# "Adversityand Socialization of Self-Regulation in Chronically Stressed Children"

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2021 · $500,052

## Abstract

Abstract
During childhood, self-regulation underlies children’s ability to cooperate, follow directions, control impulses,
and manage upsets which in the long-term leads to fewer physical and mental health problems, greater
academic success, higher socioeconomic status and income, and fewer arrests. Thus, understanding the
developmental processes and facilitating mechanisms leading to self-regulation, is a critical public health
concern. The development of self-regulation is even more important for children exposed to chronic contextual
stress, such as Mexican origin (MO) children. Yet considering the importance of self-regulation, and the rapidly
growing number of MO children, there is a surprising dearth of information on child development processes in
this population. Parents are thought to be a primary socializing agent for self-regulation; therefore we aim to
examine how MO parents foster self-regulation, the impact of contextual stressors, and the protective and
promotive role of parental and cultural characteristics. To do this, families will be recruited from the California
Family Project, an ongoing longitudinal study of MO families (N = 674) that initiated in 2005. Target individuals
are now approximately 19 years old and are beginning to have their own children (currently, N = 45). Families
will be assessed when their child is 6, 18, and 36 months old. At each time point parents will complete
ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of parent-child interactions and collect cortisol samples on
themselves and their child across multiple days. Home visits will also be conducted at each time point to
assess contextual stress, global family interaction patterns, and the child’s emotional, behavioral, and cognitive
regulation. An EMA study is particularly critical in determining how family interactional patterns are established,
how family members connect and conflict, and how the ebb and flow of family life as it is lived is impacted by
daily stressors, moods, and physiology. Aims will examine 1) whether parental dysregulation mediates the
association between parent’s contextual stress and their child’s self-regulation; 2) the dynamic
transactions between parents and their children across the day and week, and from year to year
leading to children’s self-regulation; and 3) parent’s cultural and psychological resilience factors. This
portion of the project is considered ‘phase 1’. We have long-term plans (phase 2) to to follow these families into
elementary school to understand the implications of contextual stress, parenting, and self-regulation on school
readiness and achievement. Thus, phase 1 will focus on the parent’s socialization of regulation and the
influence of contextual stressors, phase 2 will extend these findings to examine the implications for school
readiness. Early acquisition of the self-regulatory skills being studied is an important element in life long
academic success, and uncovering pathways of self-regulatory developmen...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10151465
- **Project number:** 5R01HD087367-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Leah Hibel
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $500,052
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-03 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10151465

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10151465, "Adversityand Socialization of Self-Regulation in Chronically Stressed Children" (5R01HD087367-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10151465. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*