Friday, January 2, 2026 1/2/2026

Mapping Dimensional Aspects of Biobehavioral Threat Reactivity in Young, Violence-Exposed Children: Linkages to Fear and Distress

Award Number: U01MH113390
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/01/2018
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2025

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Mapping Dimensional Aspects of Biobehavioral Threat Reactivity in Young, Violence-Exposed Children: Linkages to Fear and Distress - PROJECT SUMMARY: Interpersonal violence (IV) affects more than 1 in 5 young children in the United States annually. For young children, IV exposure most commonly occurs within the family context in the forms of partner violence and harsh/abusive parenting. Children exposed to IV represent a heterogeneous group. A portion of children develop psychological problems that cut across multiple diagnostic categories characterized by fear and distress symptoms. Existing models broadly implicate disruptions in biological stress systems in the etiology of violence-associated symptoms, but lack specificity for explaining heterogeneous symptom presentations in young children. Advancing this science requires novel laboratory and analytic methods for assessing and synthesizing threat reactivity across multiple biobehavioral levels. Inspired by the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, we propose to achieve this by leveraging person-centered methods to identify unique profiles of threat reactivity across multiple levels of biobehavioral functioning never before studied together in young children: observed behavior, attention bias, autonomic reactivity, startle, event-related brain potentials. The fundamental scientific premise of the proposed work is that threat reactivity is a central intermediate phenotype linking early IV to this clinical vulnerability in young children. The proposed sample will include 360 children, ages 4 to 6 years, with (n = 240) and without (n = 120) IV exposure followed over 1 year. We advance three aims. Aim 1 is to map biobehavioral threat reactivity profiles to dimensional patterns of fear and distress in IV exposed and non-exposed young children. We hypothesize that we will identify hyper- and hypo-reactive profiles that link to greater symptoms relative to a non-extreme profile, and that hyper-reactivity will relate to fear, whereas hypo-reactivity will relate to distress at baseline and over 1 year. Aim 2 is to test whether threat reactivity profiles serve as intermediate phenotypes in explaining the link between violence exposure and symptoms over time. We hypothesize that children exposed to more severe IV will more likely be classified as hyper- or hypo-reactive and that profile type will mediate the link between IV and symptoms at baseline and 1 year later. Further, given high dependency of young children’s self-regulation on caregiving relationships and threats to regulatory capacity in violent environments, we hypothesize that mothers’ ability to co-regulate their children’s negative affect will shape these risk pathways. Thus, Aim 3 is to test the hypothesis that maternal responsiveness to child negative affect will play a unique role in shaping threat reactivity pathways over time. We hypothesize that emotionally-responsive parenting (assessed with a multi-method protocol) will buffer the associations between IV and threat reactivity profiles and between exposure and symptom trajectories over 1 year. This study will provide critical insight into the etiology of violence-related psychopathology with key implications for developing novel approaches for identification, prevention, and intervention for these highly vulnerable young children.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = -$6,376 )
2026	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HEALTH CENTER	263 FARMINGTON AVE	FARMINGTON	CT	06030	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	11/20/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$6,376
														Subtotal = -$6,376

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HEALTH CENTER	263 FARMINGTON AVE	FARMINGTON	CT	06030	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	5	9/18/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HEALTH CENTER	263 FARMINGTON AVE	FARMINGTON	CT	06030	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	11/20/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $740,499 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT	263 FARMINGTON AVE, ASB #3	FARMINGTON	CT	06032	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	6/27/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$740,499
														Subtotal = $740,499

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $745,263 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT	263 FARMINGTON AVE, ASB #3	FARMINGTON	CT	06032	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	8/13/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$745,263
														Subtotal = $745,263

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $753,375 )
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT	263 FARMINGTON AVE, ASB #3	FARMINGTON	CT	06032	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	3	8/27/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$753,375
2020	2019	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT	263 FARMINGTON AVE, ASB #3	FARMINGTON	CT	06032	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	11/6/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $753,375

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $763,492 )
2019	2019	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT	263 FARMINGTON AVE, ASB #3	FARMINGTON	CT	06032	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	8/26/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$763,492
														Subtotal = $763,492

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $834,637 )
2018	2018	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT	263 FARMINGTON AVE, ASB #3	FARMINGTON	CT	06032	CAPITOL	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	8/27/2018	NEW	$834,637
														Subtotal = $834,637

Grand Total All Awards = $3,830,890

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Mapping Dimensional Aspects of Biobehavioral Threat Reactivity in Young, Violence-Exposed Children: Linkages to Fear and Distress

Award Number: U01MH113390

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/01/2018

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2025

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer