How early life experiences shape teens' body awareness and emotion skills

Emotional Granularity and Interoceptive Accuracy: Affective Skills Linking Dimensions of Childhood Adversity with Adolescent Stress Vulnerability

['FUNDING_OTHER'] · CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV-DOMINGUEZ HILLS · NIH-11173803

This project looks at whether early-life neglect or threat change how children and teens notice bodily signals and name feelings, and how that relates to stress vulnerability.

Quick facts

Phase['FUNDING_OTHER']
Study typeNih_funding
SexAll
SponsorCALIFORNIA STATE UNIV-DOMINGUEZ HILLS (nih funded)
Locations1 site (CARSON, UNITED STATES)
Trial IDNIH-11173803 on ClinicalTrials.gov

What this research studies

From your point of view, researchers will compare young people with different kinds of childhood adversity to see how that history relates to how they sense their bodies and label emotions. You may be asked to do lab tasks that track heartbeat or other body signals, complete emotion-labeling exercises, and answer questionnaires about stress and past experiences. The team will link those measures to emotional reactions during mild stress tasks and follow changes over time. The goal is to figure out whether different adversity types (deprivation versus threat) relate to different emotional skills that affect stress risk.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: Ideal participants are children and adolescents with histories of early-life deprivation or threat, roughly in the teen age range, who can attend lab visits and complete tasks and questionnaires.

Not a fit: People without a history of childhood adversity, adults outside the study's age range, or those seeking immediate clinical treatment should not expect direct personal benefit from participation.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, this work could point to new ways to teach teens body-awareness and emotion labeling to lower their stress-related mental health risks.

How similar studies have performed: Prior studies have linked childhood adversity to stress sensitivity and shown ties between interoception/emotion labeling and mental health, but applying these ideas specifically to deprivation versus threat in youth is relatively new.

Where this research is happening

CARSON, UNITED STATES

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.

View on NIH RePORTER →

Last reviewed 2026-05-15 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.