Proposal summaries
B4172 - Understanding pathways from environmental risk to internalising problems for autistic young people - 21/11/2022
This project will investigate the role of the social and physical environment in the development of internalising problems (i.e., anxiety and depression) in autistic young people (AYP), thereby contributing new insights to inform prevention and treatment. Internalising problems are common in autistic people, with a lifetime prevalence around four times that of non-autistic people. They typically arise by adolescence, persist across the lifespan and have substantial negative effects on wellbeing, functioning, physical health and mortality. The need for work that informs care for internalising problems has been highlighted by the autism community as their top priority for autism research. This reflects the fact that evidence-based interventions for autistic internalising problems are lacking because, currently, our understanding of how and why these difficulties develop and persist is limited. In particular, we lack understanding of how features of the social and physical environment influence the development of internalising problems of AYP.
Across the whole project, we take an ecological approach to understanding the development of internalizing problems in AYP. We seek to understand the development of mental health problems by modelling the dynamic interplay of environmental and personal factors and elucidating how diverse factors at different levels operate over time.
By enhancing understanding of autistic mental health, the study will help improve the wellbeing and life chances of autistic people by informing the development of interventions to treat and prevent their mental health problems. Our focus on environmental risk is especially likely to yield practical results, as it promises the identification of modifiable risk factors (e.g., parenting, peer victimisation, neighbourhood built environment) as putative targets for intervention.
B4175 - Exploring bidirectional associations between menstrual symptoms and socioeconomic disadvantage - 07/11/2022
Problematic menstrual symptoms, such as pain, heavy bleeding, and irregular cycles, impact a high proportion of women and people who menstruate and are associated with multiple adverse physical and mental health outcomes, as well as reduced attendance and productivity at school/work. Despite this, little research has sought to identify the causes and risk factors associated with such menstrual symptoms. Socioeconomic disadvantage is one factor that has been associated with worse menstrual symptoms; however, the current evidence is mixed and unable to understand causality. It is possible that socioeconomic position (SEP) causally impacts menstrual symptoms due to early life stressors and associated lifestyle factors adversely impacting the development of the brain, the nervous system, and hormone production systems. Additionally, menstrual symptoms could negatively impact SEP through their impacts on school and work thus restricting the ability of women suffering with such symptoms to reach their fully academic and career potential. Therefore, this project aims to understand the causal, bidirectional relationship between SEP and menstrual symptoms by combining observational and genetic methods in multiple UK-based cohorts. Robust evidence that SEP and menstrual symptoms are causally related may support the need for additional support or treatment for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds and/or provide rationale for improving school and work environments to enable women to better manage problematic menstrual symptoms.
B4169 - Predictors of blood mercury levels during pregnancy - 24/10/2022
This project aims to improve our understanding of which factors are predictive of mercury levels in pregnant women. Many factors have been reported in isolation, but little work has previously been done to compare them and identify their relative importance. Fish consumption is likely to be a primary source, but there may be a role of social factors (eg job) and genetic makeup.
B4173 - From Suicide Ideation to Suicide Attempt Clarifying the Role of Painful and Provocative Events - 24/10/2022
Several leading theories of suicide propose that capability for suicide is acquired across development, in part through exposure to physically painful and/or fear-inducing experiences, collectively referred to as painful and provocative events (PPEs). However, studies investigating the association between exposure to PPEs and risk for suicide attempt are usually cross-sectional (the exposure and outcome are measured at the same time) and do not employ a genetically-informed approach. In this project, we will use data from the ALSPAC study to further characterize the association between PPE exposure and risk for suicide attempt. First, we will test whether the association between genetic liability and risk for suicide attempt is mediated by impulsivity and exposure to PPEs, such as aches and pains, injuries, accidents, and traumatic events. Second, we will investigate whether the magnitude of the association between PPE exposure and risk for suicide attempt in adolescence varies based on parenting behaviors, as positive parenting behaviors may buffer risk associated with exposure to PPEs.
B4177 - CAMCOG Data processing - 24/10/2022
This project will process the data that ALSPAC has collected from participants using CAMCOG (cogntive tests)
B4167 - Long-term Impacts of Childhood Head Injuries and Conduct Problems on Executive Function - 21/10/2022
There appears to be a sensitive period from ages 7 to 11 whereby conduct problems and head injuries promote one another. Individually, both have been associated with poor executive functioning such as disinhibition, poor working memory, and deficits in emotion recognition. However, what is not yet known is how this bidirectional association between ages 7 to 11 may affect executive function in adulthood. To address this gap in the literature, we plan to estimate how executive function at age 24 may be predicted by childhood head injuries and conduct problems from ages 7 to 11.
B4161 - Environmental and socioeconomic influences on pubertal development an international comparative study - 18/10/2022
Puberty and adolescence is an important period in human development characterized by rapid transformations in anatomy, physiology, and behaviour, and the establishment of social and economic resources to maintain health and wellbeing across the life course. Despite the importance of puberty, little is known on the patterns of various developmental changes during puberty. Early life environmental exposures and socioeconomic position are thought to influence later health but whether they influence pubertal development is unclear. This study will describe the timing of different markers of pubertal development in 3 cohorts from the UK, USA, and Denmark, and examine early life environmental and socioeconomic influence on the timing of puberty.
B4163 - Longitudinal Blood Pressure GWAS - 18/10/2022
Blood pressure increases with aging and individuals with elevated blood pressure during adolescence and early adulthood are more likely to have hypertension and heart disease later in life. Knowledge of genetic factors associated with blood pressure during adolescence and early adulthood may help in the development of strategies to control blood pressure and prevent heart disease.
B4166 - GWAS of longitudinal subtypes of atopic dermatitis - 19/10/2022
We plan to identify genetic markers across the genome for subtypes of childhood eczema across the course of disease. These phenotypes include "no eczema", early transient eczema", "late-onset eczema", "intermittent eczema" and "persistent eczema", which have been generated using information from 5 points in times throughout childhood. These time points include age 6 months to 1 year; 2-3 years; 4-5 years; 8-10 years and 14-18 years of age. This study will help us understand the genetic and environmental factors that may differ between different disease subtypes, and will help inform the definition of eczema and how it is treated.
B4164 - The bidirectional relationships among physical activity sedentary behaviour weight status and depression - 19/10/2022
This project will evaluate how physical activity, sedentary behaviour, obesity and depression influence one another during adolescence (age 12 to 18 years). We will use data from the ALSPAC study, which has been following these adolescents since their birth in 1991-1992. This project will support practitioners, researchers and policy makers in designing effective public health interventions that target the increasing rates of obesity, depression and physical inactivity by understanding the complexity of their relationships during adolescence.
B4165 - Association between SNPs in candidate genes for good motor skills and childrens motor coordination - 24/10/2022
Physical abilities are complex traits that are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Genetic factors account for 20-80% of muscle strength, endurance capacity, speed, and flexibility. Physical abilities depend on motor coordination, which is defined as the dexterity to coordinate movements of multiple body parts. Well-developed coordination allows people to control their body parts in space and time quickly, efficiently, and accurately; so-called "good motor skills”. Motor coordination was commonly thought to be more influenced by environmental factors. However, recent twin studies have shown the heritability of motor coordination, suggesting the involvement of genetic factors in “good motor skills”.
Recently, we have demonstrated the heritability of “motor skills” by selective breeding in mice for good and poor coordination. Our comprehensive genomic and gene functional analyses in these mouse lines also identified candidate genes responsible for “good motor skills” in the cerebellum and cerebral cortex. The goal of this study is to determine whether the candidate genes for “good motor skills” identified by animal studies are involved in human motor coordination. To reach our goal, we investigated the association of SNPs in 11 candidate genes with children’s motor coordination using ALSPAC data.
B4157 - Associations between polygenic risk scores reaction time variability and ADHD-traits during adolescence - 11/10/2022
The current project is a student project that is linked to the already approved project: B3840 Developmental pathways to mental health problems. All needed data are available through B3840.
Attention deficit/hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable and heterogenous neurodevelopmental disorder associated with a range of cognitive deficits and functional outcomes. The complex pathways in which genetic risk gives rise to traits associated with ADHD remains to be specified. One cognitive phenotype associated with ADHD is Intraindividual Variability (IIV), usually measured as Reaction Time Variability (RTV). How RTV relates to behavioural symptoms of ADHD, and whether it constitutes a specific marker of ADHD or represents a marker of psychopathology in general, is currently debated. A deeper understanding of how genetic risk for ADHD relates to RTV and how RTV in turn relates to ADHD symptoms may have implications for understanding the links between genetic risk, cognition, and behavioural manifestations of ADHD.
B4159 - Genome-wide association study GWAS of blood pressure in adults - 11/10/2022
The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium invites ALSPAC and Bristol researchers to take part in a large GWAS of blood pressure traits, which include systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP, i.e. SBP-DBP). The main aims of CHARGE's GWAS are to (1) identify novel loci for BP traits separately by sex; (2) identify gene-sleep interaction effects on BP traits by sex. These analyses will follow the most recent analysis plan (currently 'Phase II analysis plan for sleep and blood pressure' version 4.3) provided by CHARGE. Only summary statistics will be shared with CHARGE. Based on the final GWAS results, subsequent analyses (e.g. Mendelian randomization) would be conducted by CHARGE based on the summary statistics.
B4160 - Novel implementation of vaccinations against adult respiratory infection and respiratory pathogen surveillance - 04/11/2022
Vaccination is currently underutilised in adults, despite the potential for this public health intervention to improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare usage and expense. Pre-licensure randomised controlled trials demonstrate vaccine safety and efficacy, but fail to evaluate the impact of these interventions in real-world settings, providing limited insight into outcomes for healthcare systems. Current post-implementation surveillance and safety studies lack detailed clinical outcomes and are limited by methodological constraints. There is therefore an urgent need to undertake well-conducted post-licensure pre-rollout (i.e. vaccine incorporation into national programmes) interventional implementation studies to provide such evidence.
This fellowship will aim to develop the methodology used within this field and undertake research that provides critical evidence for national and international public health decision making. Initially, I aim to undertake this research through an exemplar study of PCV20 (20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine), which may extend into a post-implementation effectiveness study if PCV20 is implemented nationally. This would then provide a pre-existing platform to study RSV or novel influenza vaccine effectiveness.
B4154 - The role of genetics in food allergy - 03/10/2022
The prevalence of food allergies has steadily increased in recent decades. This highlights the contribution of environmental and lifestyle factors, which act on the background of individual genetic susceptibility to shape the responsiveness of the immune system to allergenic triggers. A few genetic regions associated with food allergy have been identified but the number of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on food allergy to date is limited and often restricted to one specific food allergen. Therefore, we aim to conduct a large-scale meta-analysis of GWAS on food allergies.
B4158 - An investigation of the developmental symptom course of chronic pain and mental health Using genetically informative and causal - 03/10/2022
Chronic pain impacts multiple aspects of the lives of people who experience it with up to 10% of young people experiencing chronic pain into early adulthood, including symptoms of musculoskeletal pain, recurrent abdominal pain, and headaches. Importantly, it is estimated that up to 72% of those who experience chronic pain also experience significant levels of depression and anxiety (also referred to as common mental health problems hereafter). Despite these shocking estimates, few studies have sought to understand the causes, mechanisms, and longitudinal relationship between symptoms of chronic pain and common mental health problems.
The overarching aim of this project is to investigate the direction of the relationship between chronic pain and common mental health across a developmental period, from childhood to young adulthood, and explore potential mechanisms which may elucidate individual differences in the development of symptoms. To do this I will apply advanced statistical methods to large, genetically informative, longitudinal population-based studies to test the relationship between chronic pain symptoms including headaches, backache, and abdominal pain and common mental health problems, including anxiety and depression. Findings will provide a deeper understanding into the causal relationship between symptoms of chronic pain and common mental health across a key developmental period.
B4156 - The role of maternal religious belief in adolescent mental health - 18/10/2022
Adolescent mental health issues can have a significant impact on both the individual and their family. Understanding what factors relate to offspring mental health can help identify adolescents at greater risk of mental health issues. Previous research has investigated the role of parental religious belief, with inconsistent results. The aim of the present study was to re-examine whether a parent’s religious belief is related to their offspring’s mental health during adolescence. This is intended to build upon our previous study that looked at childhood mental health and parental religious belief.
B4150 - A Network Approach to Understanding Co-Occurring Mental Health Conditions in People with Autism and High Autistic Traits - 03/10/2022
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by difficulties with reciprocal social communication, restricted interests, repetitive behaviours, and sensory difficulties. In addition to these core features autistic people are at extremely high risk of developing additional mental health difficulties. For example, between 40% to 78% of children with autism have at least one anxiety disorder, almost four times the rate observed in children without the diagnosis. In addition, rates of depression and ADHD are extremely high. Adding to this complex picture is the fact that an autistic person will often experience more than one of these additional diagnoses. Current statistical approaches to the study of the co-occurrence of mental health conditions in autism fail to consider of important associations at a symptom level both within and between conditions, potentially preventing vital insights into key problem areas which could be targeted by interventions. To address this, we plan to apply an alternative and novel approach (Network analysis) to understanding the underlying structure of co-occurring conditions in this highly complex and heterogeneous population.
B4151 - The impact of social media reward-learning across development - 19/10/2022
Many people feel their emotional wellbeing is affected by their social media use, in positive and/or negative ways. However, scientific research has made little progress in uncovering the mechanisms by which social media could affect mental health. We now know that social media use can be modelled as a reward-learning process, whereby people engage with social media partly in order to gain ‘rewards’ such as ‘Likes’ and followers. However, we do not know which individual differences cause people to pursue and react to these rewards differently, nor whether different responses to these ‘rewards’ might determine the effects of social media on wellbeing.
We propose to investigate, for the first time, reward-learning behaviours as a potential mechanism linking social media and mental health. We intend to use the unique Twitter-data linkage ALPSAC has established for its participants in recent years. We will link the multidimensional questionnaire data regarding interindividual differences and developmental trajectories in the ALSPAC cohort, to data from these individuals’ Twitter profiles. We will then use computational models of reward-learning to model the Twitter data. This will allow us to associate behavioural and emotional trajectories with reward-learning behaviours on Twitter.
We will attempt to answer the following questions:
- Are behavioural and emotional characteristics, and other individual differences, associated with reward-learning behaviours on Twitter?
- Do reward-learning behaviours, such as the extent to which people alter their posting in response to the numbers of ‘Likes’ they receive, predict mental health trajectories over subsequent years?
B4146 - Intimate Partner Violence and Childrens Human Capital - 10/10/2022
A recent EU-wide report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 22 percent of women had experienced Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in their lifetime, and wide-cited estimates by the WHO suggest that the global incidence is significantly higher. The scale and impact of IPV, have attracted the attention from multiple academic disciplines that -- from different angles -- are trying to provide accurate evidence on this important and devastating phenomenon. Besides the indubitable and widely documented adverse impact of IPV on women’s physical and mental health, children exposed to IPV are also increasingly recognized as victims in their own right. The harm to children exposed to IPV may be both direct through the witnessing of abuse or indirect by affecting the mother-child interactions. Growing up in a family where the mother is abused by her partner might represent a grave shock for the child, potentially hindering the development of their human capital.
This project will provide evidence on the impact of children’s exposure to IPV on their cognitive and socio-emotional development between birth and age seven, and on the role of with mother’s responses to abuse. To this purpose, this project will implement and further develop a methodology recently introduced in economics to study the technology of human capital formation. The focus will be on the dynamics of the accumulation of skills, studying how skills co-evolve, and the role of mother-child interactions in this process. Most importantly, in relation to this highly successful recent literature, we will incorporate, for the first, time IPV as a negative input.
The strength of this method will be fully exploited by using an exceptionally rich source of data –internationally unique in containing all the necessary information for this analysis within a large representative population. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is a UK cohort study that includes (i) annual indicators of the incidence of IPV; (ii) high-frequency and reliable measures of children’s cognitive and socio-emotional skills; (iii) extremely detailed set of information on mother-child interactions as well as mother’s mental health.
Specifically, the project will address three research questions that will further the understanding of how children’s development is hampered by exposure to IPV. First, how large are the direct effects of children’s exposure to IPV on their development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills? This in effects casts exposure to IPV as a form of harmful maltreatment. Second, what are the indirect effects generated by change in mother-child interactions as a response to IPV? Such interactions can potentially amplify or compensate for the negative impact of IPV on children witnessing IPV. Third, what interactions between skills, and between skills and mother-child interactions, shape the dynamic effects of IPV on children’s development of socioemotional and cognitive skills over their early life years? Such interactions are crucial for suggesting the optimal nature and timing of policy interventions.
The current project will hence contribute to a highly influential and rapidly growing economic literature studying the importance of early childhood conditions for development and will allow new important insights to be gained by fully exploiting the richness of an existing unique data resource. In developing this analysis, our project will draw on, and contribute, to a research that spans multiple disciplines including sociology, psychology, pediatrics and criminology. The findings of this project respond to the need of thoroughly documenting and further studying the damaging effect of IPV within the family with the purpose of suggesting effective policy recommendations to alleviate its effect.