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Noll Lab

Current Studies & Representative Projects

Female Growth and Development Study

The Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS) began in 1987 and the PIs have retained 96% of this sample of females with substantiated sexual abuse and matched comparisons (N=173) in an accelerated longitudinal, cross-sequential design spanning 6 timepoints (T1-T6). A multi-level, bio-psycho-social assessment was repeated three times in childhood/early adolescence (mean ages 11, 12 & 13), twice in late adolescence (mean ages 18 & 19), and once in early adulthood (mean age 24). Over 90% of offspring were assessed at T6 (N=123; mean age 4). Recently, FGDS was awarded additional funding from NICHD to conduct T7 and T8 assessments when the sample will be mean aged 38 (range 30-44) and 40 (range 32-46) respectively.

New data collection for a recently NIA grant added (1) ecologically valid inquiry into resilient versus maladaptive coping with daily life stressors, (2) fine-grained cognitive assessments (i.e., working memory, attention inhibition, processing speed, fluid reasoning, associative memory and long-term retrieval) that prognosticate premature cognitive aging, and (3) potentially malleable behavioral health targets that could be intervened upon to reverse the impact of allostatic load on long-term physical and cognitive wellbeing.

Representative Publication: Trickett, P. K., Noll, J. G., Susman, E. J., Shenk, C. E., & Putnam, F. W. (2010). Attenuation of cortisol across development for victims of sexual abuse. Development and psychopathology, 22(1), 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409990332

 

TechnoTeens

The majority of US adolescents aged 12-18 have regular access to the internet and a significant portion engage in High-risk Internet Behaviors (HRIBs) including online exposure to sexually explicit content and engaging in online social behaviors that could lead to internet-initiated victimization. Current internet safety programs rely heavily on parental monitoring as a primary means of protecting teens yet over 40% of teen internet users report unwanted exposure to sexual content with another 20% admitting to intentionally seeking online pornographic materials. Moreover, an increasing number of parents allow their kids to over-report their age in order to be granted access to social networking sites—places where risky online social behaviors such as divulging personal identifying information and posting sexually provocative self-descriptors increase vulnerability for online exploitation, and where most internet-initiated sex crimes originate. Extant internet safety studies are highly criticized for reliance on adolescent self-reports. Hence, there is limited objective knowledge about the magnitude and impact of HRIBs and, of equal importance, which teens might be the most susceptible. Our research shows that sexually abused adolescents may be especially vulnerable to HRIBs because these victims demonstrate a greater propensity toward pornography consumption, provocative online self-presentations, online sexual advances, offline meetings, risky sexual behaviors and sexual revictimization than do their non-abused peers. Our multidisciplinary team will conduct a naturalistic study of 400 adolescent females aged 12-15; half of whom recently experienced substantiated sexual abuse. The study will be the first to go beyond adolescent self-reports of HRIBs via (1) assessing adolescents’ “internet footprints” by recording all URL activity within a 4-week period and quantifying URLs for adult and sexual content, and (2) objectively quantifying HRIBs both online and in-vivo in the lab. These procedures, along with a comprehensive psychosocial interview, will be repeated every 15 months for 2 subsequent timepoints in an accelerated longitudinal, cross-sequential design allowing for cross-lag and developmental modeling across adolescence from age 12-18. The overall objective is to fully inform teen internet safety campaigns by providing objective HRIBs prevalence rates and articulating their impact on adolescent development. By focusing on the high-risk group of sexually abused adolescents and testing a conceptual model which includes a comprehensive set of risk and protective factors, findings will not only enhance treatment models for abuse victims, but will orient parents and policy makers about the best ways to promote internet safety for teens in general. This innovative research will fill important gaps in school-based internet safety programs by highlighting the implications for provocative self-presentations and recommending ways to protect teens whose parents are not internet savvy or are otherwise uninvolved. Results will enhance secondary prevention and intervention efforts by identifying potent, adolescent, family and contextual variables that serve to curtail the impact of HRIBs once they occur.

 

Representative Publication: Noll, J.G., Haag, A., Shenk, C.E., Wright, M.F., Barnes, J.E., Kohram, M., Malgaroli, M., Foley, D.J., Kouril, M., & Bonanno, G.A. (2021). An observational study of internet behaviors for adolescent females following sexual abuse. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 74-87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01187-5

Female Adolescent Development Study (FADS)

The primary objectives of the Female Adolescent Development Study are;

  • To examine rates of high-risk sexual behaviors, teen pregnancy, and teen parenthood in maltreated and comparison females aged 14 through 18 years.
  • To test whether pre-pregnancy risk mechanisms will mediate the relationship between predispositional antecedents (including maltreatment) and subsequent high-risk sexual behaviors, teen pregnancy, and teen parenthood.
  • To discern unique pathways to high-risk sexual behaviors, teen pregnancy, and teen parenthood across maltreated and non-maltreated groups of adolescent females.
  • To work toward an understanding of the developmental sequencing of pre-pregnancy risks that are predictive of subsequent high-risk sexual behaviors, pregnancy and parenthood for both maltreated and non-maltreated adolescent females.
  • To examine pre-pregnancy mechanisms that serve to moderate the associations among three major outcomes; high-risk sexual behaviors, teen pregnancy, and teen parenthood.

Representative Publication: Noll, J.G., & Shenk, C.E. (2013). Teen birth rates in sexually abused and neglected females. Pediatrics, 131(4), e1181-e1187. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2012-3072