Project Grant R01MH138428

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a $681,690 Project Grant (CFDA 93.242 - Mental Health Research Grants) to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) with an award date of January 1, 2025 and an ultimate completion date of November 30, 2029. This grant will fund a longitudinal intergenerational study on the transmission of threat sensitivity as a risk marker for psychopathology in young children.

The study will leverage CHOP's Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) of ~10,000 participants assessed at ages 8-21 between 2009-2012, many of whom have become parents in the last 5 years. The project will conduct a multimethod assessment of 300 mother-child dyads (children aged 4-8 years) to examine the neural, biological, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence the development and intergenerational transmission of threat sensitivity and anxiety. This includes investigating the role of parental threat sensitivity, parent-child interactions, and environmental threat exposures. The research aims to identify mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of threat sensitivity to inform interventions and prevention efforts targeting mental health risk factors in children.