NIH grant: Long-term Impacts and Mechanisms of Financial Programming on Mental Health of Young Adults (1R01NR022104-01)

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NIH grant 1R01NR022104-01: Long-term Impacts and Mechanisms of Financial Programming on Mental Health of Young Adults
Institute: {'code': 'NR', 'abbreviation': 'NINR', 'name': 'National Institute of Nursing Research', 'admin_org_id': '12500052', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: Marguerita A. Lightfoot. Award: $836590.
Start: 2026-06-23T00:00:00.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The period of emerging adulthood (ages 18-24) is a particularly critical developmental period in which
significant decisions are made that set a life course towards adulthood, including training/education,
employment/career, residential independence, relationships, and parenthood. The substantial physical,
emotional, and developmental changes that occur during this developmental period put young people at risk
for increased mood disorders, increased risk-taking behaviors, and decreased health seeking behaviors.
Further, emerging adults experience the highest poverty rates of any group, contributing to their
disproportionately adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Economic interventions have demonstrated
improvements in economic stability and health for low-income communities. For young people transitioning to
adulthood, an economic intervention could provide the support needed to develop healthy educational and
employment trajectories before financial strain instills deepening disparities. The BEEM study (U01OD033266/
U01MD019398) is an NIH-supported randomized wait-list-controlled trial to determine the impact of an
economic intervention including cash payments and opt- in financial mentoring on the physical, emotional, and
financial well-being of low-income emerging adults. Since 2022, we have recruited and delivered the economic
intervention to 300 emerging adults residing in low-income neighborhoods. We later began recruitment of a
comparison cohort with 150 young adults from the same communities who were offered only tailored financial
mentoring, without the cash payments, to work towards their financial goals. The current BEEM study is
providing critical data on the short-term impact of cash on mental health and economic well-being. We have
found that anxiety and depression were significantly lower after one year for participants receiving the cash
compared to those who did not. However, the long-term sustainability of the health and wellbeing outcomes in
BEEM needs to be established. Further, identifying the pathways and malleable targets for adjunctive
interventions for those participants with suboptimal response can maximize the impact of economic
interventions. We propose to follow these 450 low-income emerging adults, 300 who received cash and 150
who have not for an additional 3 years, collecting extensive information on psychosocial, economic, household,
and neighborhood characteristics to : 1) assess longer term impacts of the economic intervention on mental
health, 2) explore three mediating pathways (economic, psychosocial, and physical/behavioral) through which
the economic intervention impacts mental health outcomes, and 3) identify malleable moderators operating at
multiple levels (individual, household, neighborhood) that could be intervened on to maximize the impact of the
economic intervention. This study will provide a roadmap to develop future economic interventions that are
optimized to effectively address mental health in emerging adults.

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