Neural, dyadic, and cultural influences on risk for anxiety in young Latin American children

PROJECT SUMMARY Anxiety symptoms are one of the most prevalent and earliest forms of psychopathology in childhood and have been linked with lasting effects on socioemotional wellbeing, reduce life satisfaction, and increase chance of more severe psychopathology developing into adolescence and adulthood. Latin American children and adolescents experience alarmingly high rates of anxiety and related internalizing disorders compared to other ethnic groups, with some studies finding rates as high as 40%. Yet, we know little about risk and protective factors for the emergence of symptoms in these children. Consistent with NIMH’s Strategic Objective 2 “to examine mental illness trajectories across the lifespan” this K01 proposal will investigate early predictors of emerging anxious behaviors, including neural biomarkers (Aim 1) and caregiver-child factors (Aim 2), while also considering how broader cultural processes may influence risk trajectories for Latin American youth (Aim 3) from the toddlerhood to preschool period. Knowledge from the proposed project could have a substantial impact on our ability to identify which Latin American children are most likely to start trajectories towards anxiety early in life and could help generate culturally-tailored interventions to modify developmental trajectories away from increased symptoms in these children. This proposal leverages the opportunity to add measures to an ongoing 5-year longitudinal study with children from a primarily Latin American area of Central Texas. This K01 proposal will add an in-lab visit with neural and caregiver-child observational measures. The proposal will use EEG-based resting-state measures (i.e., alpha asymmetry, beta-delta coupling) to assess general emotional processing and regulatory tendencies (Aim 1), and observational measures of caregiver-child interactions to assess caregiver-child emotion socialization (Aim 2). Additionally, the proposed K01 project will leverage caregiver and child anxiety symptom and cultural socialization data (Aim 3) already being collected as part of the larger study. Through this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) the applicant will get needed training and expertise on 1) EEG biomarkers in young children; 2) anxiety from a developmental psychopathology perspective; 3) dyadic and longitudinal data analysis; and 4) cultural approaches. A rich training environment with a multidisciplinary team of mentors and consultants in each of these areas has been assembled to meet these goals. Findings from this study will offer the opportunity to map anxious trajectories as well as risk and protective factors at a younger age than typically studied in Latin American youth development, and when dysregulation patterns start to become noticeable but are still highly malleable. The proposed research and training plan will enable the candidate to succeed in their long-term goal of launching a fully independent and unique research program using multi-modal approaches to study biological and dyadic emotion-related processes, as well as resilience mechanisms that may shape anxiety trajectories in young, particularly Latin American, children.