# Social and Biological Mechanisms Driving the Intergenerational Impact of War on Child Mental Health: Implications for Developing Family Based Intervention

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON COLLEGE · 2024 · $117,719

## Abstract

A. Summary of parent grant
There is a widespread recognition that mental health is often neglected, under-resourced, and
underfunded, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) 1, 2. Experiencing traumatic
events as a child is often linked to mental health problems and higher levels of stress reactivity and
impact one's entire ecology with long-term intergenerational consequences 3. The treatment gap, is
more than 50% in all countries and can be as high as 90% in the least resourced countries 4. Sierra
Leone is one of many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) that have encountered challenges in
providing mental health services to their population, particularly children and adolescents 5-6. This has
been compounded by the country's experiences of war and the Ebola outbreak. The parent grant for
the proposed supplement is a mixed-method, longitudinal study evaluating the long-term effects of
war and trauma on parents and their relationships with their children, families, and communities.
Previous studies have noted the limitations of relying on self-reported family dynamics in post-
conflict settings, including Sierra Leone 7. There is a need for observational techniques and
instruments that are context-specific, current, biologically based, and tailored to fathers to supplement
self-report methods. The findings from this study will inform the development of decision-support
tools for lay-worker-delivered prevention models to support family interventions to address specific
needs, based on the family's distinct pattern of risk and protective factors.
 Specific Aims of the parent grant: The primary aims of the parent grant are as follows:
 (1) Investigate the biological embedding and long-term mental health consequences of war-related
trauma in a longitudinal sample of war-affected youth who have become parents (N=394).
(2) Examine associations between parental war-related trauma exposure, mental health, and biological
and physiological indicators of emotion, cognition, and social functioning in offspring aged 7–24
(N=410). (3) Identify and examine how modifiable risk and protective factors operate to identify
priority intervention targets to improve the physical and mental health of war-affected children and to
develop screening tools to identify families at risk.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10820893
- **Project number:** 3R01MH128928-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Theresa Stichick Betancourt
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $117,719
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-02-10 → 2026-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10820893

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10820893, Social and Biological Mechanisms Driving the Intergenerational Impact of War on Child Mental Health: Implications for Developing Family Based Intervention (3R01MH128928-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10820893. Licensed CC0.

---

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