The purpose of this Research Career Award is to gain the knowledge and experience necessary for Dr. Haskett to advance her research beyond single-factor, static models of developmental consequences of abuse. Knowledge will be acquired through participation in formal courses, attendance at seminars, and directed readings. Experience will be gained though the process of collaboration with the mentoring team and in the context of completion of the proposed research project under supervision of the mentors. It is anticipated that knowledge gained from the proposed research will inform intervention efforts for abused children and their families and will advance the articulation of socialization models of developmental psychopathology.
The first aim of the study is to examine possible pathways from abusive parenting to children's social and academic adjustment in the school environment. The pathways to be examined are based on socialization theories of child psychopathology and include attachment theory and a social information processing framework.
This aim represents the group-oriented approach to understanding sequelae of abuse.
The second aim of the proposed research is to identify factors associated with stability and malleability of adaptation as children negotiate the transition from childcare settings to a formal schooling environment. The degree to which the salience of specific protective and risk factors change as the child progresses through that stage-salient task will be investigated.
This aim represents a person-oriented level of analysis of maltreated children. Participants will include 90 abused children, who will enter the study in the middle of their final year of preschool and will be followed to first grade.
