Betty Lin
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
University at Albany, State of New York Albany, New York
Blin6@albany.edu
Fellowship Project: Legacy effects of historical redlining on Black maternal life course heavy metal exposure and maternal-infant health.
Dr. Betty Lin’s research focuses on clarifying why children with social disadvantage experience disparities in mental and physical health outcomes. She is especially interested in how social and environmental factors related to social disadvantage (e.g., stress and distress, racism and discrimination) influence children’s social and emotional development beginning as early as the prenatal and early childhood years. Her research investigates (1) how early life social and environmental exposures may calibrate children’s developing stress response systems, (2) how children’s stress responsivity in turn may transact with child, family, and community factors to confer risk, resilience, and/or adaptation, and (3) how these processes may contribute to the health disparities in marginalized populations. Her research addresses how this stress responsivity may manifest behaviorally, such as in children’s temperament, and physiologically, such as in children’s sympathetic, parasympathetic, and adrenocortical responding. Ultimately, the goal of her research is to clarify the developmental processes that promote health and well-being in children with social disadvantage.
This project aims to investigate the persistent racial disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes among Black individuals in the United States. Despite maternal sociodemographic factors, Black individuals still face higher rates of preterm birth, low birth weight, and maternal mortality compared to their non-Black counterparts. The study seeks to understand the underlying determinants of these disparities, including the impact of multi-level stressors and promotive factors across the life course on physiological stress dysregulation and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA). The research team plans to follow 350 Black mothers and their infants from pregnancy through the first postpartum year to explore the intergenerational consequences of stress exposure on maternal and infant health.
