The proposed project is an extension and expansion of our current study which was designed to identify social interactional risk and protective factors that would moderate the deleterious influence of known stressors on social and psychological adjustment during adolescence. The study was imbedded in a larger study of the epidemiology of adolescent depression and other psychiatric disorders. The proposed study is designed to lengthen the current work to examine, comprehensively, the transition of adolescents into young adults. The broad array of variables included in our previous data collection efforts on a large sample of adolescents and their parents provide a unique opportunity to identify predictors of adjustment in this critical developmental period, that has been largely unstudied. We will be able to examine, more closely, the adjustment period from late adolescence into early adulthood with a focus on the basic social and psychological processes that occur during this adaptive period of life and on individuals who may be at greater risk for various psychological or psychiatric problems. Our sample of approximately 643 young adults from two cohorts, their parents, and same- and opposite-sex significant other (SO) will be assessed annually for an additional three years. Assessments will include comprehensive questionnaires on the young adults' social, psychological, and academic behavior, work adjustment, parental contact, and family and peer relationships, as well as indicators of role transitions from adolescence to adult. Questionnaires from SOs and parents will independently assess their relationship with the subject including the frequency of contact. Transcripts, if relevant, and information regarding employment status, marriage, births, and arrest records will be obtained from official sources (e.g., court records, social security administration) with the permission of the young adult. Additionally, with the young adults' permission, we will obtain information regarding his or her job performance from the employer. Finally, annual videotaped interactions between the target and 1) a same-sex SO (best friend, roommate, or partner); 2) an opposite-sex SO (spouse/partner, cohabiting, dating, friend, acquaintance); and 3) their parents with be obtained. Data analysis techniques will include state-of-the-art procedures for longitudinal studies including simple descriptive, event history methods, structural equation modeling, latent growth curve analyses, generalized estimating equations, and regression techniques.
