1999 — 2001 |
Neiderhiser, Jenae M. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Genes, Adolescent Adjustment, and Family Processes @ George Washington University
In recent years there have been major advances in quantitative and molecular genetics. The overwhelming conclusion that has been reached in quantitative genetics is that genetic factors are important for most measures of adjustment. More surprisingly, genetic factors also have substantial influence on measures of family processes. Advances in genotyping, the identification of candidate genes, and the use of association strategies in molecular genetics have allowed for the investigation of associations between genes and continuously distributed characteristics, like adjustment. The proposed three-year project seeks to combine these advances to use candidate gene association to examine adolescent adjustment. In addition, this research will extend this strategy to explore the role of family processes in both moderating and mediating gene expression during adolescence. Genetic material (cheek scrapings) will be collected from two siblings (ages 10 to 18 at time 1) and both parents from the sample of 720 families who participated in the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development Project (NEAD). NEAD is a NIMH-sponsored project (MH-43373 and MH-48825), assessed twice, three years apart, focused on understanding adolescent adjustment and the role of genetic factors and family processes in shaping adjustment. This is the only quantitative genetic study that has intensively measured family processes, including observational assessments. The collection of genetic material from this sample will enable the examination of (1) candidate gene associations with adolescent adjustment, (2) longitudinal associations of candidate genes and adjustment, (3) family processes as moderators of gene expression (genotype-environment interactions), and (4) family processes as mediators of gene expression (genotype-environment correlations). The inclusion of siblings and parents will allow the use of control group strategies that are not affected by population stratification. For example, candidate gene associations will be conducted for one member of the sibling pair and the other sibling is then used for replication. Because the NEAD is a quantitative genetic sample, heritabilities can be computed to identify the most likely possibilities for association with candidate genes (i.e., those measures with the largest heritabilities are the best starting points). In addition, NEAD employed careful measurement of phenotypes, through the use of multi-measure, multi-agent assessment. This proposal, using the most recent advances in quantitative genetics and the most recent advances in molecular genetics has great potential for informing the question of how genes influence development.
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2002 — 2006 |
Neiderhiser, Jenae M. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Genes, Enivronment and the Adjustment of Family Members @ George Washington University
[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Studies that have examined genetic and environmental contributions to measures of family relationships and to associations between family relationships and mental health have found two different patterns of results for adults and children. For children, genetic factors explain most of the covariance between parent-child relationships and child adjustment, while in adults nonshared environmental factors account for most of the covariance between marital relationships and adult adjustment. These different patterns of findings suggest that different mechanisms are involved in linking pertinent family relationships to adjustment in children and adults. The proposed competitive renewal application seeks to extend the Twin Moms Project (R01 MH54610) to include a sample of twin fathers and their families (N=450 twin pairs and their families) and to collect an addition 125 pairs of twin mothers for a sample of 900 twin parents and their families (total N=2,700 individuals). This expanded sample will enable us to examine whether patterns of genetic and environmental influences on associations between family relationships and women's adjustment also hold for men. We will also be able to utilize the full twin families design in an effort to distinguish between different types of genotype-environment correlation for the associations between family relationships and child adjustment. As such, this information will enable us to understand better how and why relationships within the family affect the mental health of family members. [unreadable] [unreadable] We will collect data on family relationships, including parent-child, marital and siblings, on adult and child mental health, and on the individual attributes of family members. We will recruit 450 twin fathers who have at least one biological child from 11 to 20 years of age who resides with them at least half time, has been cohabitating with the same partner for at least 5 years, and whose cotwin also meets the above criterion. Twin parents, their partner and the target child will participate through questionnaires and an interview, using a multi-agent, multi-method strategy. This will enable us to examine the following specific aims: (1) examine the associations between parent-child and marital relationships and the mental health of women and men, (2) examine the associations between parent-child relationships and child mental health and explore possible mediators of these associations, and finally, (3) disentangle genetic, shared environmental and nonshared environmental influences for the associations identified in Specific Aims 1 and 2 using a twin family approach.
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2007 — 2008 |
Neiderhiser, Jenae M. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Genes, Prenatal Drug Exposure and Postnatal Environment: An Adoption Study @ Pennsylvania State University-Univ Park
[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research study seeks to use and expand an existing prospective longitudinal adoption study, the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS: R01HD42608) to better understand how genetic factors, prenatal drug exposure, and postnatal rearing environment operate together to influence toddler development, and ultimately, an individual's risk of later drug use. We propose to recruit 200 yoked adoption units (birth parents and adoptive families linked through the adopted child - approximately 866 individuals) and to capitalize on the existing 350 yokes recruited by the EGDS study. The 550 total yokes (approximately 2,382 individuals) will provide sufficient power to examine possible interactions among genes, prenatal drug exposure and postnatal rearing environment that EGDS was not designed to study. Using the same assessment strategy and measurement as EGDS, the new 200 yokes will be followed longitudinally and DNA will be collected from all participants in the full sample of 550 yokes. This expanded sample and longitudinal assessment, combined with the collection of DNA, enables the examination of the following specific aims: (SA1) Understanding how genetic risk for later drug use is expressed behaviorally in the toddler period; (SA2) Estimating prenatal exposure effects independent of genetic risk; (SA3) Estimating postnatal family environmental effects independent of genetic risk and prenatal exposure; and (SA4) Clarifying how genetic risk and prenatal exposure to drugs are moderated by postnatal family environment. Integrating the three possible mechanisms of the transmission of drug abuse to children - genetic, prenatal exposure and postnatal environment - has important potential for informing public health. Specifically, the proposed study is designed to disentangle the effects of genetic, prenatal and postnatal environmental factors on early child development and to examine interactions and correlations among these factors. This will help guide intervention efforts aimed at the prevention of drug abuse in children of drug-dependent or drug-abusing parents by identifying which postnatal family environmental factors have the most impact on ameliorating risk from genetic and prenatal exposure factors. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]
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2009 — 2011 |
Neiderhiser, Jenae M. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Genes, Prenatal Drug Exposure, and the Postnatal Environment: An Adoption Study @ Pennsylvania State University-Univ Park
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research study seeks to use and expand an existing prospective longitudinal adoption study, the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS: R01HD42608) to better understand how genetic factors, prenatal drug exposure, and postnatal rearing environment operate together to influence toddler development, and ultimately, an individual's risk of later drug use. We propose to recruit 200 yoked adoption units (birth parents and adoptive families linked through the adopted child - approximately 866 individuals) and to capitalize on the existing 350 yokes recruited by the EGDS study. The 550 total yokes (approximately 2,382 individuals) will provide sufficient power to examine possible interactions among genes, prenatal drug exposure and postnatal rearing environment that EGDS was not designed to study. Using the same assessment strategy and measurement as EGDS, the new 200 yokes will be followed longitudinally and DNA will be collected from all participants in the full sample of 550 yokes. This expanded sample and longitudinal assessment, combined with the collection of DNA, enables the examination of the following specific aims: (SA1) Understanding how genetic risk for later drug use is expressed behaviorally in the toddler period;(SA2) Estimating prenatal exposure effects independent of genetic risk;(SA3) Estimating postnatal family environmental effects independent of genetic risk and prenatal exposure;and (SA4) Clarifying how genetic risk and prenatal exposure to drugs are moderated by postnatal family environment. Integrating the three possible mechanisms of the transmission of drug abuse to children - genetic, prenatal exposure and postnatal environment - has important potential for informing public health. Specifically, the proposed study is designed to disentangle the effects of genetic, prenatal and postnatal environmental factors on early child development and to examine interactions and correlations among these factors. This will help guide intervention efforts aimed at the prevention of drug abuse in children of drug-dependent or drug-abusing parents by identifying which postnatal family environmental factors have the most impact on ameliorating risk from genetic and prenatal exposure factors.
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2010 — 2014 |
Leve, Leslie Diane Neiderhiser, Jenae M. |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Gene-Environment Interplay and Development of Psychiatric Symptoms in Children @ Pennsylvania State University-Univ Park
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project utilizes an adoption design to examine the interplay between genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental influences on early pathways to conduct, anxiety, and depressive problems by (a) conducting a psychiatric assessment of adopted children between 6.0 and 7.5 years of age and (b) conducting a psychiatric assessment of adoptive parents. Psychiatric assessments of the birth parents have already been conducted and these data will be utilized in the proposed analyses. In addition, DNA is being collected on all participants and will be available for analysis in the present study. The present study builds on a longitudinal prospective adoption study conducted during early childhood: two cohorts of adopted children and their birth and adoptive parents were recruited and assessed across 3 - 6 waves from infancy through early childhood (Early Growth and Development Study; EGDS-Cohort I, R01 HD42608 and EGDS-Cohort II, R01 DA020585). Combined with the rich existing data, the proposed data will allow us to better characterize early emerging emotional and behavioral symptoms in children that have been shown to predict later psychiatric problems. Because we will have DNA samples and data from birth and adoptive parents, we will be able to disentangle how prenatal, genetic, and rearing environment factors are related to early emerging emotional and behavioral symptoms, as well as to later psychiatric symptoms. To our knowledge, no other existing dataset or resource exists that can disentangle and examine the interplay among genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental influences on the development of symptoms in young children. The proposed study will allow us to achieve the following specific aims: SA1: Identify early emerging behaviors and emotions in children that predict onset of psychiatric symptoms in young children; SA2: Examine prenatal exposure to substances and prenatal stress in exacerbating genetic risk for psychiatric symptoms; SA3: Consider the mediating and moderating role of the rearing environment on prenatal and genetic risk factors on psychiatric symptoms in childhood; SA4: Assess how adoptive parents' stress and their own psychiatric symptoms impact the rearing environment and mediate and/or moderate genetic and prenatal influences.
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2016 — 2021 |
Ganiban, Jody M. (co-PI) [⬀] Leve, Leslie Diane Neiderhiser, Jenae M. |
UG3Activity Code Description: As part of a bi-phasic approach to funding exploratory and/or developmental research, the UG3 provides support for the first phase of the award. This activity code is used in lieu of the UH2 activity code when larger budgets and/or project periods are required to establish feasibility for the project. UH3Activity Code Description: The UH3 award is to provide a second phase for the support for innovative exploratory and development research activities initiated under the UH2 mechanism. Although only UH2 awardees are generally eligible to apply for UH3 support, specific program initiatives may establish eligibility criteria under which applications could be accepted from applicants demonstrating progress equivalent to that expected under UH2. |
The Early Growth and Development Study Pediatric Cohort
7. Project Summary/Abstract Increasing evidence suggests that exposures from pregnancy through age 5 can result in health deficits and lead to life-long consequences. We propose to leverage and build upon a unique existing ?dual-family? adoption design to isolate early environmental exposures from heritable influences on familial clustering of health problems to contribute to ECHO's overall goal of investigating the role of early life exposures and underlying biological mechanisms in childhood health and disease. Our pediatric sample will be drawn from three cohorts of children (N = 1,201 children) who have been followed prospectively since birth in the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS). The EGDS cohorts consist of two types of families: adoptive families in which the child is not genetically related to either rearing parent (n = 790 children), and biological families in which the child is genetically related to the rearing parent (n = 411 children). Within these families, we have n = 927 sibling pairs of two types: (1) siblings living apart, in which one sibling was adopted at birth and reared with genetically unrelated parents and the other sibling remained in the biological home and was reared by the biological parent from birth (n = 365 pairs), and (2) siblings living together either in the adoptive home or the biological home (n = 562 pairs). We have established a reliable research infrastructure, exceptional measurement of the early childhood family social environment, medical records data, DNA and salivary cortisol samples, high retention rates, and reliable and transparent data-sharing methods. We will use our well- established prospective adoption sample to (a) help clarify causal inferences about environmental influences on neurodevelopment and obesity, and (b) explore the unfolding interplay between inherited child characteristics and environmental influences from birth to adolescence. In cohorts in which children are reared by biological parents, it is difficult to differentiate the role of the social environment from that of genetic influences. Our dual-family design addresses this fundamental confound. In this application, we emphasize the Focus Area of Neurodevelopment; however, our sample and approach are also well suited for examining environmental influences on Obesity and Airways Focus Areas, as secondary and tertiary foci. In the UG3 phase, we will (1) demonstrate the feasibility of rerecruiting families into ECHO by rerecruiting and consenting families of 1,000 children; (2) prepare for the UH3 period by conducting pilot scale coding of adult medical records, piloting our geocoding system, conducting preliminary analyses, and developing and testing a brief measure of social environmental adversity; and (3) collaborate and plan with the ECHO Steering Committee. In the UH3 period, we will (1) build on the UG3 activities by enhancing our assessment of environmental and inherited risks in the EGDS cohort through in-home and phone assessments of neurodevelopment, obesity, airway function, and the social environment; and (2) conduct ECHO consortium-wide activities as determined by the ECHO Steering Committee.
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0.951 |
2018 — 2021 |
Neiderhiser, Jenae M. Shirtcliff, Elizabeth Anne (co-PI) [⬀] |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
An Adoption Study of the Development of Early Substance Use: the Joint Roles of Genetic Influences, Prenatal Risk, Rearing Environment, and Pubertal Maturation @ Pennsylvania State University-Univ Park
Project Abstract This document has not changed from the original submission and is not required by FOA PA-21-071.
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