# 9/11 Trauma and Toxicity in Childhood: Longitudinal Health and Behavioral Outcomes

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC · 2020 · $598,970

## Abstract

On 9/11, children who were residents of the World Trade Center area or students in local schools
experienced a wide range of psychological traumas and of toxic exposures. To ensure their long term well-
being of individuals exposed to 9/11 as children, it is imperative that we understand the longitudinal, lifetime
effects that these traumatic and toxic exposures are having on their physical health and behavioral
development. Yet the bulk of research has focused on those who were adults on 9/11. This research has
furnished strong evidence linking 9/11 traumatic and toxic exposures (both on 9/11 and subsequently) to a
wide range of subsequent adult psychiatric and physical disorders. Based on this research, much of it related
to The World Trade Center Health Registry (WTCHR), we unfortunately can expect that youth who were
directly exposed to 9/11 during sensitive periods in their physical and mental development will carry even
greater and ongoing lifetime risks for a variety of behavioral and physical health difficulties. It is thus imperative
to study these individuals over the long term, both to facilitate early intervention and amelioration for 9/11
exposed individuals, and to amortize this rare cohort to help us better understand the lifetime developmental
impact of childhood trauma and toxicity for all the other children that may have been, or may yet become, so
exposed. Yet, surprisingly, much less research has been done with those exposed to 9/11 as children. Our
team, The Child Psychiatric Epidemiology Group (CPEG) has begun to fill in this gap with our own in depth
mental health follow up evaluation of individuals in this sample in our funded Stress and Well Being (S&W)
study. The S&W study followed N=1,000 individuals exposed to 9/11 as children and N=500, age and gender
matched, unexposed Controls. It was focused on psychological trauma and psychiatric and behavioral
outcomes, and produced concrete evidence for the ongoing developmental psychiatric and behavioral
problems in this group, a decade after 9/11. We therefore now propose to conduct an expansion of the scope
of this study by assessing these individuals for toxic as well as traumatic exposures and to follow their physical
health (airway disorders and inflammatory processes) as well as their ongoing psychiatric (mental health,
substance abuse) and behavioral (decision anomalies and high-risk behavior) outcomes. In addition we will be
in a position to examine the interaction between traumatic and toxic exposures and the resulting comorbidities
of physical and mental health issues. This will fill important knowledge gaps, resulting in valuable information to
guide both psychiatric and general medical care for those children exposed to 9/11 and the ensuing toxicity,
while simultaneously providing new information relevant for other youth exposed to other traumatic events.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9948529
- **Project number:** 5U01OH011308-05
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Christina W. Hoven
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $598,970
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9948529

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9948529, 9/11 Trauma and Toxicity in Childhood: Longitudinal Health and Behavioral Outcomes (5U01OH011308-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9948529. Licensed CC0.

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