The aim of this RSA application is to enhance the PI's ability to develop models and to test hypotheses of the role of family and social-information-processing risk factors in the life-course development and prevention of disruptive disorders in children. Three related programs of research are proposed. Program One will examine the development of patterns of processing social information (e.g., hostile attributional biases, attention to relevant social cues, social problem solving skills, and efficacy beliefs) and their relation to behavioral maladjustment across development. A sample of 259 boys and girls (40% African-American, over half living in poverty) has been followed since early elementary school, with yearly assessments of processing patterns and adjustment. They will reach 12th grade in the next five years. The hypotheses are being tested that processing patterns will become stable over time and that they act as a proximal mechanism for disruptive behavior outcomes in adolescence.
The aim of Program Two is to test the hypotheses that early family experiences (such as physical abuse and family disruptions) have an effect on disruptive behavioral development, and that this effect is mediated by the child's development of aggressogenic processing styles. 585 African-American and European-American boys and girls from three cities have been followed since preschool, with yearly assessments of family experiences, processing patterns, and disruptive behavior. Initial findings (Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, Science, 1990) are consistent with hypotheses.
The aim of Program Three is to utilize the theory and empirical findings of the first two programs to develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive 12 year-long intervention to prevent conduct disorder and serious disruptive behavior problems in high-risk first-grade children. Based on the screening of 9,600 boys and girls in four cities, children selected as at high risk are being assigned randomly to intervention (n=480) or control (n=480) conditions. Intervention will be directed toward the promotion of: (1) children's social-cognitive and academic skills; (2) parents' behavior management skills; (3) teachers' classroom efforts to promote children's skills; and (4) coordination between families and schools. Data analyses will focus on both process and outcome of intervention. The ultimate aim of this RSA is to enable the PI to synthesize these findings into a comprehensive, empirically-based theory of the development and prevention of conduct disorder and serious disruptive behavior.
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