Understanding the effects of stress from adolescence to adulthood

Originally called the Young Adolescent Project (YAP), this is a 20-year study that began at the University of Southern California. Participants were between 9 and 11 years old when they enrolled. It is currently collaboration between the University of Southern California and Kaiser Permanente, and we are continuing to study the effects of stress, now with young adults.

The study is being led by Sonya Negriff, PhD, a research scientist in the Department of Research & Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

 

Want more information?


Email us at yap@kp.org

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call us at
1-833-242-8496

 

We now want to study how changes to the body’s stress response in adolescence impacts health in young adulthood

We’re contacting previous participants to help us identify factors that may protect the body’s response to stress.

We’re asking participants to complete online questionnaires to assess physical and mental health, as well as attend one in-clinic visit to collect physical measurements and samples (blood & hair).

This current phase of the study is funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

We recently studied how COVID-19-related stress affected young adults

We contacted participants between December 2020 through June 2022 to help us learn about the impacts of stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the “safer-at-home” policies.

Participants completed an online survey about their experiences and feelings during the COVID-19 pandemic and provided a saliva sample to help us learn how pandemic-related stress might affect how genes are turned on or off (gene expression).

We’re finalizing the data from the COVID-19-related stress study and will share results soon.

What we learned in the early stages of the study

Our findings were shared in 59 publications, on topics such as:

  • The effect of good sleep on mental health
  • How stress in young people can affect their long-term health
  • The mental and health effects of stress and recovery from it
  • The health and well-being of children who were in foster care
  • The importance of social support for children’s health
    See a summary of our findings  or read the article.