal body mass index (BMI) and brain responses to food cues in children.

With rising obesity rates among pregnant women, more children are exposed in utero to maternal obesity. In prior epidemiological studies, exposure to maternal obesity was associated with lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and worse cognitive abilities in offspring. Further studies have shown that offspring exposed to maternal obesity, exhibit differences in the white matter microstructure properties, fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD). In contrast, physical activity was shown to improve cognition and white matter microstructure during childhood. We examined if child physical activity levels modify the relationship between prenatal exposure to maternal obesity with IQ and white matter microstructure in offspring.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the parasympathetic nervous system, has recently gained attention as a physiological component of regulatory processes, social connectedness, and health. Within the context of romantic relationships, studies have operationalized and conceptualized RSA in disparate ways, obscuring a clear pattern of findings. This systematic review synthesizes the rapidly developing literature and clarifies the role of RSA in romantic relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions and mandates have had pronounced implications on the well-being of individuals. This study conducted exploratory analyses of the relationship between COVID-19-related life changes and COVID-19-related perceived stress and associations between COVID-19-related perceived stress and dysregulated maternal eating behaviors, child feeding practices, and body mass index (BMI) in Los Angeles mothers.

Chronic and acute stress may have a detrimental effect on children's physical activity. Research on stress as a predictor of children's physical activity has mostly focused on stress between children, rather than how children's within-day variation in stress may predict physical activity. The current study assessed the within- and between-effects of stress on subsequent physical activity in three different time windows using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and accelerometry.

Within-couple concordance in momentary cortisol levels (“cortisol linkage”) may reflect meaningful relationship dynamics. In this study, the authors examined couple cortisol linkage during pregnancy, associations with negative conflict couple behavior, and subsequent postpartum depressive symptoms.

The objective of this systematic review was to summarize the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology and associations between EMA-measured psychosocial, contextual factors and diabetes self-management.

Suicidal ideation (SI) is significantly higher for youth with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD), yet clinical correlates of suicidality remain poorly understood in this population. The current study investigates how change in risk factors for SI relate to change in SI intensity over a 6-month period of treatment.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are complex glycans that are highly abundant in human milk. While over 150 HMOs have been identified, it is unknown how individual HMOs change in concentration over 24 months of lactation. The objective of this study was to understand how HMO concentrations change over 24 months of lactation.

Dr. Ashlesha Datar and colleagues examined food subsidies and dietary intake in a remote district of India in the context of globalizing food environments.

Therapies for children with cerebral palsy (CP) often fail to address essential components of early rehabilitation: intensity, child initiation, and an embodied approach. Sitting Together And Reaching To Play (START-Play) addresses these issues while incorporating intensive family involvement to maximize therapeutic dosage. While START-Play was developed and tested on children aged 7–16 months with motor delays, the theoretical construct can be applied to intervention in children of broader ages and skills levels.

Parent–child sexual-health communication is critical. Religious involvement is important in many African-American families, but can be a barrier to sexual-health communication. We tested a theory-based, culturally tailored intervention to increase sexual-abstinence communication among church-attending African-American parent–child dyads.

A large body of literature on child-focused research regarding healthy eating within the family context has focused on behavioral management strategies, such as reinforcement, or parental modeling through personal intake or encouragement. However, food preparation behaviors among mothers have been understudied. Also unknown is how maternal food preparations behaviors vary across population subgroups and contexts. The study objective was to elucidate momentary characteristics (i.e., time of day, weekday, and family meals) and personal characteristics (i.e., ethnicity, working status, household characteristics, body mass index, income, and child's age) associated with maternal fruit and vegetable (F/V) preparation through ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

There is a high prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States, particularly among Hispanic women, which may be partly explained by failure to lose gestational weight during the postpartum period. Previous work indicates that protein and amino acids may protect against weight gain; therefore, this study examined the impact of dietary protein and amino acid intake on changes in postpartum weight and the percent of women meeting the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for these dietary variables among Hispanic women from the Southern California Mother's Milk Study (n = 99).

Given the adverse impacts of discrimination on overall well-being, this study tests whether family context, specifically family hostility (FH) and positive family environment (PFE), moderate well-documented associations between discrimination and mental and physical health symptoms.

Electroencephalography (EEG) measures of relative power and coherence are associated with motor experience in infants with typical development, but these relationships have not been assessed in infants born preterm. The goal of this study, written with CCF member Dr. Beth Smith, was to investigate the changing patterns of relative power and coherence in the alpha band during resting state EEG in infants born preterm as they developed the skill of reaching.

Dysregulated eating among children and adolescents is associated with a wide range of negative mental and physical health outcomes, including obesity. However, less is known regarding underlying neural mechanisms underlying such behaviors. Therefore, in the present manuscript written by CCF member Dr. Shan Luo and colleagues, systematically reviewed neuroimaging research examining dysregulated eating behavior linked to excess weight in children and adolescents.

In this article, CCF member, Dr. Daniel Bennett and colleagues examine the trajectories of mental distress between March 10 and August 4, 2020, a key period during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings from this study highlight the trajectory of mental health symptoms during an unprecedented pandemic, including the identification of populations at risk for sustained mental distress.

CCF member Dr. Stanley Huey collaborated on a paper investigating a treatment for youth who have attempted suicide or struggle with self-harm. Youths who make suicide attempts or engage in repetitive self-harm are at risk for future suicide attempts and death by suicide or self-harm. This treatment development report focuses on the Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youth (SAFETY) treatment. SAFETY is a 12-week outpatient child and family-centered cognitive-behavioral treatment, informed by dialectical-behavior therapy, and designed to promote safety following a suicide attempt or repeated episodes of self-harm.

The bi-directional associations between affective states and movement behaviors (e.g., physical activity, sedentary behavior) have been observed in children. It is unclear if the strength of these bi-directional associations varies with age as children transition from childhood to adolescence. In this multi-wave ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study, Dr. Genevieve Dunton and colleagues investigate the acute time-varying associations between affect and movement behaviors among youth.

Dr. Stacey Dusing co-wrote a paper exploring evidence-based tools for children with motor delays. There is a lack of evidence-based tools for measuring problem-solving in young children with motor delays. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the construct validity and responsiveness of the Assessment of Problem-Solving in Play.

CCF member, Dr. Marian Williams, co-authored an article which explained a mixed-methods study examining the role of an infant-family mental health (IFMH) program introduced in a level 4 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Dr. Beth Smith, CCF member, was one of many authors who explored maternal stress exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it could have transgenerational effects, adversely affecting both the pregnant woman and her offspring. In the study, they used latent profile analysis to examine patterns of behavioral coping strategies associated with risk and resiliency to adverse mental and physical health outcomes. These behavioral coping phenotypes highlight potential risk and protective factors for perinatal women, which is critical in helping to identify and treat perinatal women most at risk for experiencing mood and affective disorders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

CCF member, Dr. Genevieve Dunton, co-authored an article that uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to empirically test the theoretical propositions that habit for and level of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) should be associated with degree of context stability of those behaviours.

Dr. Shan Luo co-authored an article exploring a model of energy regulation postulating that the hippocampus integrates interoceptive signals and environmental stimuli to suppress responding to food cues.

CCF member, Dr. Stanley Huey, co-authored an article reviewing the literaure on psychosocial interventions for youth of color, using a distillation model to identify common strategies for incorporating culture into treatment.

This objective of this case series, co-authored by CCF member Dr. Beth Smith, was to examine the potential of the Otteroo (a flotation device) as a tool to support physical therapy intervention in infants with or at risk for developmental disability.

This article, co-authored by CCF member Dr. Beth Smith, explored motion complexity in infants within families that are at high risk for autism spectrum disorder.

This article, co-authored by Alyssa Morris, Dr. Dorian Traube, Dr. Ashwini Lakshmanan, Dr. Amy West, and Dr. Darby Saxbe, investigates perinatal mental health in expectant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article, written by two CCF members (Dr. Cynthia Gong and Ashwini Lakshmanan) and their collegaues investigate maternal post-traumatic stress and depression symptoms and outcomes after children are discharged from the NICU.

The objectives of this article, written by two CCF members, Dr. Cynthia Gong and Ashwini Lakshmanan, were (1) to describe Care Transitions Measure (CTM) scores among caregivers of preterm infants after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and (2) to describe the association of CTM scores with readmissions, enrollment in public assistance programs, and caregiver quality of life scores.

Dr. Marian Williams explores early detection of autism spectrum disorder and policy implementation. Autism spectrum disorder can be reliably diagnosed prior to age 2, and early, intensive intervention has been found to improve long-term outcomes. Nonetheless, most children with ASD do not receive a diagnosis until after age 3, with even later diagnoses for children from non-white ethnic groups. This study conducted telephone surveys with California Part C early intervention managers regarding policies and practices for early identification and intervention for ASD. Findings indicated that 85% of agencies conduct screening for ASD, but only 39% conduct ASD diagnostic assessments prior to age 3. Recommendations for policy changes to align Part C practices with best practice guidelines are provided.

Dr. Beth Smith cowrote a paper about the collection of infant experiential and environmental data using smartphone surveys and how it has the potential to fill a gap in foundational and clinical knowledge.

CCF member, Dr. Genevieve Dunton, explores mother's controlling feeding practices in her article published in the American Journal of Undergraduate Research.

In this article Dr. Michael Goran explores eating habits and obesity. Little is known about the normal eating time periods in adolescents with obesity and how these patterns change throughout development. As the obesity epidemic continues to rise in adolescence, it becomes imperative to understand developmentally appropriate eating behaviours and to create weight management strategies that build on those innate patterns and preferences. The purpose of this study was to determine the most common habitual eating windows observed in adolescents with obesity.

Dr. Dorian Traube explores developmental screenings and surveillance in this article published in Child Care Health Development.

In this chapter in "The Palgrave Handbook of Family Policy" Dr. Jennifer Hook reviews the research linking national-level family policies on childcare services and parental leave to women’s labor market outcomes.

Dr. Marian Williams published a paper with her colleagues that focused on brain imaging and autism spectrum disorder. A deficit in pre-cognitively mirroring other people's actions and experiences may be related to the social impairments observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it is unclear whether such embodied simulation deficits are unique to ASD or instead are related to motor impairment, which is commonly comorbid with ASD. Here we aim to disentangle how, neurologically, motor impairments contribute to simulation deficits and identify unique neural signatures of ASD

CCF member, Dr. Maria Prados, cowrote a paper focusing on totalization agreements. International social security totalization agreements eliminate double social security taxation for workers who reside and work in a different country than their home country. Because totalization agreements affect a number of economic agents in a variety of ways, the authors develop a cost-benefit framework of totalization agreements to facilitate the comparison and assessment of these impacts from a cost-benefit perspective. The paper also summarizes what is currently known about the effects and related costs and benefits of totalization agreements

CCF member, Dr. Shan Luo, among her collaborators, investigated how oral sucrose vs glucose impacted appetite regulating hormones, and how biological factors (body mass index [BMI], insulin sensitivity, sex) influence endocrine responses to these two types of sugar. They found that sucrose is less efficient at signaling postprandial satiation than glucose, and biological factors influence differential hormone responses to sucrose vs glucose consumption.

This article, written by CFF member Dr. Alice Cepeda and four colleagues, discusses women's experiences who are imprisoned and are mothers. This study used a nationally representative dataset of state and federal prisoners to identify and characterize subgroups of mothers based on incarceration histories

CCF membet, Dr. Stanely Huey, co-wrote a meta-analysis synthesizing the empirical data on problem behaviors among foreign- and U.S-born youth and explores the effects of immigrant status on youth internalizing and externalizing problems.

Dr. Daniel Bennet, a CCF member, along with Dr. Robert Rosenheck wrote an article assessing whether patient socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the effectiveness of coordinated specialty care for first-episode psychosis and to investigate possible mechanisms.

Dr. Michael Goran, with three other authors, wrote an article examining the relationships between maternal BMI, feeding practices and infant eating behaviours related to self-regulation.

Dr. Cynthia Gong is a coauthor of this article, which investigated the relationship between low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets and mortality, finding that the association of such diets with mortality may depend on the quality and source of these macronutrients. The authors are careful to point out that their results do not indicate causality, instead suggesting that the quality of macronutrients in terms of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and phytochemicals may be more important than the quantity of macronutrients in affecting mortality.

Dr. Cynthia Gong had an article published in American Journal of Public Health in November, 2020 discussing COVID-19 policy effects.

This paper lays forth an early childhood neurodevelopmental assessment strategy, guided by a set of principles synthesizing developmental and pragmatic considerations generated by the Neurodevelopmental Workgroup of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Planning Consortium. These principles emphasize characterization of both risk- and resilience-promoting processes.

This empirical example shows that the subject-level momentary association between specific context (i.e., outdoors) and health behavior (i.e., physical activity) may contribute to overall engagement in that behavior in the future.

Dr. Thomas D. Lyon, a CCF member and part of USC's Gould School of Law, had an article published in Behavioral Sciences & the Law. The article discusses why previous studies investigating abused children's reluctance to disclose abuse are flawed.

CCF member, Dr. Thomas D. Lyon, had a research article published in Child Maltreatment. The article focused on interviewing techniques when working with abused children and how children show incomphrenension.

Dr. Emily Smith-Greenaway, a member of CCF, recently had an article published in PLoS ONE studying sibling dealth and bereavement in 43 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Beth A. Smith published a recent article in Early Human Development focusing on the effectiveness of professional-parental/caregivers' early motor-cognitive intervention on infants' motor development in daycare, home care, and foster care.

Dr. Michael Goran, Program Director for Diabetes and Obesity at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, published a new study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition focusing on the effect of breastfeeding and drinking sugar-sweetened beverages on children.

Dr. Jennifer Hook's article on women's labor force particpate rates within America and Europe from 1996-2016 was published in Population and Development Review.

Dr. Gayla Margolin and USC clinical psychology Ph.D. student Sohyun Han, wrote an article focusing on romatic couple conflict during emotionally heightened moments. Their article was published in Soical Psychology and Personality Science.

Dr. Emily Smith-Greenaway discusses COVID-19 bereavement in the United States and created an indictor—the COVID-19 bereavement multiplier—that estimates the average number of individuals who will experience the death of a close relative (defined as a grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse, or child) for each COVID-19 death.

Dr. Dorian Traube, from USC's school of social work, published a paper aimed to examine rates of depression among mothers in the national Parent as Teachers (PAT) home-visiting program, whether various high needs characteristics were associated with elevated depressive symptoms, and whether depressive symptomology and initiation of outside mental health treatment were associated with attendance and retention in services, particularly after considering important family risk factors.

Dr. Jennifer Hook investigates how national family policies play a role in mothers' employment, specifically whether, how, and why policy effects vary across country contexts and within countries by mothers’ educational attainment. The authors develop hypotheses about the two most commonly studied family policies—early childhood education and care (ECEC) and paid parental leave.

Dr. Cynthia Gong wrote a paper with the objective to update trends in length-of-stay (LOS) and costs by survivorship and ECMO use among neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) undergoing stage 1 palliation surgery.

Dr. Dorian Traube explores how telehealth technology can support home-based parenting programs through a program called Parents as Teachers.