Dr. Huffhines' research focuses on examining biopsychosocial mechanisms linking child maltreatment, maternal trauma, and other types of adversity to mental and physical health outcomes in early childhood and beyond. Additionally, she endeavors to prevent the development of psychopathology and disease in young children growing up with adversity by implementing community-based preventive interventions designed to support caregivers in fostering adaptive emotion regulation in themselves and their little ones.
My interest in investigating mechanisms underlying pathways from early childhood adversity to health outcomes, and how social context affects these pathways, emerged from over a decade of clinical and research endeavors with children exposed to maltreatment. A major theme of my original programmatic line of research is understanding processes of risk and resilience following child maltreatment, and how these processes contribute to various mental and physical health conditions in children living in poverty or in foster care. This culminated in my NICHD-funded dissertation research (F31) which identified links between caregiver and child experiences of adversity and additional risk and protective factors (e.g., family cohesion) to salivary inflammation in preschool-age children. During my postdoctoral fellowship, I received advanced training in behavioral and physiological assessment of emotion regulation; the major aim of my NICHD-funded F32 research was to test emotion regulation (via behavioral coding and heart rate variability) as a mediator of the association between early childhood adversity and inflammation, epigenetic regulation of the immune system, cardiometabolic functioning, and psychiatric difficulties. I was awarded a Thrasher Early Career Award which has allowed me to continue to collect data for this project over time. I also investigate how maternal experiences of adversity and trauma are associated with parenting behaviors, such as maternal sensitivity, and infant and child outcomes.
My original research interests have broadened to encompass the development, refinement, and implementation of effective preventitive interventions to support young children facing adversity. I am currently funded on a K23 award from NICHD, through which I am conducting a cluster randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness and implementability of an enhancement to early care and education programming: reflective supervision. Training early care and education supervisors in this distinct supervisory approach situated within an infant mental health framework may help them better support teachers, in turn optimizing teaching quality and use of evidence-based practices to bolster adaptive emotion regulation in young children living in poverty. This work is motivated in part by the parallel process, or the idea that caring for caregivers facilitates better care for children. I also believe that early care and education programs are an ideal setting for systems-based preventive interventions, and that with additional support, positive benefits of these programs can be fully realized and young children can thrive.
Rannís: Icelandic Research Fund (Co-PIs: Huffhines & Ásgeirsdóttir). The role of social support in non-offending caregivers of sexually abused children and subsequent child mental health outcomes. 2013-2017.
NICHD National Research Service Award (F31HD088020, PI: Huffhines). Biological indicators of trauma in foster youth: The role of social support. Primary Sponsor: Yo Jackson. Co-Sponsors: Audrey Tyrka, Nancy Berman, Wei Wu. 2017-2018.
NIMH NRSA Research Training Program in Child Mental Health (T32MH019927, PI: Spirito). Role: Fellow. Primary Mentor: Stephanie Parade. 2019-2020.
NICHD National Research Service Award (F32HD100020, PI: Huffhines). Emotional and physiological regulation linking child maltreatment to health risk. Primary Sponsor: Stephanie Parade. Co-Sponsors: Ronald Seifer, Audrey Tyrka, Leslie Brick, Laurie Wideman. 2020-2022.
Thrasher Early Career Research Award (PI: Huffhines). How and for whom does adversity lead to childhood obesity: A mediated moderation analysis. Primary Mentor: Stephanie Parade. 2020-2022.
National Institute of Justice Award (JX-FX-0003; Co-PIs: Schweer-Collins and Dierkhising). Exploring Pathways to Desistance and Adjustment in Adulthood Among Juvenile Justice-Involved Females. Role: Consultant. 2021-2023
NICHD Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23HD107243, PI: Huffhines). Enhancing early care and education through reflective supervision to promote adaptive emotion regulation in young children. Primary Mentor: Stephanie Parade. 2022-2027
