Intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA), refers to any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological, or sexual harm to those in the relationship. There is evidence that IPVA in older adult relationships is associated with poor mental and physical health. However, very little is known about the effects of IPVA in young adult relationships, and particularly in UK populations and for physical health. The aim of this project is to estimate the association between IPVA during young adulthood and cardiovascular health in the following years, in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Socio-emotional outcomes such as internalizing and externalizing behaviours, and ADHD in young children are associated with subsequent adverse outcomes in adolescence and adulthood such as poor school performance, depression, and antisocial behaviours. Growing empirical evidence suggests that many factors within the home environment are associated with the onset of these outcomes in children. One of these factors is maternal employment status, which for many families serves a critical purpose through increasing financial resources of the family, enhancing women’s careers and independence, and encouraging a more-equal gender role within the family. Nevertheless, some literature has raised concerns regarding the effect of maternal employment on children’s socio-emotional health, although the findings are inconsistent. For instance, some studies found that maternal employment within the first year of childbirth is associated with development of externalizing and internalizing behaviours in children. A few studies found no association, while in some others maternal employment led to improved socio-emotional health especially among minority and low-income populations.The discrepancies in findings can be due to differences in study design, exposure and outcome measurements, and the contextual characteristics of settings. In particular, maternity leave and childcare policies likely play crucial moderating roles in the association between maternal employment and child outcomes.There is evidence that the type, initiation (with earlier initiation due to shorter maternity leave) and quality of childcare impact child development. However, data on the potential additive effect of maternal employment and childcare on children’s socio-emotional health outcomes are scarce. Therefore, to better understand the role of maternal employment and childcare on children’s socio-emotional health and to inform public health policies and interventions related to maternity leave and childcare, new research examining the effect of these factors on children’s socio-emotional health is warranted.

Incontinence – both urinary and faecal – is a common childhood occurrence. Whilst most children obtain daytime bladder control by 3-years, and night-time bladder control at 4-6-years, it is not uncommon for school-age children to experience some form of incontinence (1). Indeed, parents of 7 ½ year-olds in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort reported 15.5% experienced bedwetting, and 7.6% experienced daytime wetting. Incontinence can seriously undermine quality of life, and psychological distress may occur if children become aware that incontinence is unusual for children of their age and/or following negative reactions from family or peers (1). Further, 20-40% of children in attendance of continence clinics meet diagnostic criteria of at least one psychiatric condition (2).

It is commonly believed that issues with continence during childhood will resolve with age (3). However, epidemiological studies report 2-3% of adolescents experience urinary incontinence, and 1-1.5% experience faecal incontinence (3). There is also evidence that adolescents experience more severe forms of incontinence compared to younger children. Indeed, a cross-sectional study of 16,512 children in Hong Kong found a greater proportion of frequent bedwetting (≥3 wet nights/week) accompanied with daytime wetting and other lower urinary tract symptoms in 11-19-year olds compared to 5-10-year olds (4).

Incontinence in adolescence is particularly problematic because this is a sensitive time period in which identity and body image are formed, and peer acceptance is highly valued (1). The shame and stigma associated with incontinence may affect friendships and participation in social activities, which may in turn increase risk of developing psychosocial problems. Psychosocial problems during adolescence have been linked to future adverse mental health and social outcomes, including poor academic attainment, low self-esteem, depression, and suicidal behaviours (1,3).

Whilst some studies have investigated whether childhood incontinence is a risk factor for poor psychosocial outcomes in adolescence, few consider the impact of incontinence issues that persist beyond childhood. Further research is therefore required to investigate the relationship between continence issues in adolescence and adverse mental health outcomes.

1. Grzeda MT, Heron J, von Gontard A, Joinson C. Effects of urinary incontinence on psychosocial outcomes in adolescence. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2017 Jun;26(6):649–58.
2. Heron J, Grzeda MT, von Gontard A, Wright A, Joinson C. Trajectories of urinary incontinence in childhood and bladder and bowel symptoms in adolescence: prospective cohort study. BMJ Open. 2017;7(3):e014238.
3. Whale K, Cramer H, Joinson C. Left behind and left out: The impact of the school environment on young people with continence problems. British Journal of Health Psychology. 2018;23(2):253–77.
4. Yeung CK, Sreedhar B, Sihoe JDY, Sit FKY, Lau J. Differences in characteristics of nocturnal enuresis between children and adolescents: a critical appraisal from a large epidemiological study. BJU International. 2006;97(5):1069–73.

DNA methylation (DNAm) plays a central role in gene regulation. It helps to define how cells respond to environmental signals and, ultimately, contributes to health or susceptibility to disease. DNAm variation is influenced by genetic, molecular and environmental and other factors. However, the amount and the effects of differences in DNAm from one person to another is poorly understood.

A powerful avenue into researching the functional consequences of changes in DNAm levels is to correlate DNA sequence variants such as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) to DNAm levels to find both local and distal (for example on other chromosomes) effects. Having completed the largest genetic study of DNAm worldwide to date (through the Genetics of DNA Methylation Consortium) by scanning 10 million SNPs genomewide, we have identified 270k SNP-DNAm associations. This was achieved by analysing about 400,000 DNAm sites in blood, which is only 2% of 28 million DNAm sites across the genome. There is a huge potential for improved understanding of DNAm variation between individuals and its influence on health and disease by studying other regulatory regions of the genome using EPIC arrays and by comparing different ethnicities. We propose to systematically map genetic influences on DNAm and to compare these genetic influences across ancestries.

Variations in mother–infant interactions have a substantial impact on offspring health and functioning in later life. The accepted gold standard for measuring mother–child interactions is to film interaction between mother and child in lab or home setting from the third person. There are several limitations to this approach, including demand characteristics, increased burden on participants and researchers and a less accurate perception of the infant and mothers actual experience in interaction due to using the third person perspective and often only short snippets of time. The recent advent of head-mounted cameras which can be used in naturalistic home settings addresses these limitations. In addition the team have developed a micro-coding system to allow an assessment of moment by moment interaction behaviours, coded using both micro and automated codes.
Research has shown that use of the headcams detects more maternal behaviours in interaction that are social. The videos from home interactions can be coded, they have so far been analysed using an in-depth micro-coded system. What is not yet known is how the micro-coded interaction behaviours map on to global constructs such as parental “sensitivity” and more specific dyadic processes such as attunement, contingency, coordination, matching, mirroring, reparation, and synchrony (Provenci, di Minico, Giusti, Guida & Muller, 2018). The first stage of this project will involve coding and processing data and conducting analyses to identify behavioural manifestations of these and other parent-interaction constructs.
We will validate the micro-coding and automated coding against global coding of sensitivity using videos from both ALSPAC mothers and fathers. This will allow the identification of the behavioural manifestations of sensitivity using both mother infant moment by moment behaviours, importantly across behavioural domains (i.e, mirroring of facial expressions as well as vocalisations or across behaviours where the affect tone is matched in face in mum and vocal in baby), and with quantification of duration of behaviours and time between behaviours. We will also develop processes to automate, such as face reader outputs, currently being validated in parents , but we need more input to use for infants. Establishing which micro-codes and combinations of behaviour are associated with global parent-infant constructs in mothers and fathers will produce a less labour-intensive method to assess parent-infant interaction. Further, this work has important implications for intervention to enhance parent-infant interaction by identifying specific concrete behaviours to target.
The second stage involves examining associations between the identified parent-infant interaction processes and parental mental health and language and with child cognitive, emotional and behavioural outcomes. We combine a number of researchers with specialism around parent-infant interaction, language development, proximity and body-position, joint attention and emotional and behavioural problems.

Religion can often be recognized as a source of reassurance for those undergoing major or traumatic events in their lives, providing the understanding that these events have their place within the order of the larger universe (Berger, 2011). Hence the Marxist dictum of religion being the “opium of the people.” However, there is relatively little research done on the inversion of this dynamic, specific types of trauma can also have an impact an individual’s strength of faith (Leo et al., 2021). This is particularly prevalent with death related trauma, often witnessing death of a loved one or colleague could influence individuals to either further embrace their faith or weaken it (Fontana and Rosenheck, 2004; Morris Trainor et al., 2019). This is consistent with the shattered assumptions model that posits that those that have undergone trauma often change their world view to ‘accommodate’ their negative life events (Janoff-Bulman, 2002).

The relationship between traumatic life events and religion has been studied in detail by the scientific community, however, the nature and direction of the relationship is still a contentious topic. A review by Chen and Koenig in 2006 found that of the 11 papers in the review, one found no association, four found a positive association, three found mixed associations, and three found an inverse association (Chen and Koenig, 2006).

In these studies, we aim to investigate the relationship between RSBB and traumatic life events in both directions. To find how participants’ religious beliefs impact how they deal with trauma but also if different life events are associated with a change in one’s religiosity.

Berger, P.L. (2011) The sacred canopy: elements of a sociological theory of religion. Available at: http://www.myilibrary.com?id=591409 (Accessed: 9 March 2022).

Chen, Y.Y. and Koenig, H.G. (2006) ‘Traumatic Stress and Religion: Is there a Relationship? A Review of Empirical Findings’, Journal of Religion and Health, 45(3), pp. 371–381. doi:10.1007/s10943-006-9040-y.

Fontana, A. and Rosenheck, R. (2004) ‘Trauma, Change in Strength of Religious Faith, and Mental Health Service Use Among Veterans Treated for PTSD’, Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 192(9), pp. 579–584. doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000138224.17375.55.

Janoff-Bulman, R. (2002) Shattered Assumptions. Available at: https://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=97814516... (Accessed: 17 March 2022).

Leo, D. et al. (2021) ‘The Effect of Trauma on Religious Beliefs: A Structured Literature Review and Meta-Analysis’, Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 22(1), pp. 161–175. doi:10.1177/1524838019834076.

Morris Trainor, Z. et al. (2019) ‘Death salience moderates the effect of trauma on religiosity.’, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 11(6), pp. 639–646. doi:10.1037/tra0000430.

This project is part of the Consortium to Research Individual, Interpersonal and Social Influences in Pain (CRIISP), which aims to determine the psychosocial mechanisms underpinning chronic pain. This work will be undertaken across four large cohorts studies, including ALSPAC. In order to identify mechanisms and synthesise data across these cohorts, it is first necessary to identify the measures of pain included within each study. As an extension to the original proposal (B3598), we propose to write a data note to summarise all pain related items in ALSPAC across G0 and G1.

Information can be obtained from ALSPAC (B number folder) or DPUK on request

Pollutants such as lead, cadmium and arsenic potentially pose a threat to our health, even at low levels of exposure. Exposure before birth and in childhood may have particularly important damaging effects on the developing lungs, brain and cardiovascular system. In this project we plan to measure these pollutants in maternal urine samples taken during pregnancy and in blood samples from the offspring in childhood to see whether levels are higher in mothers and children who are less well off, and whether higher exposure before birth and/or in childhood is associated with poorer lung function, higher blood pressure, and lower IQ and educational attainment in childhood. If these pollutants are affecting children's health, they might be contributing to the poorer health seen in less well off children.