This proposal seeks to extend through the transition to high school the evaluation of the impact of two universal, first grade preventive interventions on the early risk behaviors of poor achievement and aggressive and shy behaviors and their distal correlates: substance use, antisocial behavior, and anxious and depressive symptoms. In extending the evaluation into high school, we expect to broaden our understanding of normal and pathogenic developmental paths and their variation and malleability in response to the preventive interventions from school entry through early adolescence. We will build on the scientific evaluate of an existing, prospective, developmental epidemiological data base involving a defined population of urban first-graders, whose psychological well-being (PWB) and social adaptational status (SAS) in the classroom, peer group, and family social fields have been assessed periodically from ages 6-11. This representative population of urban first graders is comprised of 678 children from 9 elementary schools in predominantly low to lower middle income areas in Baltimore. Within each of the nine schools, first grade children and their teachers were randomly assigned to either a standard setting (i.e., control) classroom or to a classroom featuring one of two universal preventive interventions. Each intervention specifically targeted two confirmed antecedents of later antisocial behavior, psychiatric symptoms and substance use: 1) aggressive and shy behaviors, and 2) poor school achievement. One intervention, the classroom-centered intervention (C), sought to reduce the early risk behaviors of poor achievement and aggressive and shy behaviors through the enhancement of classroom curricula and teacher instructional and behavior management practices. The second intervention, the family-school partnership intervention (FSP), sought to reduce to reduce their early risk behaviors by improving by improving parent-teacher collaboration and by enhancing parents' teaching and behavior management skills. Extension of the data set through ages 12-15 will enable us to assess the effectiveness of the CC and FSP interventions in terms of the reduced risk for substance use, antisocial behavior and anxious and depressive symptoms in early adolescence. The data set will also allow us to assess variation in the malleability of developmental paths as a function of the initial and evolving characteristics of the child, and the social fields of family, peer group, classroom/school, and neighborhood. Continued follow-up will enable us to determine the incidence and prevalence of substance use, antisocial behavior, and anxious, and depressive symptoms in early adolescence.
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