There are two directions to PI's current research program. One focus of the Project Competence research group has been on studies of children who were at risk for the later development of psychopathology. In 1979-1980 these studies neared completion (although more extensive data analyses are still being conducted), accompanied by a growing awareness of the normalizing behavior patterns exhibited by many of the biological offspring of mothers previously diagnosed as schizophrenic or depressive. In this portion of the research program other groups studied have included externalizing, internalizing, and hyperactive children, together with classroom controls matched with the index children for social competence as rated by peers. In these studies the focus has been primarily on measures of competence in relation to group membership and attentional functioning. In the past two years our research efforts have been directed to the study of three cohorts of children exposed to different types of stressful experience and their levels of functional competence. The defining stressor characteristics of the cohorts are these: 1) a central-city community-based cohort of families many of which are under severe economic distress; 2) a group of children born with a life-threatening congenital heart defect who have had successful surgical intervention; 3) severely physically handicapped children who have been placed in classrooms of non-handicapped children as part of a school mainstreaming program. Although the research activities specific to each group have differed somewhat, the emphasis, in general, has been on analysis of children's adaptation competencies in relation to stress indicators in the hope of furthering an understanding of the risk and protective factors that are reflected in such relationships.
