Each year, the C-StARR funds 2-4 time-limited projects that bring together senior- and early-career investigators from different disciplines for focused studies that lay the groundwork for proposals for large, high-impact studies likely to garner extramural funding. The Center provides both funding and access to core support to assist investigators in the completion of these projects.

Investigators: Dustin Albert, Ahmad Hariri, Jennifer Lansford, and Kenneth Dodge

An ongoing grant¹ provides support for a longitudinal investigation of the development of self-regulation across adolescence as a function of puberty, parenting, peer relations, and culture. Participants are 1,400 12-year-old children and their parents from 14 cultures across the world. This pilot project introduced the study of neural mechanisms in this development by measuring brain processes through fMRI during the participants’ completion of standard self-regulation tasks (Stroop, Delay Discounting, Tower of London, etc.), for 300 local participants from African American, Latino, and European-American cultures. Demonstration of feasibility with this population and initial findings could lead to studying these processes in more cultures.

(¹NICHD R01HD0548054: Parenting, Adolescent Self-Regulation, and Risk-Taking Across Cultures)

Investigators: Timothy Strauman, Ahmad Hariri, and Sarah Lisanby

Both psychology and neuroscience have identified failure in goal pursuit as contributing to maladaptive behavior patterns such as response perseveration. Regulatory focus theory proposes two basic motivational systems for goal pursuit and hypothesizes that perceived success or failure leads to specific affective and motivational consequences. Recent research has found support for an interactive model of vulnerability to self-regulation failure consisting of (a) a preference for promotion (approach) rather than prevention (avoidance) goals, (b) a specific genotype that influences tonic and phasic dopamine signaling, and (c) the unanticipated experience of prolonged failure feedback. Individuals characterized by this risk phenotype are likely to perseverate on unsuccessful goal pursuit strategies rather than disengaging or altering their behavior. We test the mediating role of promotion-related neocortical activation within the risk phenotype by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to manipulate promotion vs. prevention circuit activation during a well-validated monetary incentive delay task. Via TMS, we will temporarily inactivate a site supporting promotion behavior or prevention behavior and simultaneously manipulate probabilities of winning money to create unexpected and consistent failure feedback. We hypothesize that whereas the participants matching the risk phenotype will show greater response perseveration (as measured by reaction time and mood ratings) when encountering failure feedback on the win-money trials, using TMS to inhibit the promotion-related site will eliminate the response perseveration.

Investigators: Sherika Hill, William Copeland, and Jane Costello

As part of an ongoing longitudinal study² of the development of Substance Use Disorders (SUD) participants have been genotyped and gene environment-development analyses are ongoing. In this project, the research team explores DNA methylation, focusing on sequence variation, as a promising complement to these genetic studies in 3 ways:

1. Methylation markers may have higher predictive power, as methylation is directly related to gene expression and methylated cytosines are known to be mutational hotspots 5-6.
2. Methylation studies may also be better able to account for the stage-wise trajectories of SUDs and provide a mechanism for the mediation of environmental influences.
3. The translational potential of methylation studies is profound as methylation sites are modifiable targets for interventions.

This project involving sequencing 1,500 methylomes using DNA collected at 3 different time points from 30 youth who never use drugs, compared with 30 youth who continue to use drugs into adulthood.

(²NIDA R01DA011301: Vulnerability to Drug Abuse: Pathways to Recovery)

Investigators: Candice Odgers, Joy Piontak, and Josh Rivenbark

This project was an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study conducted via a new collection method—MetricWire, a mobile device app—enabling investigators to supplement typical assessment data with geolocations to provide richer contextual information about the environments in which adolescents spend their time. A sample of 394 adolescents completed three surveys daily for a 2-week period and answered questions about emotion and self-regulation, stressful experiences including discrimination and bullying, exposure to violence, problem behaviors including substance use, and parental monitoring. Data collection is complete and Data Core personnel (Happ) are in the process of linking geocoded locations to census data to provide objective measures of demographics, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood/school context. In addition, data has been linked to administrative school records furnished through C-StARR’s agreement with NC DPI and the NCERDC.

Several manuscripts aimed at disseminating this study’s findings are in progress; one (lead author: Rivenbark) article now appears in Developmental Psychology.

Investigators: William Copeland, Cynthia Kuhn, and Sherika Hill

The purpose of this project was to collect home environment assessments, biomarker data, executive functioning tasks, and a measure of cognitive ability from a sample of approximately 400 adolescents. Participants were sampled from two major metropolitan areas (Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) in addition to rural areas within a 2-hour radius of Sylva, NC. Interviewers visited participants’ homes where adolescents completed three computerized executive functioning tasks (Stroop, n-back, and Color-Shape tasks), two subsections of the WASI-II (Vocabulary and Matrix Reasoning), and provided samples of saliva, blood spots, and hair for biomarker analysis. Data collection was completed in January 2017. Data core personnel (Happ) have linked participants’ geocoded home addresses to census data to provide objective measures of demographics, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood context. Copeland is currently directing bio core personnel (Francis) in storage of biological data and preliminary analyses of biomarker data.

Investigators: Erin Davisson, Megan Golonka, and Rick Hoyle

The goal of this study was to collect psychological data on self-regulation and substance use via an online survey from a representative sample of adolescents in North Carolina. Self-report data will also be linked with administrative school records via NC DPI and the NCERDC and with census data with support from Data Core personnel (Happ, Carrig). In addition, participants were asked to provide a saliva sample for biomarker analysis. Data collection for the first wave survey was completed in July 2017. Data collection for a second wave was completed in December 2018. Data Core personnel have made the codebook and data available to Center researchers, including the linking of this data to NCERDC administrative data. Copeland is currently directing bio core personnel (Francis) in storage of biological data and preliminary analyses of biomarker data. Several manuscripts are planned for submission in 2019.

Investigators: Ann Brewster and Timothy Strauman

The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a school-based intervention that uses an introductory college course as a vehicle for targeting metacognitive skills, self-efficacy, and academic achievement for 9th grade students at risk for dropping out and/or behavioral problems. The design and implementation phases are completed. The pilot study obtained data (both self-report and from DPS records) regarding short-term and longer-term behavioral and academic outcomes – e.g., rates of in-school and out-of-school suspensions, other behavioral infractions, teacher ratings of disruptiveness, EOG test scores, and grades. Focus groups of Durham Public School administrators, teachers, and students respectively were convened to ensure the integrity and usability of the intervention materials. Data collection has been completed. Analyses are ongoing. Analyses are focusing on feasibility (e.g., comparing attendance between the intervention and control conditions), changes in critical mediators (metacognition, self-efficacy, academic achievement), and ultimately, behavioral and academic indices of interest to DPS.

Investigators: Sarah Gaither

The goal of this study is to examine the extent to which social identity and experiences of discrimination influence burgeoning self-regulatory skills, flexible thinking, and problem solving, and downstream consequences for substance use, health, and academic outcomes during adolescence. Participants were sampled from adolescents who previously completed the RAISE study and were asked to complete an online study. Adolescents answered questions about their racial identity, belongingness, perceptions of their home/neighborhood/school’s racial and ethnic diversity, experiences of discrimination, and psychological distress, in addition to completing a flexible thinking/creative problem solving task. These measures will then be linked with previously-collected data assessing substance use, academic outcomes, and health. These data will also be linked with administrative data from NC DPI and with census data with assistance from Data Core personnel (Carrig, Happ) to provide objective measures of adolescent academic and behavioral outcomes (e.g., days absent) and neighborhood context. The goal is to test whether the benefits in flexible thinking for self-regulatory outcomes associated with having a biracial identity outweigh the negative experiences of discrimination and psychological distress and their potential influence on self-regulation. Data collection concluded in July 2017. Data analysis and manuscript preparation is ongoing with support as needed from Data Core personnel. In addition, Gaither is in the process of submitting a grant application building on this funded pilot project.

Investigators: Candice Odgers and Ann Gassman-Pines

This study collected parent data on self-regulation, substance use, and household demographics to provide context for and be linked with adolescent self-report data from the RAISE study and Gaither’s pilot study. Parents of adolescents who completed those studies were contacted and asked to participate in an online survey. The survey includes questions about parent and child self-regulation, psychological distress, experiences of discrimination, substance use, and household demographics including parental employment status, socioeconomic status, and food/financial security. Data collection for the first wave of the survey was completed in October 2017. A second wave of data collection was completed in December 2018 to maximize the number of parent surveys available for linking with adolescent reports of self-regulation and substance use. Once data collection is complete, this data will be linked with administrative school records furnished by NC DPI via the NCERDC to connect parent and child reports of self-regulation, substance use, and household demographics with objective measures of school performance and disciplinary actions.

In addition to sponsoring the pilot projects, C-StARR has continued to offer Center investigators access to our recruitment effort called the Additional Research Participation (ARP) database. This database is maintained by Data Core staff as a Center resource and is available to C-StARR investigators, supplementing the contact information and administrative data furnished by the North Carolina Education Research Data Center with psychological data. Recruitment is ongoing and available to supplement all pilot study research protocols. Biological Methods Core staff will assist Center investigators in augmenting this available data with biomarker data in future studies. The option to add new participants to the ARP database continues to be explored by a number of projects in the research base (e.g., Lansford R01HD054805-10).

In addition to sponsoring the pilot projects, C-StARR has continued to offer Center investigators access to our recruitment effort called the Additional Research Participation (ARP) database. This database is maintained by Data Core staff as a Center resource and is available to C-StARR investigators, supplementing the contact information and administrative data furnished by the North Carolina Education Research Data Center with psychological data. Recruitment is ongoing and available to supplement all pilot study research protocols. Biological Methods Core staff will assist Center investigators in augmenting this available data with biomarker data in future studies. The option to add new participants to the ARP database continues to be explored by a number of projects in the research base (e.g., Lansford R01HD054805-10).