Emotion, Mental Health, and the Epigenetic Clock in High-Risk Caregivers

Project: Research project

Project Details

Description

1. Specific aims and hypotheses. (1) To determine differences in negative emotion generation (i.e., emotional experience, behavior, physiology) during dyadic interaction between UHR youth-caregiver and healthy control dyads. Hypotheses: During negative youth-caregiver interactions, (1.1) UHR youth will show higher levels of negative emotion (i.e., higher levels of negative emotional experience and autonomic physiological activation, but lower levels of negative behavior) and (1.2) UHR caregivers will show higher levels of negative emotion (i.e., experience, behavior, autonomic physiological activation) compared to control caregivers. Rationale: Alterations in emotional functioning among UHR youth, include heightened negative emotional experience 1; 2 and blunted emotional expressions 3; 4. However, these alterations have rarely been examined in social contexts of key emotional significance, such as during interactions with their parental caregivers 5. Moreover, the emotional burden for caregivers who witness patients suffering from psychological distress are well documented 6-9, and so it is reasonable to predict that caregivers of UHR youth may show heightened negative emotion during negative interactions with youth. (2) To determine how negative emotion generation (i.e., emotional experience, behavior, physiology) during dyadic interaction predicts mental health (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety) in UHR and healthy control caregivers. Rationale. Hypotheses. (3) To determine how negative emotion generation (i.e., emotional experience, behavior, physiology) during dyadic interaction predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in UHR and healthy control caregivers. Rationale. Hypotheses. 2. Significance. Focus on mental and physical health in high-risk caregivers. Caring for a loved one who suffers from mental illness can provide meaning and purpose, but also poses unique risks to the mental and physical health of caregivers (REF). The proposed project focuses on care
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/15/181/14/24

Funding

  • Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (26280)

Fingerprint

Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.