Support is requested for the collaborative work of the Family Research Consortium. The Consortium, composed of 10 senior investigators, has been organized to address three interrelated questions. 1) What is the role of family process in the development and persistence of psychopathology, particularly conduct disorders in childhood and adolescence and depression across the life span? 2) What factors account for competent family functioning in the face of stress as well as expected and unexpected developmental transitions? 3) What treatment and prevention methods are useful probes and tests of models of family process and its role in pathogenesis? The Consortium, which has been at work for over two years, plans: 1) scientific exchange among its members; 2) annual summer institutes devoted to advances in research design and methods in the family field; 3) a series of publications; and 4) a multi-site post-doctoral training program (for which separate support has been requested).
