Proposal summaries
B3090 - Epigenetics in peer victimization and behavioural and emotional development - 05/04/2018
Peer victimization is a widespread phenomenon with many harmful and persistent consequences, such as anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation. However, consequences of can vary widely in presentation and severity, which hinders development of appropriate interventions targeted at alleviating the effects of peer victimization. This may in part stem from the fact that little is known about the biological mechanism through which bullying affects children's psychological development and wellbeing. Therefore, we aim to study how peer victimization is related to epigenetic development and explore to what extent epigenetics mediate the association between peer victimization and negative outcomes in children. We will do this by combining data of two large comparable cohorts, ALSPAC in England and Generation R in Holland.
B3118 - Genome-wide association study of anxiety and depression - 24/05/2018
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been instrumental in highlighting associations between genetic variants and 1000s of traits. A recent GWAS of major depressive disorder (MDD) by the psychiatric genetics consortium (PGC) has recently identified 44 genetic variants associated with the disorder (Wray et al., 2018). We plan to include ALSPAC data from the mothers and the children in the next round of analysis for both forthcoming MDD and anxiety PGC GWAS. We will prepare summary statistics from the GWAS to be shared with the PGC and perform subsequent in cohort analysis. This will be a big step towards incorporating ALSPAC data into psychiatric genetics. The summary statistics will contain no identifiable information.
B3133 - Exploring the longitudinal effect of early maturation on physical and mental wellbeing - 14/06/2018
Research suggests that children who reach puberty early are at risk of poorer health and wellbeing. Such âearly maturingâ children also tend to take part in riskier health behaviours, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and risky sexual activity. However, most studies look at these links at a single point in time, which limits how confident we can be that early maturing causes poorer wellbeing. Few studies have looked at what factors may increase or decrease some of these risks. Our study aims to use the ALSPAC data explore three questions relating to the longer-term health risks of adolescents who mature early. The first builds on work we have done with parents, showing many believe we should judge whether or not a child is overweight differently if they are an early maturer, to avoid labeling them as overweight when they are not. This is a particularly important time to consider how we respond to children's weights, as it is the point at which over 95% of children in England are weighed and measured as part of the National Child Measurement Programme. Some parents have been strong critics of this process, so public health teams and parents alike are interested in exploring how we could interpret and use this information better. To explore whether it is appropriate to use the same means of classifying early and on-time maturers as overweight, we will apply an adjustment for maturity to our calculations of weight status for children at age 11, and explore whether this is a better way of predicting which children will have higher/lower future health risks at age 17 (including obesity, blood pressure and other risk factors). Second, we will compare which factor at at age 10/11 is the stronger predictor of wellbeing in later adolescence; being overweight, or maturing early. Finally, to explore what factors might help children to avoid some of the potential consequences of maturing early, we will look at whether childrenâs views of the strength and importance of their relationships with parents and peers influence the effect of being an early maturer on their wellbeing by the age of 17 (including depression, positive wellbeing, and risk behaviours such as smoking and drinking).
B606 - Microvascular Architecture Growth Patterns and Adult Chronic Disease
27 SEPT 08 Update from Robyn - The data collection for this project is complete. A number of manuscripts are under various stages of completion.