Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND/UNASSIGNED:Preterm birth (birth at <37 completed weeks gestation) is a significant public heatlh concern worldwide. Important health, and developmental consequences of preterm birth include altered temperament development, with greater dysregulation and distress proneness. AIMS/UNASSIGNED:The present study leveraged advanced quantitative techniques, namely machine learning approaches, to discern the contribution of narrowly defined and broadband temperament dimensions to birth status classification (full-term vs. preterm). Along with contributing to the literature addressing temperament of infants born preterm, the present study serves as a methodological demonstration of these innovative statistical techniques. STUDY DESIGN/UNASSIGNED:= 402) born at term, with data combined across investigations to perform classification analyses. SUBJECTS/UNASSIGNED:Participants included infants born preterm and term-born comparison children, either matched on chronological age or age adjusted for prematurity. OUTCOME MEASURES/UNASSIGNED:Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form (IBQ-R VSF) was completed by mothers, with factor and item-level data considered herein. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:Accuracy estimates were generally similar regardless of the comparison groups. Results indicated a slightly higher accuracy and efficiency for IBQR-VSF item-based models vs. factor-level models. Divergent patterns of feature importance (i.e., the extent to which a factor/item contributed to classification) were observed for the two comparison groups (chronological age vs. adjusted age) using factor-level scores; however, itemized models indicated that the two most critical items were associated with effortful control and negative emotionality regardless of comparison group.

OBJECTIVE:Behavioral parent training (BPT) is the standard of care for early onset behavior disorders (BDs), however, not all families benefit. Emotion regulation (ER) is one potential mechanism underlying BPT outcomes, yet there are challenges in capturing intra- and interpersonal aspects of emotion regulation within parent-child interactions that are central to BPT. This study examined how vocally encoded emotional arousal unfolds during parent-child interactions and how parents and children influence each other's arousal (Aim 1), the links between these emotion dynamics, child behavior, and parenting at baseline (Aim 2), and BPT outcome (Aim 3). METHOD/METHODS:₀) were modeled using actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) and coupled linear oscillators (CLOs). RESULTS:₀ during the interaction was slowed for parents with more maladaptive parenting and children with more behavior problems at baseline. CONCLUSIONS:This preliminary characterization of f0 in families presenting for BPT provides insights into the emotion dynamics potentially underlying parenting behavior and child behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A recent American Psychological Association Summit provided an urgent call to transform psychological science and practice away from a solely individual-level focus to become accountable for population-level impact on health and mental health. A population focus ensures the mental health of all children, adolescents, and adults and the elimination of inequities across groups. Science must guide three components of this transformation. First, effective individual-level interventions must be scaled up to the population level using principles from implementation science, investing in novel intervention delivery systems (e.g., online, mobile application, text, interactive voice response, and machine learning-based), harnessing the strength of diverse providers, and forging culturally informed adaptations. Second, policy-driven community-level interventions must be innovated and tested, such as public efforts to promote physical activity, public policies to support families in early life, and regulation of corporal punishment in schools. Third, transformation is needed to create a new system of universal primary care for mental health, based on models such as Family Connects, Triple P, PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience, Communities That Care, and the Early Childhood Collaborative of the Pittsburgh Study. This new system must incorporate valid measurement, universal screening, and a community-based infrastructure for service delivery. Addressing tasks ahead, including scientific creativity and discovery, rigorous evaluation, and community accountability, will lead to a comprehensive strategic plan to shape the emergent field of public mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined whether there is a biological basis in the child's resting brain activity for the intergenerational link between maternal interpersonal violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder (IPV-PTSD) and child subclinical symptoms. We used high-density EEG recordings to investigate the resting brain activity in a sample of 57 children, 34 from mothers with IPV-PTSD, and 23 from mothers without PTSD. These children were part of a prospective, longitudinal study focusing on the offspring of mothers with and without IPV-PTSD, reporting how the severity of a mother's IPV-PTSD can impact her child's emotional regulation and risk for developing mental illness. However, we had not yet looked into potential EEG biomarkers during resting state that might mediate and/or moderate effects of maternal IPV-PTSD severity on child mental health, and in particular the risk for PTSD. The alpha band spectral power as well as the aperiodic exponent of the power spectrum (PLE; power-law exponent) were examined as mediators of maternal IPV-PTSD and child PTSD. While there was no difference in alpha spectral power between the two groups, PLE was significantly reduced in children of mothers with IPV-PTSD compared to control children, indicating cortical hyper-arousal. Interestingly, child PLE was negatively correlated with the severity of maternal IPV-PTSD, suggesting an intergenerational interaction. This interpretation was reinforced by a negative correlation between child PLE and child PTSD symptoms. Finally, causal analyses using structural equation modelling indicated that child PLE mediated the relationship between maternal PTSD severity and child PTSD. Our observations suggest that maternal IPV-PTSD has an intergenerational impact on the child neurobehavioral development through a correlated abnormal marker of brain arousal (i.e. child PLE). These findings are potentially relevant to psychotherapy research and to the development of more effective psycho-neurobehavioral therapies (i.e. neurofeedback) among affected individuals.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded program, supports cancer coalitions across the United States (US) in efforts to prevent and control cancer including development of comprehensive cancer control (CCC) plans. CCC plans often focus health equity within their priorities, but it is unclear to what extent lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, plus (LGBTQ+) populations are considered in CCC plans. We qualitatively examined to what extent LGBTQ+ populations were referenced in 64 U.S. state, jurisdiction, tribes, and tribal organization CCC plans. A total of 55% of CCC plans mentioned LGBTQ+ populations, however, only one in three CCC plans mentioned any kind of LGBTQ+ inequity or LGBTQ+ specific recommendations. Even fewer plans included mention of LGBTQ+ specific resources, organizations, or citations. At the same time almost three fourths of plans conflated sex and gender throughout their CCC plans. The findings of this study highlight the lack of prioritization of LGBTQ+ populations in CCC plans broadly while highlighting exemplar plans that can serve as a roadmap to more inclusive future CCC plans. Comprehensive cancer control plans can serve as a key policy and advocacy structure to promote a focus on LGBTQ+ cancer prevention and control.

Stimulants represent the first line pharmacological treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and are among the most prescribed psychopharmacological treatments. Their mechanism of action at synaptic level has been extensively studied. However, it is less clear how their mechanism of action determines clinically observed benefits. To help bridge this gap, we provide a comprehensive review of stimulant effects, with an emphasis on nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. There is evidence that stimulant-induced modulation of dopamine and norepinephrine neurotransmission optimizes engagement of task-related brain networks, increases perceived saliency, and reduces interference from the default mode network. An acute administration of stimulants may reduce brain alterations observed in untreated individuals in fronto-striato-parieto-cerebellar networks during tasks or at rest. Potential effects of prolonged treatment remain controversial. Overall, neuroimaging has fostered understanding on stimulant mechanism of action. However, studies are often limited by small samples, short or no follow-up, and methodological heterogeneity. Future studies should address age-related and longer-term effects, potential differences among stimulants, and predictors of treatment response.

Depression is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. There is limited understanding of how environmental exposures may contribute to depression etiology. We used Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine associations between low-level ambient air pollution exposure and depressed mood in a generally healthy population of over 10,000 24-32 year olds. Annual mean PM2.5 levels in the 2008-2009 study were close to the current U.S. standard. In fully adjusted quasi-binomial logistic regression models, there were no meaningful associations between IQR increases in air pollutant and change in depressed mood status regardless of specific pollutant or moving average lags. In interaction effects models, an IQR increase in lag day 0-30 PM2.5 resulted in 1.20 (95% CI, 1.02-1.41) times higher likelihood of having depressed mood, but only for persons with chronic lung disease (interaction P=0.04); the association was null for participants without chronic lung disease (OR 0.98, 95% CI, 0.91, 1.05). Our findings suggest that among persons with a lifetime history of chronic lung disease, greater exposure to even low-level PM2.5, PM10, and sulfate may be associated with modest increases in the likelihood of having depressed mood.