This RSA proposal requests renewal of support for a program of longitudinal research on mental health and social change life-course perspective. In concept and design, the research program is comparative across time and place, contextual over the life course and generations, and explanatory in focus. Data for the research plan will come primarily from three longitudinal archives with life record data: the Iowa Youth and Families Project with target adolescents (approx. N=550) born in the late 1970s; the Philadelphia Study with inner city white and minority youth (N=486) who were also born mainly during the late 1970s; and the Terman Study (N= 1,562) with birth years from 1903 to 1920. The Iowa data have collected annually from 1989 through 1994 on parent(s), target adolescent (7th grade in 1989), and near sib. Two additional follow-ups are planned. The Philadelphia data were collected in 1990-91 (a follow-up is planned) from parent or parent-surrogate, target adolescent (aged 11-15 years), and older near sib. The Terman Study spans 13 waves (1922 to 1992). The research plan is organized around three objectives: I. An investigation of the life-course effects of two types of social change, socioeconomic deprivation (including contemporary rural and urban deprivation), and military mobilization during WWII and Vietnam, in particular. Analysis will take into account individual/family differences that people bring to life change. II. Assessment of the linkages and mechanisms by which social change influences psychosocial functioning and persists/fades across the life course. III. Exploration of the generalizability of empirical observations across different places, times, and samples. These objectives will be implemented by phases. Phase I draws upon the data resources of the three main archives to investigate the effect of socioeconomic conditions and wartime service on life course development and health. With attention to the contextual influences of farm ecology and community, for example, the Iowa study will trace e effects of socioeconomic decline and dislocation through family processes to adolescent well-being in the 12th grade. The Philadelphia data will be used to investigate the multi-level influences of inner city neighborhood and family unit on prosocial and antisocial behavior, giving particular emphasis to promotive and preventive family socialization strategies with its unparalleled lifespan scope, the Terman data enables us to investigate the enduring influence of overseas duty and wartime combat across the life course. Phase II focuses on a core social transition, from adolescence to the adult years, and investigates sources of behavioral continuity and change in the Iowa and Philadelphia samples. Cross-national comparisons ill include an adult transition study of former East German youth in the rural state of Mecklenburg. The proposed analyses will match particular statistical techniques to research questions, such as hierarchical linear models for the assessment of multi-level influences and developmental trajectories. This program of research is designed to advance current knowledge of linkage between human lives and their times, as well as an understanding of their implications for social intervention.
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