Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a $616,658 Project Grant to Tulane University (The Administrators of Tulane Educational Fund) on March 15, 2026, under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242). The grant funds a four-year research initiative (through March 14, 2030) examining the social and neural pathways through which parental anxiety transmits to youth anxiety during preadolescence. The project delivers empirical research designed to identify whether parental threat communication—characterized by fearful and negative verbal and nonverbal expressions—mediates the relationship between parental anxiety and children's daily emotions in real-life contexts, and to elucidate the underlying neural mechanisms, specifically focusing on error monitoring and the error-related negativity event-related potential as a potential biomarker of anxiety.

This research addresses two critical knowledge gaps by combining observational measures of parental threat communication with neurobiological assessment during the preadolescent period, a developmental window critical for anxiety disorder onset. By integrating behavioral, ecological, and neuroscientific methodologies, the project contributes to understanding intergenerational transmission of anxiety and may inform preventive interventions targeting parental communication patterns and children's threat sensitivity. The research is conducted at Tulane University's location in New Orleans, Louisiana, leveraging the institution's established capacity in behavioral and neuroscience research.