Tracing the Impact of Evolving Environmental Exposure to Tobacco, Cannabis, and Nicotine Smoke and Vapor Emissions on Children's Mental Health Symptom Trajectories

The project will use the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) dataset, a large, national sample of longitudinal, observational data, to accomplish two main aims. First, it will characterize environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), electronic nicotine delivery systems vapor (ENV), and environmental cannabis smoke (ECS) emission exposure subgroups at five timepoints: prenatal period, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. This includes identifying sociodemographic and primary caregiver mental health characteristics associated with exposure group membership and specifying stability and changes in exposure group transitions across these developmental periods to delineate trajectories. Second, the project will examine how exposure during the prenatal period predicts trajectories of internalizing and externalizing symptoms across early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. The research will account for co-occurring smoke and vapor longitudinally and potential confounds such as maternal psychological stress.