We believe that interdisciplinary and integrative research on the mechanisms involved in the effects of childhood adversity on health and development is urgently needed to prevent current and future health disparities as well as the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The long-term goal of the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity is the development of more effective and sustainable prevention and intervention strategies to interrupt the cycle of generational trauma and toxic stress.
Specifically, we aim to:
1. Explore the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional effects of childhood stress on health status, cognitive and interpersonal functioning, and behavior in a variety of high-risk populations using a wide range of methods;
2. Develop more effective interventions for children and adolescents at risk for poor behavior and development outcomes and for physical and mental health problems;
3. Create a robust and adaptable research infrastructure that includes training and support for all-stage researchers in biomarker data collection and analyses, complex study design and analysis, and translational, human subjects and community research strategies and methods, constructing an interdisciplinary team with cross-trained and translational research skills.
Specifically, we aim to:
1. Explore the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional effects of childhood stress on health status, cognitive and interpersonal functioning, and behavior in a variety of high-risk populations using a wide range of methods;
2. Develop more effective interventions for children and adolescents at risk for poor behavior and development outcomes and for physical and mental health problems;
3. Create a robust and adaptable research infrastructure that includes training and support for all-stage researchers in biomarker data collection and analyses, complex study design and analysis, and translational, human subjects and community research strategies and methods, constructing an interdisciplinary team with cross-trained and translational research skills.
Achieving these goals promotes and enhances the mission of Oklahoma State as a land-grant institution dedicated to using knowledge derived from research to improve the lives of the citizens of the state and throughout the nation. Oklahoma currently ranks in the lowest 10% on all measures of children’s health and well-being. In addition, Oklahoma has the highest prevalence of ACEs among all states in the nation according to a 2014 national survey comparing all states in the U.S., with 16% of children 0 to 18 already having 3 or more ACEs (Child Trends, 2014) and continued high prevalence in more recent updates (Child Trends, 2018). Creating the nation’s first interdisciplinary center focused on understanding the mitigating negative effects of childhood adversity on health, developmental and economic consequences realizes OSU vision of creating “a better Oklahoma, nation, and world by advancing the quality of life for all…fulfilling the obligations of a first-class, land-grant educational institution.”
Background
In 1998, the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study was published by Drs. Vincent Felitti from Kaiser Permanente and Rob Anda from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), documenting a significant relationship between childhood adversity and a wide array of physical and mental health conditions in thousands of patients. Scores of publications have since established a dose-response relationship between the 10 items of the ACEs measure (5 measuring abuse and neglect and 5 measuring aspects of family dysfunction) and cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, skeletal fractures, COPD, obesity, smoking, decreased economic and academic success, and premature death (Felitti et al 1998). The causal mechanisms underlying these relationships are assumed to be impairments in social, emotional and cognitive functioning stemming from neurodevelopmental deficits caused by the toxic stress of early life adversity (Figure 1). The effects of chronic or cumulative or “toxic” stress emerge early and persist throughout the life cycle (Shonkoff, et al., 2012) and become “biologically embedded” (Miller, Chen and Parker, 2011), as the body physically attempts to adapt to this cumulative stress or “allostatic load” (McEwen, 1998). Both comparative and human intervention research provide evidence that the impacts of adversity may be transmitted generationally, via physical as well as behavioral systems.
Interdisciplinary and Intercollegiate Collaboration
To understand the long-term and complex relationship between early life adversity and subsequent health and functioning, the focus of CIRCA must necessarily identify, fund, support and train researchers from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds with diverse methodological skills and theoretical perspectives. Phase 1 (2016-2022) core research support units were available to assist all funded projects, as well as others affiliated with the Center, and included: the Biomarker Core, led by Dr. Kent Teague, a faculty member at OU-Tulsa and OSU-CHS, who is director of the Integrative Immunology Center at OU-Tulsa, the Design and Analysis Core, led by Dr. Mark Payton, Chair of Statistics and Isaac Washburn, the Human and Community Research Training Core, led by Dr. Amanda Harrist at OSU-Stillwater, and the Administrative Core, which coordinated training and mentors project leaders, led by Drs. Jennifer Hays-Grudo and Brenda Smith, both Regents Professors with strong histories of NIH funding in related areas. Dr. Hays-Grudo was located within the Center for Health Sciences and Dr. Smith was aligned to the College of Human Sciences. The initially funded research projects include:
- A social demographer's project to develop a registry of teen pregnancies in order to identify predictors of rapid repeat pregnancies (a second birth within 2 years) and develop more effective prevention and intervention strategies, led by Dr. Karina Shreffler, OSU-Tulsa;
- A family systems-based intervention to increase the involvement of immigrant Latino parents in their children's schooling in order to prevent drop-out and risky health behaviors, including substance abuse and gang involvement, led by Dr. Ron Cox, OSU-Tulsa; and,
- A public health researcher's study using innovative wrist wear measuring blood alcohol levels in adolescent girls, correlating binge drinking behavior with serum Folate levels in order to develop more effective prevention strategies to prevent birth defects and other developmental disorders related to teen alcohol use, led by Dr. Julie Croff, OSU-Stillwater.
- A children and socio-emotional development researcher's study to explore inter-individual emotion regulation, specifically how parents' emotion regulation impacts adolescents' emotion regulation and related mental health, and the impact of parenting on the neurocircuitry underlying adolescents' emotionality and depressive symptoms by way of fMRI hyper scanning, led by Dr. Amanda Morris.
- A study by a health psychologist in behavioral medicine to identify whether brain markers of neural health are related to ACEs and/or neurocognitive executive function performance and whether neuronal or glial neurotrophins predict or change in response to weight loss, led by Dr. Misty Hawkins.
Numerous pilot studies were also funded that included researchers from multiple departments with OSU, from both Tulsa and Stillwater campuses, from the Center for Health Sciences, and from OU-HSC in Tulsa. In addition to pilot projects, the Center is also seeking to assist in the recruiting of new faculty to OSU by providing funding to enhance start-up funds for new faculty hires who would contribute new approaches and expertise to the Center. These funds specifically target university colleges, departments, and disciplines not currently represented in our team of investigators.
Bringing Visibility to Oklahoma
Interest in the effects of early life adversity (ACEs, toxic stress, allostatic load, biological embedding of stress) is a rapidly expanding field of inquiry. As the relatively new fields of neuroimaging, developmental psychopathology and interpersonal neurodevelopment have advanced the theory and methods available to study the effects of adversity, trauma, and abuse on developing neurological, metabolic, and immunologic systems, it has become possible, for the first time in history, to identify, quantify and alter the devastating effects of childhood poverty, abuse, neglect, and trauma. As the first national interdisciplinary research center in the burgeoning field, we expect our researchers to have an advantage in their ability to perform and publish innovative, integrative studies, to be highly sought-after as speakers at national and international conferences, to attract high-caliber graduate students from related labs throughout the U.S. and the world, and to train and place graduates and post-doctoral fellows in world-class research institutions following their training in the Center. We will host and co-host conferences on integrative research approaches to early life adversity and will seek internationally-recognized speakers. Our current external advisory committee includes highly respected researchers from related fields, including Dr. William Beardslee, Gardner Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry at Children's Hospital in Boston; and Dr. H. Harrington (Bo) Cleveland, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University; Dr. Ann Mastergeorge, HDFS Department Head and Chair, Rockwell Endowed Child & Family Professor at Texas Tech University; and Dr. Judith Weber, Director of NIH-funded Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention at the Arkansas Children's Research Institute and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Medicine.
Metrics of Success and Sustainability
One of our primary goals is the development of research capacity in the area of childhood adversity and their effects on health and developmental disparities. We expect our research project leaders to complete research studies through their CIRCA funding that will provide the basis for successful independent funding (R01s and comparable awards). We expect that our Cores will be highly utilized by CIRCA project leaders, by pilot study investigators, and by students and post-docs to receive training and support in interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to their research questions. We expect to be instrumental in the attraction of new faculty members, and in the support of additional grant funding to other faculty whose interests, methodological as well as content-related, align with those of CIRCA investigators. Our effectiveness as a Center - one that significantly enhances the success of its members - will be formally reviewed and evaluated by the External Advisory Committee, and will depend on the individual success of its members, as well as indicators of collaboration, cooperation, and a "whole being greater than the sum of its parts' analysis. Indicators of this type of analysis would include successful competition for external funding to analyze data collected by multiple team members, but now essential to their individual projects. These data might include biomarkers, epidemiologic data, self-report or observational data collected during the course of the individual projects. These measures are currently being collaboratively decided by all team investigators, while Core directors will assume responsibility for writing the proposals to conduct these ancillary studies. Finally, we will see continued funding (Phase II, and Phase III of the NIH COBRE mechanism), which will be a further indicator of the success of the Center.
Phase 2 COBRE Funding
In September of 2022, CIRCA received Phase 2 funding in the amount of $9.5 million to continue our work over the next five years. The goals of the Center are similar to Phase 1 so three new research project directors were selected to begin their journey with CIRCA. More about them and their research can be found HERE.
Advisory Boards
The COBRE mechanism requires both an internal and an external advisory committee. The former was described above, and may expand as we assess the expertise that future projects will need. The current internal advisory committee consists of leadership from the various academic institutions involved in the grant, as well as individuals with significant experience in mentoring research faculty and in administering COBRE and other Center awards. The internal advisory committee was structured to ensure that there is a seamless and collaborative interaction among institutions and will meet quarterly in person and by email, telephone or videoconferencing.
The external advisory committee's primary responsibilities are to 1) evaluate the overall functioning of the Center, its Cores and the progress of individual investigators, and 2) to review and make recommendations regarding the funding of pilot projects and new research projects as required. They will provide the PI/PD with a written report detailing strengths, opportunities, and issues requiring attention or correction following an annual meeting in Tulsa each year of the project. This will then be shared with the internal advisory committee for assistance and advice in making recommended changes. For more information on CIRCA advisory committees, please use these links: Meet the Team, Org Chart.