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• ALSPAC Social Science Research Newsletter

Current Research

The following is a list of research project titles currently on-going with ALSPAC which may be of interest to a social science audience (the full list contains a longer list of projects mainly on medical / genetic topics).  The project titles are loosely organised under topic headings, however many projects could equally be listed under several headings, so these should only be taken as a general guide.  For further details of any of these projects, please contact the ALSPAC Executive (alspac-exec@bristol.ac.uk).

Socio-economic

• An ESRC Centre: An examination of the impact of family socio-economic status on outcomes in late childhood and adolescence

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Parenting and Family Dynamics

• A pilot study to establish the reliability of parental targeted video material for studies of social communication in early childhood.
• Long term effects of bed sharing by mothers and infants
• Parenting in ordinary families - diversity, complexity and change development
• Long and short term health impact of parent child relationships
• To identify social and behavioural determinants on non-recommended infant feeding patterns: the ALSPAC birth cohort study
• Maternal Stress Theory
• Association between parents' weekend working patterns, child outcomes and family cohesion.
• Sibling competition for family resources, child development and the determinants of fertility: an evolutionary analysis of British families.
• Contact with kin and childhood development trajectories in contemporary British families
• When you have another baby? An event history analysis of the reproductive decisions of contemporary British mothers.

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Education

• Socio-economic patterning of cognitive function in children.
• The determination of affective and cognitive outcomes of primary school children in Avon. 
• Schools project extension
• ALSPAC Maths Data
• Children in Poverty: aspirations, expectations and attitudes to education
• The demand and supply of schooling.
• The Avon Secondary Schools Project
• Reducing emotional distress in adolescence: the role of the school in influencing vulnerability and resilience

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Language

• Profiling children who stutter
• An investigation of language-impairment and dyslexia associated SNPs within the general population
• Genetic and environmental influences in speech and language development and disorder.
• The communicating teenager! Investigating the role of language and literacy in the employability and social success of the young people of ALSPAC (at 17+ years)
• Gene x gene and gene x environment interactions underlying speech, language and reading development
• The origins and outcomes of persisting phonological impairment.

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Developmental and Behavioural Disorders / Disabilities

• The prevalence, associations and impact of developmental coordination disorder within ALSPAC.
• A longitudinal study of emotional symptoms based on the SDQ
• Hyperactivity and ADHD in ALSPAC
• Genome-wide association study of developmental dyslexia
• Diagnosing Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Health and Social Implications
• Identifying psychosocial risk factors associated with the developmental outcomes of children with and without autism
• The aetiology of traits contributing to autism and the autistic spectrum disorders.

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Child Behavioural Problems

• Antisocial behaviour in girls (BAT Study)
• Antecedents of attention deficit and hyperactive behaviour in childhood
• Adolescent onset conduct problems: a biopsychosocial model of risk.
• Cognition as an explanatory factor in socioeconomic inequalities in emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents

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Mental Health and Psychological Well-being

• Sleep, Stress and Mental Health
• A study of psychosis-like symptoms (PLIKS) in 17-year old adolescents in ALSPAC
• Developmental antecedents of borderline personality disorders
• The ontogeny of paranoid delusions
• The structure and origins of schizotypal personality traits in adolescence
• The predictive validity of infant temperament on childhood mental health problems
• Does impaired autobiographical memory mediate associations between traumatic life events in childhood and subsequent depression and self-harm?
• Research fellowship including ALSPAC analyses.
• Prevalence of borderline personality disorder in children.
• The epidemiology and outcome of psychosis-like symptoms in children
• The association between social functioning, social cognition and psychosis-like symptoms in the ALSPAC birth cohort
• Pathways to depression from birth to late adolescence: A model integrating genes, psychological and social risk factors using a large birth cohort (ALSPAC) in Avon
• Meta-analyses of genetic association studies of psychiatric disorders.
• An investigation of genetic epidemiological risk factors for psychotic like symptoms in adolescent birth cohort.
• Combined depression and head injury at 17+
• The longitudinal course of depressive symptoms from late childhood to early adolescence and the association with socio-demographic and family factors
• Genetic and environmental influences on the link between mood and anxiety problems in childhood and substance use in
• adolescence
• Physical activity and depression in mothers from a community (ALSPAC) sample
• Development of depression and smoking in adolescents
• Victimisation in childhood and borderline personality disorder in a non-clinical population of 11 year olds: results from the ALSPAC birth cohort
• Children's attitudes and experiences of race, racism and inter-relationships

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Addiction and Substance Miss-use (in parents and children)

• Prediction of drinking outcomes in ALSPAC
• Prediction of drinking outcomes in ALSPAC: An update
• Alcohol consumption and the outcomes of pregnancy.
• Effects of prenatal alcohol consumption and alcohol metabolising genes on child growth and neurodevelopment
• Genetic and environmental influences on developmental trajectories of alcohol use, misue and related behaviours
• Maternal and paternal alcohol use in pregnancy
• Prenatal exposure to alcohol and the development of conduct problems in childhood and adolescence
• The influence of prenatal alcohol exposure on childhood behaviour and learning
• Variants in the cannabinoid receptor gene and their influence on alcohol and drug consumption
• The influence of prenatal alcohol exposure on childhood behaviour and learning
• Objective quantitative stratification of cannabis exposure in ALSPAC using hair-based biomarkers: pilot study
• HLA and smoking
• The role of genotype and maternal smoking during pregnancy on offspring smoking initiation
• Cigarette Smoking and Psychopathology: Genetic and environmental effects on initiation and cessation among children and mothers in the ALSPAC cohort
• The nature of the association between alcohol consummation and depression over time: an investigation using data on mothers and their partners from in ALSPAC
• Qualitative survey of use of cannabis and tobacco among adolescents in ALSPAC - towards assessing feasibility of developing and extending a tobacco peer-led intervention (ASSIST) to preventing cannabis and tobacco use

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Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment

• The impact of domestic violence during pregnancy on child development
• The intergenerational transmission of violence and pro-violence attitudes in the ALSPAC cohort

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Romantic Relationships and Sexual Behaviour

• Sexually transmitted infections and sexual behaviour in an adolescent cohort
• Investigating the development of romantic and sexual activity in early adolescence

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Social Networks

• The economics of social networks: their evolution, economic function and dynamic implications
• Technology use, privacy and teenagers

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Child development

• Avon Adolescent Development Project
• DANVA analysis
• Lifestyle and changes in body composition through puberty: a resource for a study of gene-environment interactions.
• Analysis of Triangle Test, Skuse, IQ and cognition. Y13b data
• Somatic and cognitive/neurodevelopmental trajectory in childhood
• Being 16 Camera project

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Physical Health Studies

• The influence of social and family factors on the developmental effects of persistent otitis media with effusion
• Social deprivation and respiratory health.  Life course perspective
• Socioeconomic deprivation and respiratory health
• Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequalities in maternal and child health and health care in 2 populations: Pelotas birth cohorts (1982,1993,2004) and ALSPAC.
• Investigation of relationship between habitual levels of physical activity
• Exposure to outdoor air pollution, asthma and lung function
• Genetics of dyslexia
• Long-term effects of prenatal and early postnatal stress.
• The effect of early childhood exposure to lead on neurodevelopment and behaviour of school age children.
• An investigation into the relationship between Charles de Coti Marsh's teaching and the use of complementary medicine products, supplements and dietary habits of children (and parents?) within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).
• Early determinants of dietary salt intake. The association of sodium intake in infancy with blood pressure in later life. Maternal iron status during pregnancy and offspring blood pressure.
• Can occupation influence the development of asthma and respiratory problems in                       partners and children?
• Gene/environment and gene/gene interactions in childhood conduct disorder and ADHD in a large, longitudinally studied child cohort. ii) Gene/environment and gene/gene interactions in anxiety/dysphoria in ALSPAC children.
• Public health consequences of modifiable maternal exposures: offspring obesity and cognitive health in the UK and Brazil

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Health - Genetic and Environmental influences on health outcomes

• Genetic and environmental determinants of arterial function in childhood: insight in to causal pathways
• Gene and environmental influences on childhood asthma: STELAR (Study Team for Early Life Asthma Research) collaboration
• Association between the beta3-adrenergic receptor gene (ADRB3) Trp64 Arg variant and childhood obesity risk.
• Salt, blood pressure and WNK genes in children and mothers: a study aimed at informing preventive and treatment strategies for high blood pressure.
• Genetic and environmental risk-factors for myopia in the ALSPAC study cohort
• Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and lung function in childhood using Mendelian randomisation in ALSPAC.

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Accidents and Injuries - influencing factors

• Road traffic accident analyses
• Environmental and personal risk of accidental injury to young children in the home.
• Individual and neighbourhood influences on accidents to school aged children in the ALSPAC cohort
• Neighbourhood and household influences on injuries to preschool children.
• Epidemiology of injuries in primary school aged kids
• Teenage pregnancy, housing and accidents

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Nutrition

• Effect of diet on the mental performance of children
• Dietary patterns in early childhood and IQ
• Fish consumption, mercury, omega-3 fatty acids and neurocognitive outcomes.
• Diet, IGF and cancer risk: an inter-generational investigation.
• Associations in the diet and physical activity patterns of 11 year old children: Avon longitudinal study of Parents and Children
• Disordered eating in adolescence: a longitudinal study of risk factors
• Physical and psychological development of children born to women with eating disorders (NB need details of project)
• Investigation of associations between socio-economic position and food, nutrients and obesity in primary school children: the influence of parents.

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Physical Activity

• Physical activity, fitness and childhood obesity
• Physical activity and obesity and cardiovascular risk
• Obesity prevention via physical activity promotion in school: associations between habitual physical activity and executive function in the ALSPAC cohort
• Neighbourhood variations in child physical activity: The role of area definition

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Aging

• Mapping the changing face of society.  The new dynamics of aging - an interdisciplinary research programme

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Methodology

• European Cohort Network (EUCCONET)
• Acknowledging Model Uncertainty in Social Science