Creighton Receives $2.5 Million NIH Grant to Study Consequences of Exposure to Violence in Childhood

Creighton University will receive a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the effects of violence exposure on children with disabilities. The research includes the study of violence observed in the community (street, neighborhood violence, school violence), or at home (domestic violence). The grant will provide approximately $525,402 each year for the next five years.

In its Child Development and Behavior Branch, the NICHD funds research on cognitive, social, and affective development and the effects of child maltreatment and violence exposure on the overall development of children.

The purpose of this project is to determine whether there are long-term adverse mental health consequences to childhood violence exposure among adults with an identified childhood disability. According to Patricia M. Sullivan, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study, a disability includes speech and language disorders, learning and developmental disabilities, physical disorders and hearing and visual impairment. Resiliency to childhood violence exposure will also be studied.

Dr. Sullivan is professor of Neurology and Psychology at Creighton. Other Creighton researchers on the project include C. Timothy Dickel, Ed.D., Ravi Nath, Ph.D., and Gleb Haynatzki, Ph.D.

According to Sullivan, this research is important to study because the long-term effects of violence exposure in childhood are currently unknown. “If we know that exposure to violence at an early age is linked to later mental health problems, we can identify targets for prevention and identify appropriate interventions,” said Dr. Sullivan.