This study will investigate social roles, personality, and well-being in a sample of socioeconomically and demographically representative women over the midlife years. The study capitalizes on prospectively gathered data on 800 women who were randomly selected at a mean age of 31 years when they had one or more children between one and 10 years old.
The aims of the original study which they were sampled were limited to investigation of the problems and developmental course of their offspring; thus, the women were interviewed because they constituted the nurturing """"""""environment"""""""" of their children. The initial 1975 interviews focused on family background, work and health status, offspring behavior, and parenting. In subsequent interviews, at mean ages 39, 42 and 48, the protocol was expanded to include women's personality characteristics, depression, life goals, and marital relationships. Previous funding has not been sought to investigate those data with a goal of understanding the development of the women. The goals of the proposed study are (1) to undertake a fifth wave of data collection to examine life roles engaged in women (mean age 57) and relationships with effective psychological functioning, depression, and overall life satisfaction, (2) to employ all five waves of data to examine reciprocal and interactive effects of personal characteristics and social roles and role transitions in predicting indicators of well-being across the midlife years, (3) to examine whether patterns differ across cohorts by comparing women born in the post World War II years (baby boomers) with those born before (pre-boomers), assessed at the same age, and (4) develop a data base for a life span model of the course of midlife in modern middle-aged women.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD040685-01A1
Application #
6399679
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-RPHB-4 (05))
Program Officer
Casper, Lynne M
Project Start
2001-07-15
Project End
2005-06-30
Budget Start
2001-07-15
Budget End
2002-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$477,673
Indirect Cost
Name
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
167204994
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
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Chen, Henian; Kasen, Stephanie; Cohen, Patricia (2009) Life values and mental health: A longitudinal study comparing chronically ill women to women without chronic disease. Psychol Health 24:395-405
Kasen, S; Cohen, P; Chen, H et al. (2008) Obesity and psychopathology in women: a three decade prospective study. Int J Obes (Lond) 32:558-66
Chen, Henian; Cohen, Patricia; Chen, Sophie (2007) Biased odds ratios from dichotomization of age. Stat Med 26:3487-97
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Sneed, Joel R; Kasen, Stephanie; Cohen, Patricia (2007) Early-life risk factors for late-onset depression. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 22:663-7
Chen, Henian; Cohen, Patricia; Kasen, Stephanie (2007) Cohort differences in self-rated health: evidence from a three-decade, community-based, longitudinal study of women. Am J Epidemiol 166:439-46
Kasen, Stephanie; Chen, Henian; Sneed, Joel et al. (2006) Social role and birth cohort influences on gender-linked personality traits in women: a 20-year longitudinal analysis. J Pers Soc Psychol 91:944-58
Anderson, Sarah E; Cohen, Patricia; Naumova, Elena N et al. (2006) Relationship of childhood behavior disorders to weight gain from childhood into adulthood. Ambul Pediatr 6:297-301
Anderson, Sarah E; Cohen, Patricia; Naumova, Elena N et al. (2006) Association of depression and anxiety disorders with weight change in a prospective community-based study of children followed up into adulthood. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 160:285-91

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