This project involves the longitudinal study of adolescent disorder among three large, population-based cohorts of subjects from predominantly African American, low-income, urban families. Each cohort was initially assessed for peer social status, social behavior, and academic achievement, particularly aggression, in third grade and those assessments were repeated in fourth and fifth grade. Adjustment to the first year of middle school, and delinquency were assessed for each total cohort at the end of sixth grade and intensive assessments of psychological disorder, conduct problems, and substance abuse were made on representative, random, stratified subsamples of approximately 200 adolescents in each cohort. These assessments will have been repeated at the end of eighth grade for all three cohorts at the end of the current year. Data on family dysfunction and stressful life events have been collected on the subsamples concurrent with psychological assessments. Police records on delinquency, school records on truancy and drop-out, and public health records on teen pregnancy have been monitored for all cohorts during this period. Participation in deviant peer group information was collected for the first cohort in late fall of grade eight, and grade six and eight for the third cohort.
The aim of this proposal is to continue collecting information on disorder an adjustment on these three cohorts on an every-other year basis through high school and to collect briefer assessments of life adjustment yearly until the subjects reach age 21. Three are two major data analytic purposes for which this longitudinal data will be used. One is to establish predictive relations between childhood peer social status and social behavior, specifically social rejection and aggressiveness, so that methods of early identification of high risk youth can be devised for prevention purposes. The second is to describe developmental patterns of adjustment and disorder across the span of years from early adolescence to young adulthood for a population that is generally at risk for multiple problems owing to unusually high life stress and economic disadvantage. We will specifically examine predictive patterns for both early-developing and late-developing conduct disorder, as well as for subsequent desistance from conduct disorder symptoms. A subsidiary goal of the project is to follow-up what appears to have been a successful summer day camp intervention with aggressive, rejected 10 year old boys and their parents. Boys who participated in this camp (20 high risk and 20 low risk) and control subjects of high and low risk status will be assessed at the end of the first year of middle school and every other year thereafter, in order to determine the long term impact of this intervention.
| Lochman, J E; Coie, J D; Underwood, M K et al. (1993) Effectiveness of a social relations intervention program for aggressive and nonaggressive, rejected children. J Consult Clin Psychol 61:1053-8 |
| Underwood, M K; Coie, J D; Herbsman, C R (1992) Display rules for anger and aggression in school-age children. Child Dev 63:366-80 |
| Coie, J D; Lochman, J E; Terry, R et al. (1992) Predicting early adolescent disorder from childhood aggression and peer rejection. J Consult Clin Psychol 60:783-92 |
| Coie, J D; Dodge, K A (1988) Multiple sources of data on social behavior and social status in the school: a cross-age comparison. Child Dev 59:815-29 |
