This is a proposal to continue the longitudinal study of adjustment and disorder among three large, population-based cohorts of adolescents from predominantly African-American, low-income, urban families. Each cohort was initially assessed for peer social status, academiC achievement, and social behavior, particularly aggression and prosocial behavior in third grade, and those assessments were repeated in fourth and fifth grades. Adjustment to the first year of middle school, delinquency, and teen parenthood was assessed for each total cohort (n = 1749) at the end of sixth grade, and intensiVe assessments of conduct problems, psychological disorder, and drug or alcohol abuse were made on representatiVe, random, stratified subsamples of each cohort (n =648). These assessments will have been repeated at the end of the eighth and tenth grade year for all three cohorts by the end of this project year. Data on family structure and functioning, as well as stressful life events for the subject have been collected on all subsamples concurrently with the psychological assessment. Police records on delinquency, school records on truancy and drop out, and public health records of teen mother live births have been collected for the full cohorts during this period. Social network data, including information on deviant peer group membership was obtained for one cohort at sixth, eighth, and tenth grades and at eighth and tenth grades for one older cohort. The goal of the project for the next five years is to continue the same schedule of data collection on all three cohorts until their class finishes high school. Retainees will be assessed at the time of their cohort and until they graduate. When the majority of each cohort completes twelfth grade, the representative subsamples will be assessed each year for three years, assuring that all subjects will have reached the age of twenty-one. The samples in each cohort are over-sampled for a group of children who fit both Patterson's and Moffitt's theories of early starting delinquents. The additional years of data collection will allow us to identify the late starter groups postulated by these theories. The validity of propositions about social development and peer network involvement for these two groups will be tested on this inner-city African-American population. A second data analytic goal is to analyze patterns of individual change within each of the three major developmental periods covered by this project - preadolescence, adolescence, and early adulthood - and to identify major patterns of development across the three periods. Within this framework, we will establish predictors of risk for delinquency and disorder both in terms of point-to-point predictions and dynamic growth trends. A final goal is to identify patterns of resilience among this sample and to determine protective processes operating within the family and the community. A subsidiary goal will be to track the longterm implications of two small sample interventions that were successful at one year of follow-up prior to middle school.
| 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 |
