Research establishing links between mothers' smoking during pregnancy and children's behavior problems suggests a significant, potentially modifiable contributor to one of the most serious mental health disorders of childhood. To establish the etiologic significance of prenatal smoking for specific types of disruptive behavior disorders, however, further prospective research is needed. The proposed project aims to provide advanced training/mentorship to the candidate in the conduct of research examining the relation of prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke and young children's behavior problems. The candidate is a clinical-developmental psychologist who seeks this training towards her goal of studying the effects of prenatal substance exposure on the development of behavior problems. Her existing expertise in the study of parent-child relationships and the clinical assessment of young children will be supplemented by: a) ongoing mentorship in regard to design and implementation of longitudinal research examining effects of prenatal substance exposure; b) advanced training in biochemical measurement and neuropharmacological effects of smoking, and longitudinal data analysis and; c) conduct of independent research. The proposed research is a prospective examination of prenatal smoking and behavior problems in high-risk preschoolers, designed to identify pathways by which smoking may increase the risk of behavioral symptomatology. Participants in an ongoing study of low-income African-American families will be recruited for this preschool follow-up assessment. Prospective data include repeated measures of pre- and postnatal smoking, parenting and infant development. 105 mother-child pairs will be seen including prenatally, actively passively, and non-exposed children. Multi-method assessment of behavior problems will include parent/examiner ratings, structured psychiatric interviewing, laboratory assessment and behavioral ratings during parent-child interaction. Child developmental functioning, parental psychopathology and parenting practices will also be assessed. Multivariate planned comparisons will be used to examine the relation of pre-and postnatal exposure to smoke and preschool behavior problems. Structural equation modeling will be used to identify direct and indirect effects of smoking with particular emphasis on causal pathways between smoking, parental psychopathology and the quality of the parent-child relationship.
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