Rochester Child Health Studies

The second of two Rochester Child Health studies was launched in 2007 with a program grant from the NICHD. It follows approximately 200 families for 3 years to understand how social context, psychosocial influences, and family factors shape child immune health. This was the second of two NICHD-supported child health studies to understand the behavioral and social influences on immune health in young children.  Key findings to emerge from the study include a) a first demonstration that parent-child relationship quality predicts antibody response to vaccination; b) robust evidence that stress compromises health and immune function even in young children.

Our ongoing work on this project has been supported by the NICHD and the Wynne Center for Family Research.

The group of investigators includes Drs. Mary Caserta, Tom O’Connor, Jan Moynihan, and Peter Wyman.

Representative Publications

Caserta, M.T., O’Connor, T.G., Wyman, P.A., Wang, H., Moynihan, J., Cross, W., Tu, X., Jin, X. (2008). The associations between psychosocial stress and the frequency of illness, and innate and adaptive immune function in children. Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 22, 933-940. PMID: 18308510

Caserta, M.T., Wyman, P.A., Wang, H., Moynihan, J., & O'Connor, T.G. (2011). Associations among depression, perceived self-efficacy and immune function and health in preadolescent children. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 1139-1147. PMID 22018086

O’Connor, T.G., Wang, H., Moynihan, J.A., Wyman, P.A., Carnahan, J., Lofthus, G., Quataert, S.A., Bowman, M., Burke, A.S., & Caserta, M.T. (2015). Observed parent-child relationship quality predicts antibody response to vaccination in children. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 48, 265-273. PMID 25862953.

O’Connor, T.G., Wang, H., Moynihan, J.A., Wyman, P.A., Carnahan, J., Lofthus, G., Quataert, S.A., Bowman, M., Burke, A.S., & Caserta, M.T. (2015). Observed parent-child relationship quality predicts antibody response to vaccination in children. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 48, 265-273. PMID 25862953.

O'Connor, T.G., Moynihan, J.A., Wyman, P.A., Carnahan, J., Lofthus, G., Quataert, S.A., Bowman, M., & Caserta, M.T. (2014). Depressive symptoms and immune response to meningococcal conjugate vaccine in early adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 26, 1567-1576. PMID 25422979

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