The aim of this RSA application is to expand the candidate's understanding of prevention science, data collection and coding methods related to children's emotion regulation, and innovative approaches in multilevel modeling. Skills acquired from the training plan should have both short- and long-term applications to the candidate's research. The candidate proposes four programs of research and a plan for professional development. Program I (NIMH R01-50907) seeks to advance our understanding of the precursors of early- and late-starting pathways of antisocial behavior (AB) by following a cohort of low-income, male youth from ages 1.5 to 18.
Our first aim i s to test how child, parenting, and family factors in early childhood, in conjunction with child, parent, family, peer, and neighborhood factors in middle childhood ant adolescence, lead to early-starting trajectories of antisocial outcomes during adolescence. ? ? A second goal is to examine predictors of late starting trajectories of AB, which are believed to be moderately influenced by child, parenting, and family risk factors in early and middle childhood, and potentiated by youth's life events, and peer and neighborhood factors during adolescence. Program II (NIDA R01 016110) is a multisite prevention outcome study that targets parenting practices in early childhood to reduce risk for developmental trajectories leading to early-onset conduct problems and substance abuse. The family-centered intervention is designed for implementation within the service delivery system of WIC Programs for at-risk toddlers at three sites representing urban, rural, and suburban locations (total sample - 840 families). ? ? Program III (NIMH P01-56193) investigates selected attributes and mechanisms of emotion-regulatory skills in the offspring of mothers with childhood-onset depression (COD) that may contribute to the children's own risk for depressive disorders. The offspring in the COD group will be compared with two others the offspring of probands with bipolar disorder (BD) and the offspring of probands with no childhood-onset disorder (NCOD) (total sample = 175). It is hypothesized that in COD families, there will be greater impairment in the child's regulatory strategies, maternal attributes, and maternal parenting, in comparison to BD and NCOD families. Parents and offspring ages 1-12 are assessed annually for the duration of the study. ? ? Program IV (NICHD R01 12709) is a multisite study that examines gene-environment interaction among a sample of 400 adopted infants as they develop from birth to age two. The study will examine the potential mediating and moderating effects of biological risk in relation to early caregiving practices and child externalizing and internalizing problems and competence. Psychiatric risk will be ascertained in both biological and adoptive parents longitudinal and parent-child interaction of adoptive parents and children will be assessed when infants are 9, 16, and 24 months old. The purpose of the RSA is to permit the candidate to conduct these four programs of research, enhance his ability to train students, and to broaden his knowledge of prevention' science, data collection and reduction methods, and recent advances in multilevel modeling. ? ?
Showing the most recent 10 out of 49 publications
