This project will continue a longitudinal study of family adaptation to children who exhibited significant developmental delays (DD) in preschool. It will determine if early delay predicts subsequent difficulties, including mental retardation, learning disabilities, behavior problems, special education placement, and family adjustment problems. The project will: (1) track development of delayed children from preschool to preadolescence; and (2) analyze ecological factors and family adaptation processes associated with more effective family functioning and better child outcomes in middle childhood and preadolescence (child ages 10/11 and 12/13). As the children enter middle childhood, the project will explore the impact of school experiences on family ecology and adaptation, as well as on child developmental outcomes. The study will compare the relative predictive power of prior child status, school experience, and family adaptation as influences on child and family outcomes (child ages 10/11 and 12/13). Families of DD children will be contrasted to two other samples (Latino and Euro-American families without DD children) in which families also are actively adapting to their child, to test hypotheses regarding the general influence of special adaptations (voluntary; or involuntary, DD-related or not) on family functioning. Another long term objective is to define family strengths and capacities using a theory and research-based model in order to meet PL 99-457's standards of assessment and intervention planning for DD children and their families.
The specific aims i nclude: (1) determining the predectors of cognitive, academic, behavioral, and social competence outcomes for developmentally disabled/delayed children at middle-childhood and preadolescence (ages 8/9 and 12/13), using data from child ages 3/4 and 6/7; (2) determining the predictors of family ecology and adaptation to DD children, at middle childhood (child age 10/11), and identifying family ecological factors and adaptation patterns associated with differential child and family outcomes; (3) converting research procedures for assessing family ecology and adaptation into a cost-effective instrument that can be used in assessment, intervention planning, and evaluation; and (4) determining in what ways the adaptation processes in families of DD children resemble those in families with other kinds of adaptation issues.
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