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FPG Faculty Fellow awarded NIH R01 Grant

cathi propper

FPG Faculty Fellow awarded NIH R01 Grant

September 25, 2024

Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) Faculty Fellow Cathi Propper, PhD, an associate professor at the UNC School of Nursing, has been awarded a new 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.”
 
Working with Propper are Iheoma Iruka, PhD, faculty fellow and founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at FPG, and professor in the Department of Maternal Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Baiming Zou, PhD, from the UNC School of Nursing, Steven Holochwost, PhD, from the Research Foundation/CUNY on behalf of Lehman College, and Jennifer Coffman, PhD, from UNC-Greensboro.
 
This research aims to explore how psychophysiological functioning impacts school readiness and early success, particularly among low-income children. 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. This study is the first to include naturalistic observations and cardiac monitoring in pre-K classrooms, focusing on the parasympathetic nervous system. The research will provide valuable insights into how children’s responses to teacher behavior can influence their readiness for school and later academic success.
 
Read the full story from the UNC School of Nursing, “Cathi Propper awarded NIH R01 grant.”