How parents' war experiences affect children's mental health across generations
Official title: Social and Biological Mechanisms Driving the Intergenerational Impact of War on Child Mental Health: Implications for Developing Family-Based Interventions
Funded at Boston College · NIH-11247534 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how parents' experiences of war can shape their children's emotions, behavior, and stress, to help guide family support in conflict-affected communities.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Boston College NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chestnut Hill, United States) |
| Project start | February 10, 2022 |
| Project end | December 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $678,685 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MH128928-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11247534 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are adults who experienced war exposure as children in Sierra Leone, along with their intimate partners and biological offspring.
✕Less likely to help
People without a history of war exposure or those living outside the study communities (e.g., outside Sierra Leone) are unlikely to directly benefit from participation.
What this research studies
If I joined, researchers would follow people who grew up during the war in Sierra Leone and are now parents, collecting information from them, their intimate partners, and their children. They would ask about trauma history, mental health, family relationships, and observe child behavior through interviews and questionnaires. The team would also collect biological measures of stress (for example, hormones or other biomarkers) to see how war-related stress might affect bodies across generations. Results would be used to design family-based supports for communities recovering from conflict.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could inform family-focused programs that reduce trauma-related mental health problems for both parents and their children in war-affected communities.
How similar studies have gone: Long-term follow-up of this cohort has already linked childhood war trauma to adult mental health, but applying biological measures to trace intergenerational effects and design family interventions is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Betancourt, Theresa Stichick — Boston College
- Study coordinator: Betancourt, Theresa Stichick
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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.