The purpose of the proposed study is to identify patterns of intrafamilial risk and protective factors that alter the developmental trajectory-baseline severity level and rate of severity change-of anxiety, depression and aggression/violence. Risk factors include sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; emotional neglect; divorce and separation; and harsh and inconsistent parental discipline. Protective factors include parental monitoring, parental supervision, and a close and confiding child-caregiver relationship. Internalizing problems include anxious and depressive symptomatology; externalizing problems include conduct problems, aggression and violence, and substance use. The proposed study uses prospective data collected from a community-sample of Baltimore youth with strong minority representation and balanced gender representation. Data was collected annually when children were in grades one through eight and again when children were 20 or 21 years old. The project builds upon existing research through the use of multiple informants, longitudinal data from a diverse US sample, the inclusion of emotional maltreatment and protective factors, and the use of advanced analytic techniques. Advanced analytic techniques will include tree-based regression and latent class analysis to account for the effects of multiple related risk and protective factors and general growth mixture models to analyze the trajectory of outcomes. Results will inform the targeting of interventions by identifying both constellations of intrafamilial factors and early presentations of psychological symptomatology that signal the greatest risk of psychopathology.
| Menard, C B; Bandeen-Roche, K J; Chilcoat, H D (2004) Epidemiology of multiple childhood traumatic events: child abuse, parental psychopathology, and other family-level stressors. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 39:857-65 |
