This application requests support for the periodic evaluation in middle childhood and early adolescence of the impact of two population-based preventive interventions directed at early behavior responses of 2400 children in first and second grade shown to predict to specific problem outcomes later. Learning problems in early elementary school have been shown to be important predictors of psychiatric symptoms, particularly depressive symptoms and possibly depressive disorder in adolescents. Early aggressive behavior involving breaking rules and fighting has been repeatedly found to predict to later adolescent and adult antisocial behavior, criminality, and heavy substance use. The first preventive intervention is directed at learning and consists of a strengthened curriculum for the entire class based upon Mastery Learning to improve reading and other academic skills. The second preventive intervention also directed at the entire class consists of a behavior management method, the Good Behavior Game, which divides each first and second grade class into three teams that are rewarded for pro-social behavior with points taken away for aggressive behavior. In close collaboration with the Baltimore City Public Schools, 19 elementary schools allowed random assignment of children within intervention schools to intervention and control classrooms and provided matched control schools also. Two cohorts of 1200 entering first graders will have received the intervention for two years by the time of this periodic follow-up. Both cohorts will be assessed annually through sixth grade, while mothers and fathers (or surrogates) will be interviewed in 4th and 6th grades. Each year child assessments will include teacher ratings, classmate ratings, self-report, and school achievement, attendance, and grades. Parents will be interviewed concerning family structure; learning environment and behavior management; parental mental health and substance use; parent ratings of child mental health and behavior; and service utilization. Each core construct is measured by multiple methods. Detailed tracking and assessment procedures have been developed to follow students over time. The specific research questions are concerned with the direct impact of each intervention on its target antecedent behavior and on the consequent reduction in risk of the specific problem outcome. Crossover effects will be examined in order to determine the specificity of the intervention for the target behaviors and for the problem outcomes. Characteristics of the child other than the problem behavior, including anxiety and depression, neuropsychological status, and perception of self competence, along with characteristics of the environments of family, classroom, relationship to classmates, and neighborhood will be used to explain differences in response over time regarding level of response, duration, and type of response to the two preventive interventions. These analyses will lead to next stage of preventive trials and will add to knowledge regarding vulnerability.
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