Children’s entry into school at appropriate ages and their successful progression through the primary grades are strong predictors of later life opportunities and successes. This retrospective study focuses on factors that can influence age appropriate school entry and grade progression with children who were eight at the time of the study and who live in a peri-urban community in Uganda. Children in this resource constrained community face risks of educational exclusion and longer term underachievement that arise from social, health and economic disadvantages, inequalities and inadequate services. The most disadvantaged children, those who live in households with life stress events such as the absence of one or more parents or the impact of diseases such as HIV and AIDS, are at risk of not enrolling in school at an appropriate age or not advancing successfully. Such risks may be mediated through family composition and family demographic variables and may be ameliorated through the presence of community programs designed for young children. This study examined the influence of family variables, home environment life stress events, and exposure to early childhood development (ECD) services on the educational transitions of young children. The study determined that children living with biological parents, and parents with higher educational levels, had more opportunities of exposure to community-based ECD programs, had higher success in enrolling in school at an age-appropriate time, and more successfully progressed through the grade levels. For the purposes of this study, data were collected from 535 children and their 535 caregivers in the peri-urban community of Kyanja in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The findings provide a backdrop for a discussion regarding the relationship between home environment life stress events, community ECD services for young children, and the current educational status of children aged eight years. A major focus lies on whether enrolment in ECD can help close the gap created by events in and the structure of the home environment. / Graduate

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.Psych./Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Family and Child Ecology, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on June 19, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-130). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Carol A. Darling, Florida State University, College of Human Sciences, Dept. of Family and Child Sciences. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 9, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 129 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Family and Child Ecology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (Proquest, viewed on Aug. 17, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-146).

Early experience critically shapes cognitive, affective, and behavioral development, and experiences of early life stress (ELS) have been documented to negatively impact developmental trajectories. An increasing need exists for innovative intervention development to ameliorate negative impacts of ELS. Translational neuroscience approaches hold promise for addressing the needs of individuals who have experienced ELS through the development and testing of targeted intervention strategies grounded in neuroscientific knowledge. The current dissertation work employed a translational neuroscience approach to improve inhibitory control (IC) in a group of adolescents (N=20) exposed to a range of ELS via a brief, computerized training paradigm. Baseline analyses of the association between ELS and IC revealed a positive relationship (i.e., increased ELS, increased IC performance), counter to hypotheses. The IC training did not significantly improve IC in the training group compared to the control group over time, contrary to hypotheses and previous work demonstrating the effectiveness of this IC training in young adults. Transfer of training effects to a non-trained IC task and to real-world risk-taking behavior were limited. ELS demonstrated some moderation of neural effects of IC training. The use of neuroimaging in this dissertation work allowed for further investigation of neural mechanisms even in the absence of significant behavioral training, transfer, and moderation effects. Results are discussed in the context of the utility of such IC training approaches for adolescents with ELS exposure and of translational neuroscience approaches more broadly. Future directions for IC training, translational neuroscience intervention approaches, and the incorporation of neuroimaging in this work are explored. This dissertation includes unpublished co-authored material. / 10000-01-01

Early life stress (ELS) affects the developing brain and impacts capacity for self-regulation and risk for psychopathology. The high spatial resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) confers an advantage for studying specific neural regions posited to link ELS with subsequent functioning. The first chapter in this dissertation reviews the literature establishing the feasibility and utility of fMRI research with infants and young children. This chapter examines methodological issues and outlines the potential for this technique to make unique contributions to understanding how ELS influences brain development. The next two chapters present results from a study that employed a functional activation paradigm and resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) to examine associations between a common source of ELS, non-physical interparental conflict, and neural functioning during infancy. The functional activation paradigm focused on emotional tone of voice as a stimulus relevant to interparental conflict, which is likely salient to infants. Higher levels of interparental conflict (as reported by mothers) were associated with infants (6 to 12 months of age) showing greater reactivity to very angry versus neutral tone of voice in neural regions associated with processing and regulation of stress and emotion (hypothalamus and rostral anterior cingulate cortex). The rs-fcMRI analysis examined coordinated neural functioning in the absence of stimuli, focusing on the amygdala as a key region for understanding the impact of ELS and the posterior cingulate cortex as part of a group of regions that show higher levels of activity in the absence of stimuli (the default network). The results replicate previous work characterizing the default network in infants and provide novel evidence for the functional connectivity of the amydgala and amygdala subregions during infancy. Interparental conflict was associated with variation in the connectivity of both regions. Thus levels of interparental conflict were associated with neural reactivity to a stressor-relevant stimulus and with patterns of coordinated neural functioning in the absence of such stimuli. These results provide support for the utility of using fMRI with infants to examine early emerging associations between common forms of ELS and brain functioning. This dissertation includes previously published and co-authored material. / 2016-10-17

abstract: Evidence from the 20th century demonstrated that early life stress (ELS) produces long lasting neuroendocrine and behavioral effects related to an increased vulnerability towards psychiatric illnesses such as major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use disorder. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are complex neurological and behavioral psychiatric illnesses. The development, maintenance, and relapse of SUDs involve multiple brain systems and are affected by many variables, including socio-economic and genetic factors. Pre-clinical studies demonstrate that ELS affects many of the same systems, such as the reward circuitry and executive function involved with addiction-like behaviors. Previous research has focused on cocaine, ethanol, opiates, and amphetamine, while few studies have investigated ELS and methamphetamine (METH) vulnerability. METH is a highly addictive psychostimulant that when abused, has deleterious effects on the user and society. However, a critical unanswered question remains; how do early life experiences modulate both neural systems and behavior in adulthood? The emerging field of neuroepigenetics provides a potential answer to this question. Methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2), an epigenetic tag, has emerged as one possible mediator between initial drug use and the transition to addiction. Additionally, there are various neural systems that undergo long lasting epigenetics changes after ELS, such as the response of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to stressors. Despite this, little attention has been given to the interactions between ELS, epigenetics, and addiction vulnerability. The studies described herein investigated the effects of ELS on METH self-administration (SA) in adult male rats. Next, we investigated the effects of ELS and METH SA on MeCP2 expression in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum. Additionally, we investigated the effects of virally-mediated knockdown of MeCP2 expression in the nucleus accumbens core on METH SA, motivation to obtain METH under conditions of increasing behavioral demand, and reinstatement of METH-seeking in rats with and without a history of ELS. The results of these studies provide insights into potential epigenetic mechanisms by which ELS can produce an increased vulnerability to addiction in adulthood. Moreover, these studies shed light on possible novel molecular targets for treating addiction in individuals with a history of ELS. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2015

abstract: The maternal separation (MS) paradigm is an animal model of early life stress. Animals subjected to MS during the first two weeks of life display altered behavioral and neuroendocrinological stress responses as adults. MS also produces altered responsiveness to and self-administration (SA) of various drugs of abuse including cocaine, ethanol, opioids, and amphetamine. Methamphetamine (METH) causes great harm to both the individual user and to society; yet, no studies have examined the effects of MS on METH SA. This study was performed to examine the effects of MS on the acquisition of METH SA, extinction, and reinstatement of METH-seeking behavior in adulthood. Given the known influence of early life stress and drug exposure on epigenetic processes, group differences in levels of the epigenetic marker methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core were also investigated. Long-Evans pups and dams were separated on postnatal days (PND) 2-14 for either 180 (MS180) or 15 min (MS15). Male offspring were allowed to acquire METH SA (0.05 mg/kg/infusion) in 15 2-hr daily sessions starting at PND67, followed by extinction training and cue-induced reinstatement of METH-seeking behavior. Rats were then assessed for MeCP2 levels in the NAc core by immunohistochemistry. The MS180 group self-administered significantly more METH and acquired SA earlier than the MS15 group. No group differences in extinction or cue-induced reinstatement were observed. MS15 rats had significantly elevated MeCP2-immunoreactive cells in the NAc core as compared to MS180 rats. Together, these data suggest that MS has lasting influences on METH SA as well as epigenetic processes in the brain reward circuitry. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013