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Principal Investigator: MARTHA E WADSWORTH
Organization: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $914,649
Funding agency: National Institute of Mental Health
PROJECT SUMMARY
Levels of adolescent anxiety, depression, and suicidality have been steadily rising over the last decade
and have reached record levels in the wake of the COVID pandemic, prompting declarations of a national
emergency in youth mental health. These alarming trends are especially dramatic for youth living in poverty,
and low-income youth who are members of minoritized racial or ethnic groups and those living in isolated rural
areas, who experienced some of the most severe impacts from the pandemic. The COVID pandemic and its
mitigation efforts exacerbated these disparities by increasing potent stressors such as social isolation, loss,
and family disruptions. Mental health risks evident for diverse low-income adolescents are further compounded
by limited access to culturally affirming services made even scarcer in the pandemic. Waitlists at many youth-
serving clinics approach 12 months, and access to affordable services is even more limited. Equally important
is the dearth of interventions designed specifically to meet the needs of low-income adolescents that are
trauma-informed, and based on inclusive empowerment principles, contextual strength-based frameworks, and
firm empirical evidence. The Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills (BaSICS) program is a trauma-
informed coping and empowerment intervention for early adolescents exposed to chronic stress that (1)
teaches individual and collaborative skills for coping with stress and trauma, (2) develops positive social
identity, and (3) culminates in group-based community action. By building supportive relationships with peers,
improving active engagement coping, fostering identity development, and empowering youth to action, BaSICS
gives adolescents tools with which to address the myriad stressors to which they are exposed.
The proposed work aims to replicate and extend the findings from a smaller-scale trial of BaSICS
where, relative to control group, youth randomized to BaSICS acquired targeted coping and self-regulation
skills and demonstrated improved cortisol reactivity and reduced internalizing problems. The proposed study
will examine treatment effects on depression, anxiety and suicidality in clinically referred youth from four sites
across central Pennsylvania. The proposed project will also extend prior findings by integrating data across
multiple biological stress response systems to further evaluate the potential for BaSICS to re-calibrate
dysregulated stress physiology. Enrolling low-income youth from various racial and ethnic groups and from
urban and rural areas, the trial will enable examination of potential moderators of BaSICS that can inform
future dissemination efforts. The proposed study promises to further NIMH’s Strategic Framework on Youth
Mental Health Disparities by improving our understanding of interventions with potential to reduce mental
health disparities. Adding to our mental health arsenal a biologically potent, targeted intervention that
balances the need for fundamental self-regulation and coping skills with the need for a culturally affirmative
strength and resource building approach, could help move the needle on socioeconomic health disparities.
Terms: <1,4-alpha-D-Glucan glucanohydrolase><Address><Adolescent><Adolescent Youth><Aeroseb-HC><Affect><Affective><Anxiety><Behavior><Behavioral><Biological><Biological Markers><COVID crisis><COVID epidemic><COVID pandemic><COVID-19><COVID-19 crisis><COVID-19 epidemic><COVID-19 era><COVID-19 global health crisis><COVID-19 global pandemic><COVID-19 health crisis><COVID-19 pandemic><COVID-19 period><COVID-19 public health crisis><COVID-19 years><CV-19><Calibration><Cetacort><Child Development><Chronic><Chronic stress><Clinic><Clinical><Cognitive><Community Actions><Community Health Care><Community Healthcare><Control Groups><Coping Skills><Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019><Cort-Dome><Cortef><Cortenema><Cortisol><Cortispray><Cortril><Dermacort><Development><Disease><Disorder><Disparities><Disparity><Early Intervention><Educational process of instructing><Eldecort><Emergencies><Emergency Situation><Emotional Depression><Enrollment><Ethnic Group><Ethnic Origin><Ethnic People><Ethnic Population><Ethnic individual><Ethnicity><Ethnicity People><Ethnicity Population><Exposure to><Family><Fostering><Future><Gender><Geographic Area><Geographic Locations><Geographic Region><Geographical Location><Goals><Hydrocortisone><Hydrocortone><Hyperactivity><Hytone><Impoverished><Individual><Inequality><Infant and Child Development><Informal Social Control><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Justice><Left><Location><Logic><Low income><Mediating><Mediator><Mental Depression><Mental Health><Mental Health Services><Mental Hygiene><Mental Hygiene Services><Mental disorders><Mental health disorders><Methods><Modeling><NIMH><National Institute of Mental Health><Needles><Nutracort><Outcome><Pennsylvania><Physiologic><Physiological><Physiology><Poverty><Proctocort><Psychiatric Disease><Psychiatric Disorder><Psychological Health><Race><Races><Racial Group><Randomized><Research Resources><Resources><Risk><Risk Marker><SARS-CoV-2 epidemic><SARS-CoV-2 global health crisis><SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic><SARS-CoV-2 pandemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 epidemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic><SES disparity><Self Regulation><Services><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 epidemic><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 pandemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic><Site><Social Identification><Social Identity><Social isolation><Stress><Stress and Coping><Surgeon><Symptoms><Syndrome><System><Teaching><Teen><Teenagers><Testing><Time><Trauma><Waiting Lists><Work><Youth><Youth 10-21><adolescent mental health><adolescent trauma><alpha-1,4-D-Glucanglucanohydrolase><alpha-amylase><anxiety symptoms><anxious symptom><bio-markers><biologic><biologic marker><biological adaptation to stress><biomarker><childhood trauma><community care><compare to control><comparison control><confirmatory efficacy trial><confirmatory trial><coping><coping strategy><coping with stress><coronavirus disease 2019><coronavirus disease 2019 crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic><coronavirus disease 2019 global health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 global pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 public health crisis><coronavirus disease crisis><coronavirus disease epidemic><coronavirus disease pandemic><coronavirus disease-19><coronavirus disease-19 global pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 pandemic><coronavirus infectious disease-19><data integration><depression><depression symptom><depressive><depressive symptoms><design><designing><developmental><disparity in health><empowerment><enroll><ethnic subgroup><ethnicity group><experience><geographic site><glycogenase><healing><health disparity><high risk><improved><in vivo><innovate><innovation><innovative><intervention design><interventional strategy><juvenile><juvenile human><marginalization><member><mental health care><mental healthcare><mental illness><non-suicidal self injury><nonsuicidal self injury><pandemic><pandemic disease><pandemic effect><pandemic impact><pandemic outcome><pandemic repercussions><pediatric trauma><peer><physical conditioning><physical health><primary outcome><programs><psychiatric illness><psychological disorder><racial><racial background><racial minority group><racial minority individual><racial minority people><racial minority population><racial origin><racial population><racial subgroup><randomisation><randomization><randomly assigned><reaction; 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