Charting how a mother’s depression affects a child’s positive feelings to predict early signs of anxiety or depression
Official title: Charting Positive Valence Systems Trajectories in Offspring of Depressed Mothers to Predict Internalizing Symptoms in Early Childhood
Funded at Pennsylvania State University, the · NIH-11381793 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project follows young children of mothers with depression to see how early changes in reward processing relate to later internalizing symptoms.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Pennsylvania State University, the NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (University Park, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2024 |
| Project end | June 30, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $765,486 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MH134870-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11381793 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are children aged preschool to early elementary with a mother who has experienced depression.
✕Less likely to help
Children without exposure to maternal depression or who do not show early risk markers may have limited direct benefit from this specific trajectory study.
What this research studies
If your child was born to a mother with depression, researchers will track how your child’s responses to rewarding experiences develop over time using a multi-method, long-term study. They will collect behavioral measures, brain-based assessments, and family information in an accelerated timeline to map trajectories from preschool through early childhood. The goal is to identify early warning patterns so that families and clinicians can prevent anxiety and depressive symptoms before they appear.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Understanding early risk markers could lead to targeted prevention strategies for children at high risk of internalizing disorders.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work shows altered reward processing linked to internalizing symptoms, with stronger effects in younger children; this study advances by tracking trajectories from preschool onward.
Where this research is happening
-
Pennsylvania State University, the
University Park, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Burkhouse, Katie L — Pennsylvania State University, the
- Study coordinator: Burkhouse, Katie L
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.