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INFORMATION FOR

Consortium on Stress, Trauma, Adversity and Resilience (CSTAR)

The Consortium is a group of faculty and fellows from across Yale from a variety of disciplines all interested in the impact of early life stress, adversity, and trauma on development. With representation from departments of Child Study Center, Psychiatry, Nursing, Public Health, Pediatrics, Psychology, Neurobiology, Economics, Genetics, and Obstetrics, the Consortium meets to share ideas, develop new collaborative projects and support ongoing efforts to conduct cutting-edge training, research, intervention, and dissemination of new knowledge.

The mission of this consortium is research and training to understand the causes, correlates, and impact of the range of early childhood adversities, stress, and trauma on development (from prenatal through late life) from the individual to the population level and to translate these findings into progress in prevention, treatment, and policy. The Consortium’s research and training efforts span basic science, including cross-species models of risk and resilience that help to identify neurobiological underpinnings of stress and resilience, to prevention and intervention development. By thinking and working across disciplines, the Consortium can advance the field in ways that go beyond what is possible in siloed projects or studies. Bringing together a broad range of expertise and interdisciplinary efforts, the Consortium has unique capacity to adopt an integrative perspective that advances understanding of how stress, adversity, and trauma impact human health. This understanding will inform the development, testing, and dissemination of interventions to prevent and address the impacts of adversity.

The consortium is organized into three interdependent pillars: population science, neurobiology, intervention development and implementation science.

Pillars

  • Population Science

    Dr. Kieran O’Donnell, Chair

    Why do some children who experience adverse life experiences develop significant symptoms, psychosocial difficulties, and long-term disease, while others recover and continue with good health? The Consortium seeks to identify mechanisms that lead to poor outcomes and, conversely, the skills that can promote positive outcomes, adopting a Person-to-Population approach. A primary goal of the Population Science pillar is to bring together cohorts and data resources that provide deeper insight on the impact of adversity stress and trauma on human health.

  • Neurobiology

    Dr. Dylan Gee, Chair

    How does exposure to adversity “get under the skin” to influence child development and mental health? The Consortium applies a range of cutting-edge approaches to answer fundamental questions about the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms through which adversity impacts mental health. We integrate across key disciplines to understand how adversity alters brain development, stress reactivity and regulation, and mental health. By examining genetic, epigenetic, physiological, and neural pathways, we aim to uncover the neurobiological and psychological foundations of risk and resilience. Through translational approaches, we aim to identify sensitive periods and mechanisms that can be leveraged to inform clinical and policy applications to improve mental health for children facing adversity.

  • Intervention Development and Implementation Science

    Dr. Carla S. Stover, Chair

    What are the most effective ways to promote healing and treat mental health disorders following stress, trauma and/or adversity? The Consortium focuses on the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions for all stages of prevention and treatment. Consortium members develop, test, and disseminate evidence based and best practice interventions. State-of-the-art interventions are provided to yield the best outcomes for families. Consortium studies span needs assessment and pilot intervention development through full-scale dissemination studies.

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Consortium Collaborative Publications

Arnsten, A. Condon, E. M., Dettmer, A. M., Gee, D. G., Hagan, C., Lee, K. S., Mayes, L. C., Stover, C.S. . . . Tseng, W.-L. (2021). The Prefrontal Cortex in a Pandemic: Restoring Functions with System-, Family-, and Individual-Focused Interventions, American Psychologist.

Condon, E. M., Dettmer, A. M., Gee, D. G., Hagan, C., Lee, K. S., Mayes, L. C., Stover, C.S. . . . Tseng, W.-L. (2020). Commentary: COVI-19 and mental health equity in the United States. Frontiers in Sociology, 5(99). doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2020.584390

Condon EM, Dettmer A, Baker E, McFaul C, Stover CS. (2023). Early life adversity and males: Biology, behavior, and implications for fathers' parenting. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104531. Epub 2022 Jan 19. PMID: 35063493; PMCID: PMC9236197.

Stover, C. S., Tobon, A. L., McFaul, C., & Gorio, M. C. F. (2022). A conceptual understanding of intimate partner violence behaviors in men: implications for research and intervention. Aggression and violent behavior, 65, 101763.

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