Stress has known impacts on child health and development, but there is a very little research examining these effects outside of Euro-American populations. Local eco-cultural context is also frequently ignored, despite its demonstrated influence on the patterning of sociocultural, cognitive, and physical development. These oversights have resulted in a biased and incomplete understanding of “normal” child development. Both stress and childhood are conceived and experienced differently across cultures and individuals, and we cannot untangle the effects of stress on child health and development without understanding what constitutes a local stressor, the pacing of childhood (i.e., cultural age categories), and the ways these intersect in a given environment.
I have two primary lines of inquiry under this umbrella: 1) the impact of cultural and physical stressors on biomarker patterning and developmental trajectories across childhood and 2) the socioecological determinants of childhood health and growth. In order to evaluate these, a wide variety of data are necessary and my research includes: ethnographic data on cultural age categories, cognitive transitions, and social development; cultural and physical stressors, from both adults’ and children’s perspectives; anthropometrics and health interviews/illness histories; and collection of hair samples to assess biomarkers associated with health and child development (cortisol and DHEAS). I collect these data among Sidama agropastoralists of Ethiopia and Aka forest foragers and Ngandu horticulturalists in the Central African Republic (see Fieldsites for more information).
Potential projects for interested undergraduate and graduate students include those focused on behavioral endocrinology, nutritional status, cross-cultural or evolutionary investigations of childhood, and effects of environmental instability (including economic development and civil warfare), among many others. As child health and development are intertwined with the local eco-cultural context, it is only by taking a longitudinal and multi-faceted approach that we can evaluate effects of stress and appropriately intervene to improve global child outcomes. If you're interested in working with me on any of these (or related) projects, please contact me.
I have two primary lines of inquiry under this umbrella: 1) the impact of cultural and physical stressors on biomarker patterning and developmental trajectories across childhood and 2) the socioecological determinants of childhood health and growth. In order to evaluate these, a wide variety of data are necessary and my research includes: ethnographic data on cultural age categories, cognitive transitions, and social development; cultural and physical stressors, from both adults’ and children’s perspectives; anthropometrics and health interviews/illness histories; and collection of hair samples to assess biomarkers associated with health and child development (cortisol and DHEAS). I collect these data among Sidama agropastoralists of Ethiopia and Aka forest foragers and Ngandu horticulturalists in the Central African Republic (see Fieldsites for more information).
Potential projects for interested undergraduate and graduate students include those focused on behavioral endocrinology, nutritional status, cross-cultural or evolutionary investigations of childhood, and effects of environmental instability (including economic development and civil warfare), among many others. As child health and development are intertwined with the local eco-cultural context, it is only by taking a longitudinal and multi-faceted approach that we can evaluate effects of stress and appropriately intervene to improve global child outcomes. If you're interested in working with me on any of these (or related) projects, please contact me.
