# Effect of early life exposure to social adversity and pesticides on risk-taking behavior of 16-18 year olds: the CHAMACOS study

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2020 · $731,226

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 For the past 15 years, we have chronicled the development of over 600 primarily low-income, first-
generation Latino children born in the Salinas Valley, known as “the nation's salad bowl.” The children of the
CHAMACOS longitudinal birth cohort are now coming of age in a community identified by the Department of
Justice as an epicenter of youth gang violence. Our previous research has shown that in utero exposure to
organophosphate pesticides (OPs) was associated with impaired attention and lower IQ at school age for
CHAMACOS children, both of which are risk factors for adverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence and
adulthood. Our data also indicate that CHAMACOS children have experienced considerable early life
stressors, including poverty, food insecurity, housing instability, household overcrowding, family conflict and
separation, maternal depression, and fear of deportation that may predispose them to adverse outcomes. We
propose to investigate the interaction of in utero exposure to a host of neurotoxic pesticides with early life
social adversity in association with behavioral outcomes during the transition from adolescence to early
adulthood (age 16 and ~18 years): specifically, externalizing and risk-taking behaviors, delinquent and criminal
activities, and school failure versus success/graduation.
 Through our research, we will investigate developmental outcomes of exposure to the complex mixture of
pesticides used in Salinas Valley agriculture, making use of geo-coded
that allows assessment of chemicals that lack biomarkers. We will also collaborate with child development
Pesticide Use Reporting data (PUR)
experts to synthesize the wealth of data we have gathered on family-level and neighborhood-level adversities
(e.g. poverty, crime) into cumulative adversity exposure variables corresponding to specific developmental
windows (i.e. in utero, birth to age 5, and birth to age 9), and will do the same for protective factors (e.g.
maintenance of positive cultural values, child-parent attachment).
 We hypothesize that exposure to neurotoxic pesticides and early life adversity will each independently
increase adverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence/early adulthood, and that early adversity may modify
the effects of pesticide exposures. We further suggest that the decreased cognitive abilities and poorer
attention observed in association with pesticide exposure in CHAMACOS children at school age may mediate
this relationship. Thus, the goal of this project is to evaluate the neurotoxicity of current-use pesticides and
early social adversity to human populations, assess effects of early life exposure to both these chemical and
non-chemical stressors on adolescent/early adult behaviors of societal concern, and identify targets for early
intervention to prevent longer term poor outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10018517
- **Project number:** 5R01ES026994-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brenda Eskenazi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $731,226
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-30 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10018517

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10018517, Effect of early life exposure to social adversity and pesticides on risk-taking behavior of 16-18 year olds: the CHAMACOS study (5R01ES026994-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10018517. Licensed CC0.

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