# Testing a Social Safety Theory Perspective on Depression: An Intensive Longitudinal Immunopsychiatric Data Approach

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2024 · $36,323

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Depression is a leading cause of psychosocial impairment, poor academic performance, increased risk of
school dropout, and a greater likelihood of self-harm, suicide, and medical illness over the lifespan. Moreover, a
striking 30% of college students experience clinical levels of depression, making this is a critical period to identify
intervention targets to mitigate risk for this burdensome disorder. Although research has evaluated psychological
and immunological mechanisms of depression, these factors are typically studied in isolation. Social Safety
Theory is a compelling, integrated framework that hypothesizes that social stressors are uniquely predictive of
increases in depression because social stress has a greater biological impact compared to other stressors.
Further, this pathway can be amplified by negative social safety schemas characterized by interpretating social
situations as conflictual, unreliable, and dangerous. This proposal seeks to test this integrated, multi-level model of
depression etiology using the transition from high school to college as a quasi-experimental social stressor and
an intensive longitudinal design. Briefly, self-report data collected daily and inflammatory data collected every
three days over a 24-day period will be used to evaluate how trajectories of perceived stress, inflammatory
proteins, and depression symptom change as a function of transitioning to college (Aim 1), test if negative social
schemas predict individual differences in trajectories of perceived stress, inflammatory proteins, and depression
symptoms (Aim 2), and investigate the extent to which changes in inflammatory proteins mediate the association
between changes in stress and depression symptoms during this period and whether this indirect relation is
moderated by negative social safety schemas (Aim 3). To test if these interrelations between stress, social safety
schemas, and inflammation predict long-term depression outcomes, Aims 2 and 3 will be re-tested predicting
depression diagnoses across the entire freshman year (Exploratory Aim). Participants will be 112 healthy,
incoming UCLA freshmen will be recruited via e-mails from the Registrar’s Office. Starting seven days before
moving onto campus, participants will complete daily self-report measures (stress and depression symptoms, n =
2,688) and blood draws every three days (n = 896). Trait social safety schemas will be measured on the first day
and a diagnostic interview will be completed before the study and again at the end of the year. Consistent with
the NIMH Strategic Objectives (SO), this multi-method study will define biological mechanisms of mental illness
(SO 1); provide insight into how mental illness trajectories change during developmental transitions (SO 2);
highlight three, multi-domain targets for prevention and intervention (SO 3); and contribute to the public health
impact of NIMH by reducing rates of depression on college campuses (SO 4)....

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10895486
- **Project number:** 5F32MH130149-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel P Moriarity
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $36,323
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-08-12 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10895486

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10895486, Testing a Social Safety Theory Perspective on Depression: An Intensive Longitudinal Immunopsychiatric Data Approach (5F32MH130149-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10895486. Licensed CC0.

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