Project Number: R01HD111642
Principal Investigator: Cathi Propper, PhD
Funded by: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Dates: September 1, 2024 – June 30, 2028
Dr. Cathi Propper, an associate professor at the UNC School of Nursing and faculty fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, has been awarded an NIH R01 grant totaling $2,656,378. The project, titled “Early Education, School Readiness, and Early School Success Among Children in Poverty: Exploring the Role of Parasympathetic Function in the Preschool Classroom,” aims to investigate how psychophysiological functioning, particularly the parasympathetic nervous system, impacts school readiness and early success among low-income children.
The study will recruit 270 children from approximately 30 preschool classrooms. Participants will undergo school readiness assessments and classroom observations, during which cardiac data will be collected to analyze the interplay between teacher behavior and children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). This research seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of how children’s physiological responses to classroom environments influence their academic outcomes.
Other Key Personnel:
- Dr. Iheoma U. Iruka – Research Professor and Fellow, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Dr. Baiming Zou – Associate Professor, School of Nursing, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Dr. Steven Holochwost – Associate Professor, Research Foundation/CUNY on behalf of Lehman College
- Dr. Jennifer Coffman – Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, UNC-Greensboro
