The proposed project is a 6 year follow-up of 249 families who participated in an experimental evaluation of a prevention program for children of divorce. The evaluation included three randomly assigned conditions; a mother-only program, a combined program which involved separate mother and child components and a self-study, guided reading condition. The interventions targeted empirically-supported risk and protective factors (putative mediators) and were well-implemented with a high degree of fidelity. Participant retention was excellent, and multiagent, multimethod assessments were conducted. Analyses of immediate posttest and short-term follow-up data revealed positive effects on the targeted putative mediators, as well as on children's mental health outcomes. Although several studies have demonstrated similar immediate and short-term mental health gains for preventive interventions targeting children of divorce, researchers have not yet addressed whether positive program effects persist into adolescence. Long-term follow-up is particularly important for this population, given that children of divorce are at an elevated risk for developing problems that normatively increase during adolescence. The proposed project has four specific aims: to examine whether there are persistent program effects on behavioral and mental health problems during adolescence; to examine whether program effects obtained at the 6 year follow-up are mediated by improvement on the putative mediators targeted in the intervention; to examine moderators of long term intervention effects; and to test alternative theoretical models in which stressful contextual factors, mother-child relationship variables, and child characteristics assessed in childhood are prospectively linked to mental health outcomes in adolescence. Multimethod, multiagent assessments of internalizing and externalizing problems and behavioral and mental problems that are rare in childhood but more prevalent during adolescence will be conducted. Adolescents, mothers, (step)fathers, and teachers will complete questionnaire data; mothers and adolescents will engage in problem-solving videotaped interactions; archival data will be collected from school records. Analyses of covariance, latent growth curve modeling, structural equation modeling, and survival analyses will be employed to test the specific aims.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01MH057013-01A1
Application #
2503679
Study Section
Child/Adolescent Risk and Prevention Review Committee (CAPR)
Project Start
1998-03-15
Project End
2001-02-28
Budget Start
1998-03-15
Budget End
1999-02-28
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Arizona State University-Tempe Campus
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
188435911
City
Tempe
State
AZ
Country
United States
Zip Code
85287
Tein, Jenn-Yun; Sandler, Irwin N; Braver, Sanford L et al. (2013) Development of a brief parent-report risk index for children following parental divorce. J Fam Psychol 27:925-936
VĂ©lez, Clorinda E; Wolchik, Sharlene A; Tein, Jenn-Yun et al. (2011) Protecting children from the consequences of divorce: a longitudinal study of the effects of parenting on children's coping processes. Child Dev 82:244-57
Soper, Ana C; Wolchik, Sharlene A; Tein, Jenn-Yun et al. (2010) Mediation of a preventive intervention's 6-year effects on health risk behaviors. Psychol Addict Behav 24:300-10
Wolchik, Sharlene A; Schenck, Clorinda E; Sandler, Irwin N (2009) Promoting resilience in youth from divorced families: lessons learned from experimental trials of the New Beginnings Program. J Pers 77:1833-68
Wolchik, S A; Sandler, I N; Jones, S et al. (2009) The New Beginnings Program for Divorcing and Separating Families: Moving from Efficacy to Effectiveness. Fam Court Rev 47:416-435
Wolchik, Sharlene A; Ma, Yue; Tein, Jenn-Yun et al. (2008) Parentally bereaved children's grief: self-system beliefs as mediators of the relations between grief and stressors and caregiver-child relationship quality. Death Stud 32:597-620
Tein, Jenn-Yun; Sandler, Irwin N; MacKinnon, David P et al. (2004) How did it work? Who did it work for? Mediation in the context of a moderated prevention effect for children of divorce. J Consult Clin Psychol 72:617-24
Dawson-McClure, Spring R; Sandler, Irwin N; Wolchik, Sharlene A et al. (2004) Risk as a moderator of the effects of prevention programs for children from divorced families: a six-year longitudinal study. J Abnorm Child Psychol 32:175-90
Wolchik, Sharlene A; Sandler, Irwin N; Millsap, Roger E et al. (2002) Six-year follow-up of preventive interventions for children of divorce: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 288:1874-81
Sandler, I (2001) Quality and ecology of adversity as common mechanisms of risk and resilience. Am J Community Psychol 29:19-61