ECHO PATHWAYS mPI, Dr. Nicole Bush, and a colleague at USCF, Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, published a commentary in the journal Pediatrics, “Power of the Positive: Childhood Assets and Future Cardiometabolic Health.” They describe the importance of characterizing protective and resilience-building factors, such as positive relationships and neighborhood factors, in research on pediatric health and development. Research has traditionally focused on childhood adversity and risk factors, but recent research by Dr. Bush and others has shown that accounting for positive factors can give a more complete perspective on the determinants of child health. For example, Dr. Bush and colleagues showed that neighborhood opportunity, a positive asset, appears to buffer the adverse effects of early life stress on later physical health. In their commentary, Drs. Bush and Bibbins-Domingo highlight how ECHO is uniquely poised to expand upon this area of science in years to come.
