John P Allegrante, PhD, MS

Multilevel Analysis on the Effects of Stress on Biology, Emotions and Behaviour throughout Childhood (Inga Dora Sigfusdottir, PhD, PI), Iceland: This activity extends an ongoing program of observational and intervention research with Icelandic behavioral and social scientists, the overall goal of which has been to investigate risk and protective factors in childhood and adolescent health. In a series of studies that have been conducted with support from the U.S. Fulbright Program and the Icelandic Research Fund, we have analyzed population-based data from the Youth in Iceland surveys to investigate various health behaviors and their relationship to health status and health outcomes. The work has informed population-wide policy, translation, and scaling of community-based approaches to improving child and adolescent health in Iceland, Nordic Europe and other countries, as well as new methodological innovations. Grants from the European Research Council and Icelandic Research fund currently support LIFECOURSE (Longitudinal Investigation For Epidemiologic Causes and OUtcomes RiSing in Early Childhood and Adolescence), an ongoing prospective study whose aim is to to improve our understanding of the interplay between biological, environmental, and social factors that influence the development of harmful behaviors in adolescents.

Anxiety Culture (John P. Allegrante, PhD, and Ulrich Hoinkes, PhD, PIs), Multiple European countries and the United States: This interdisciplinary activity brings together a broad range of global scholars in the humanities, sciences, and behavioral and social sciences to understand how cultural anxiety can be better understood in the context of the pressing planetary challenges of climate change, population health, migration, and technological change. The NIMH estimates that 31 percent of adults will experience an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. We know a lot about the term "anxiety" as a medical idiom at the individual, clinical level. What we do not know much about is what anxiety looks like and what its effects are at cultural and social levels. Thus, the challenge is to recognize the contours of this kind of anxiety as heuristic and the extent to which it is a mixture of both public discourse and social action. The project seeks to develop the conceptual language and middle-range theoretical framework with which to understand anxiety culture.

Coronavirus: Impact on Adolescent Mental Health Problems and Harmful Behaviors (Thorhildur Halldorsdottir, PhD, PI), Iceland: The coronavirus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic intersects with rising adolescent mental health problems and harmful behaviors, such as depressed mood, anxiety, and self-harm, and suicidal behavior. Addressing this pressing public health concern, the overarching objective of this project is to determine what psychological, environmental and genetic factors contribute to adolescent mental health and behaviors during COVID-19. The goals are to: 1) Examine the short- and long-term effect of COVID-19 on adolescent mental health and behavior; 2) Identify risk and protective factors associated with short- and long-term adolescent mental health problems and harmful behaviors during COVID-19; and 3) Determine the genetic contribution towards mental health problems and harmful behaviors in adolescents following COVID-19. Participants comprise 2,378 adolescents (61% of youth born in Iceland in 2004) in the one-of-a-kind longitudinal population-based LIFECOURSE cohort in which extensive social survey data, including four-waves of survey data collected during the pandemic, are coupled with genotypes and official data from the unique Icelandic health and developmental registries.