Mothers Optimizing Resources Everyday (MORE)

Charlotte Farewell, PHD, MPH is a behavioral health scientist whose overarching career goal is to adapt, implement and evaluate well-being promotion programs that are delivered during critical periods to promote perinatal mental health. The research she proposes entitled, “Mothers Optimizing Resources Everyday (MORE)”, aligns with numerous NIMHD research strategies including strengthening analytical models to identify critical periods of malleability that are based in life course perspectives to mitigate the intergenerational transmission of poor health, advancing understanding of how protective resources impact health, and building the science of adapting behavioral health interventions to enhance population well-being. Dr. Farewell is an Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. The proposed career development plan includes four training goals to enhance her trajectory towards becoming an independent investigator: 1. Advance expertise in latent growth modeling with a specific focus on modeling growth trajectories; 2. Gain skills in adaptation of perinatal mental health-related research and practice; 3. Enhance training in evidence-based psychological capital interventions; and 4. Increase proficiency in dissemination and implementation science and integration of care. Perinatal mood disorders are prevalent. Women who are able to acquire and maintain personal and social resources are better situated to cope with the demands associated with the transition to motherhood. Psychological capital interventions (PCIs) are evidence-based approaches that bolster personal resources and positively impact mental health and well-being. Adaptation of a multi-level PCI that seeks to foster combinations of personal and social resources across the perinatal period may serve as an important yet underexplored strategy to optimize perinatal mental health and well-being. Aim 1 will investigate point-estimates and trajectories of psychological capital across the perinatal period in 300 perinatal women. Aim 2 will identify cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between psychological capital trajectories, social resources and mental health outcomes. Aim 3 will consist of interviews, mixed methods data integration, and an iterative adaptation process, resulting in a multi-level psychosocial intervention for perinatal women. The innovation of the proposed research is threefold: 1) identification of personal and social protective factors associated with perinatal mental health outcomes, 2) application of a life course perspective and advanced longitudinal modeling to investigate the heterogeneity of psychological capital across critical, malleable periods and associations with mental health outcomes, and 3) adaptation of PCIs that offer support without pathologizing, thus increasing access to mental health supports. Interventions at the psychosocial level that focus on enhancing multi-level resources to better cope with stress may be cost-efficient and effective strategies to reduce poor mental health across the perinatal period. This project will provide necessary preliminary data for an R01 to implement and evaluate MORE delivered during specific critical periods in order to reduce the intergenerational transmission of poor health.