The objective is to estimate theoretically informed models that specify (1) the psychosocial antecedents and consequences of patterns of drug abuse and other deviant adaptations of stress and the constructs that moderate these relationships for a cohort over the life span between early adolescence and the fourth decade of life (mid 30s), and (2) continuities and discontinuities across generations (the cohort and their adolescent children) of patterns of drug abuse and other deviant adaptations, and their correlates observed at a comparable developmental stage (early adolescence) for the two generations. Data for the first set of models will be obtained by household interview with a cohort of subjects in their mid 30s who were last interviewed during their mid-to- late 20s (N=6,089) and, prior to that, during the seventh grade. The models will specify direct and indirect effects of earlier life stages on later stages (particularly the 30s) and specify the circumstances that moderate the nature of the effects. Deviant patterns include violence, self-destructive behaviors, functional psychiatric disorders, a range of criminal activities, and violation of normative prescriptions regarding the adoption and performance of conventional social roles, as well as patterns of drug abuse. These mutually influential patterns are variously modeled as antecedents or consequences of each other. Other antecedents and consequences of drug abuse and other deviant adaptations include attitudes and behavioral responses of significant others in various social-relational contexts, chronic role strain, ascribed social identities, modes of coping, life events, personal and interpersonal resources, peer associations, self-feelings, and values. Data for the second set of models will be obtained from household interviews with the children of the cohort (whether by birth, marriage, adoption, or otherwise, and whether currently residing with the parent or not) who have already reached the age their parent was when first interviewed in early adolescence or at the time they reach that age in the course of the study (4,762 of the 6,668 children will have reached that age during the course of the study). The models will account for continuities and discontinuities between the generations during early adolescence by specifying two types of influence. First, the experiences of first generation subjects during adolescence will influence their experiences during later stages of the life course; and these experiences will have direct or indirect effects on the second generation subjects. These effects will be reflected in and moderated by the same kinds of variables specified above. Second, in addition, continuities in adolescent experiences for the two generations will be modeled as outcomes of common antecedent experiences such as racial/ethnic identity, developmental tasks, family history, age graded social norms of other shared influences. The models will be estimated using structural equations models with latent variables for subgroups expressing moderating variable values.
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