The lack of knowledge regarding adolescent mental health problems, particularly among poor and/or minority youth, is an acute problem for developmental theory, intervention and social policy. Beyond the at-risk status accorded from being poor and/or an ethnic minority, the biological, psychological and ecological flux characterizing adolescence places such youth at even greater risk. Rates of antisocial behavior and substance abuse, academic failure, and suicide attempts, as well as less dramatic problems, reach their peak during middle adolescence. Testing a developmental mediated or moderated risk model, where the influence of risk/protective bases on developmental outcomes is mediated by both personological and ecological factors, the Adolescent Pathways Project has gathered three data points from more than 1000 ethnically diverse, poor urban adolescents to address this knowledge gap. These three point span either the elementary/junior high or junior/senior high school transition. In addition, over 250 parents have been interviewed and 1980 census-tract data have been obtained to complement the youth-reported information. This proposed continuation project has specific aims. First, the collection of a fourth and fifth data points--also spanning a second school transition for the younger group--will allow us to plot complex trajectories of developmental outcomes, using latent growth curve modelling, to identify those key causal processes that shape or influence individual differences in changes in adaptation and maladaptation, using structural equation modelling. Second, data will be gathered to explore in greater detail the role played by youths' daily involvement in family, peer, school and neighborhood microsystem relationships, through both self- report and ecologically-derived data. An in depth interviews of a subset of youth using time diary methods, a second data wave of parent data and the 1990 census-tract data on neighborhoods, will be used to examine the changing ecological context within which the developmental trajectories are occurring.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH043084-06
Application #
3382529
Study Section
Life Course and Prevention Research Review Committee (LCR)
Project Start
1987-05-01
Project End
1995-12-31
Budget Start
1993-01-01
Budget End
1993-12-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
004514360
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10012
Schwartz, Kate; Cappella, Elise; Seidman, Edward (2015) Extracurricular Participation and Course Performance in the Middle Grades: A Study of Low-Income, Urban Youth. Am J Community Psychol 56:307-20
Clements, Margaret; Aber, J Lawrence; Seidman, Edward (2008) The dynamics of life stressors and depressive symptoms in early adolescence: a test of six theoretical models. Child Dev 79:1168-82
French, Sabine Elizabeth; Seidman, Edward; Allen, LaRue et al. (2006) The development of ethnic identity during adolescence. Dev Psychol 42:1-10
Pedersen, Sara; Seidman, Edward; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu et al. (2005) Contextual competence: multiple manifestations among urban adolescents. Am J Community Psychol 35:65-82
Seidman, Edward; French, Sabine Elizabeth (2004) Developmental trajectories and ecological transitions: a two-step procedure to aid in the choice of prevention and promotion interventions. Dev Psychopathol 16:1141-59
Seidman, E; Chesir-Teran, D; Friedman, J L et al. (1999) The risk and protective functions of perceived family and peer microsystems among urban adolescents in poverty. Am J Community Psychol 27:211-37
Seidman, E; Yoshikawa, H; Roberts, A et al. (1998) Structural and experiential neighborhood contexts, developmental stage, and antisocial behavior among urban adolescents in poverty. Dev Psychopathol 10:259-81
Seidman, E; Aber, J L; Allen, L et al. (1996) The impact of the transition to high school on the self-system and perceived social context of poor urban youth. Am J Community Psychol 24:489-515
Seidman, E; Allen, L; Aber, J L et al. (1995) Development and validation of adolescent-perceived microsystem scales: social support, daily hassles, and involvement. Am J Community Psychol 23:355-88
Connell, J P; Spencer, M B; Aber, J L (1994) Educational risk and resilience in African-American youth: context, self, action, and outcomes in school. Child Dev 65:493-506

Showing the most recent 10 out of 15 publications