Children of teenaged mothers are at risk for one or more of the following disabilities: (1) mild mental retardation (MR); (2) learning disabilities (LD); or (3) conduct disorders. The goal of the proposed research is to understand the unique and common factors that precipitate various school-related delays. Salient characteristics in adolescent mothers, subsequent to and following delivery, will be identified. In combination with infant and child characteristics. They will be used to predict development during the preschool years, thus setting the stage for identifiable delays during the elementary school years. A secondary purpose of the research is to examine the life course of adolescent mothers, particularly in their socioemotional and intellectual development. Teen mothers with borderline IQs are likely themselves to slide into mild retardation and to encounter major life stresses as they progress through adolescence into young adulthood. Measures of maternal and child functioning for 150 days will be taken when each child is three and again at 5 years of age, with a focus on gathering proxy variables for later problems in MR, LD, and behavioral disorders. Measures of intelligence, learning skills, and social/emotional adjustment were selected as criterion variables, whereas other measures (e.g., current levels of intellectual and emotional functioning in the mother) were selected as additional predictor variables. All of the measures gathered at ages three and five will be considered within the context of data already gathered during pregnancy and infancy, specifically maternal and infant assessments. Continuity of functioning within maternal and child domains will be assessed and relationships between maternal and child measures examined from both cross-sectional as well as longitudinal perspectives. The central focus is on tracing and predicting children's intellectual, emotional, and social development based on maternal, child, and social-environmental characteristics. Secondary interests lie in understanding maternal development and in interrelating maternal and child development. Although cross-sectional analyses of the data will be carried out, the primary focus will be on the longitudinal aspects of the data. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), will be used to study average intraindividual changes in the sample over time as well as interindividual differences in change. HLM will allow study of both static and dynamic correlates of developmental trajectories. The significance of the project lies in the attempt to unravel the """"""""new morbidity"""""""" phenomenon in a carefully-chosen sample of adolescent mothers and their children, from the perspective of a multivariate, prospective, longitudinal design.
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