Project Grant RF1MH138582

The National Institute of Mental Health awarded Trustees of Indiana University $2.938 million on September 24, 2025, under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to investigate maternal depression trajectories across 25 years in relation to sociocultural risk factors and a randomized parenting intervention.

The recipient will examine variation in depression trajectories among low-income mothers across two decades, prospectively analyzing how sociodevelopmental characteristics, child developmental periods, and contextual factors—including neighborhood conditions, social stress, financial strain, family support, individual identity, housing stability, and neighborhood support—relate to depressive symptom patterns. The study leverages the Early Steps Multisite Study, a longitudinal experimental cohort of 731 low-income families assessed 13 times from child ages 2 to 19, with families randomly assigned at baseline to receive the Family Check-Up intervention or a control condition. The research will evaluate whether the Family Check-Up buffers severity in maternal depression trajectories. Maternal depression, child and family functioning, and contextual factors have been prospectively assessed for nearly two decades; families were assessed nearly annually for eight years post-baseline, with intervention families offered the Family Check-Up. The work is performed in Bloomington, Indiana, with a period of performance through July 31, 2030. This is a Project Grant, the assistance type supporting discrete research projects within a specified funding period.