Gillings School and UNC Chapel Hill Researchers receive new grant
September 27, 2024
By Carolina Nursing
Dr. Cathi Propper
Cathi Propper, PhD, has been awarded a new National Institute of Health (NIH) R01 grant of $2,656,378 for a project titled, “Early Education, School Readiness, and Early School Success Among Children in Poverty: Exploring the Role of Parasympathetic Function in the Preschool Classroom.” Running from September 1, 2024, to June 30, 2028, this research aims to explore how psychophysiological functioning impacts school readiness and early success, particularly among low-income children.
Dr. Iheoma U. Iruka
The study will address gaps in understanding how these factors influence early academic outcomes. Current studies have mainly focused on cognitive assessments, often overlooking the social-emotional characteristics and the psychophysiological responses of children in classroom settings. This research intends to bridge that gap by recruiting a diverse sample of 270 children from 30 preschool classrooms.
The children will undergo school readiness assessments and be observed in their classroom environments, with cardiac data collected to provide insights into the interplay between teacher behavior and children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). This will help predict school readiness and early school success, offering a more comprehensive understanding of how children respond to different teaching methods.
Key personnel involved in this study include Dr. Iheoma U. Iruka from the Gillings School of Global Public Health and Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Dr. Baiming Zou from the UNC School of Nursing, Dr. Steven Holochwost from the Research Foundation/CUNY on behalf of Lehman College and Dr. Jennifer Coffman from UNC-Greensboro.
This study is the first to include naturalistic observations and cardiac monitoring in preK classrooms, focusing on the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The research will provide valuable insights into how children’s responses to teacher behavior can influence their readiness for school and later academic success.
Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.
