This application is a request for a Research Scientist Award (K05). During the period of the award the applicant will maintain a research program to identify risk and protective factors for mental health in children from infancy through adolescence. Three projects are proposed for the longitudinal assessment of children's mental health and the effects of the accumulation of risk factors in their environments. In the Rochester Longitudinal Study the effects of risk will be studied from infancy into early adulthood, in the Providence Family Study the effects of risk on preschool development will be examined, and in the Prince George's County Family Involvement Study the effects of risk on adolescent development will be explored. A developmental ecology model will be used in which child behavior is embedded in a social context which changes in dynamic relationship to the child's growth. Risk processes will be studied in addition to attributable risk factors. Context will be analyzed in terms of a hierarchical model of levels ranging from proximal parent-child interactions to distal demographic factors. Comparisons will be made between the effects of environmental risk and protective factors at early ages and their effects at later time periods. The changing impact of family management practices with age will be examined in relation to the child's increasing autonomy from the family and participation in competing or collaborating peer, school, and neighborhood contexts. The applicant will direct a research program with training opportunities for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows and teach courses in Developmental Psychopathology and Risk. The applicant will also direct and participate in national research consortia on family functioning, adolescent development and childhood depression.
