3-011 - Multi-Faceted Risk Exposure and Outcomes Through Early Adolescence: Transdisciplinary Findings from the Family Life Project

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Decades of research has identified low socioeconomic status (SES) as an environmental context that can have a detrimental impact on development. However, the exact mechanisms of risk that underlie associations between low SES and adverse outcomes are unclear- particularly in rural contexts in which poverty rates are higher and resources are lower. The Family Life Project (FLP) is a unique, prospectively collected study of a representative sample of 1,292 children born to a mother who resided in one of six poor rural counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania followed from birth to 14 years. This dataset provides a rare opportunity to examine biological, environmental, and experiential mechanisms associated with poverty that are proximal for the child and impact long-term development. This symposium brings together developmental scientists from four complementary fields with expertise in environmental exposure, obesity & metabolism, immunology, and family processes to present hypotheses regarding pathways for predicting child behavioral and health outcomes in the FLP sample. Paper 1 uses latent profile analysis to examine heterogeneity of early life experiences within families over the first three years and relations to children’s social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. Paper 2 describes bio-behavioral regulation and household adversity in toddlerhood, and their relation to obesity trajectories from early childhood through adolescence. Paper 3 examines associations between circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in children, a measure of immune system activation, and quality of caregiving. Finally, Paper 4 examines children’s exposure to second hand smoke in infancy and behavioral and academic outcomes in 5th grade.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chairs

• Margaret Swingler, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• W. Roger Mills-Koonce, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Individual Presentations

• Profiles of Family-Based Risk Experiences Predict Early Developmental Outcomes for Children in Low-Income, Rural Communities - Presenting Author: W. Roger Mills-Koonce, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Non-Presenting Author: Nissa Towe-Goodman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Non-Presenting Author: Margaret Swingler, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Exposure to Early Life Stress, Stress Regulation, and Obesity Trajectories from Age 2 to 12 Years - Presenting Author: Lori Anne Francis, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Brandi Rollins, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Clancy Blair, New York University

• Parenting Quality Predicts Immune Function in At-Risk Children: A Replication Study - Presenting Author: Ana Vallejo Sefair, University of Rochester Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Thomas O'Connor, University of Rochester; Non-Presenting Author: Mary Caserta, University of Rochester Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Jenn Carnahan, University of Rochester Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Jan Moynihan, University of Rochester Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Annie Burke, University of Rochester Medical Center

• Second Hand Smoke Exposure in Infancy is Associated With Academic and Behavioral Outcomes in Adolescence - Presenting Author: Lisa Gatzke-kopp, Penn State University; Non-Presenting Author: Michael T Willoughby, RTI International; Non-Presenting Author: Siri Warkentien, RTI International