Family adaptation to children with mental retardation involves mutual and continuous influences among children and family members throughout the life course. Because data on continuity and longer-term outcomes are limited, the present investigation evaluates how patterns of mutual influence unfold throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. The investigation proposes to collect a fourth wave of data for a prospective, longitudinal study of 200 children with mild and moderate mental retardation and their families who began the study up to 12 years earlier when the children were 6 to 18 years old. The sample consists of three age cohorts, and the four waves of data will provide overlapping assessments to evaluate changes across two major developmental transitions, adolescence and young adulthood. Telephone interviews, mailed surveys, and face-to-face interviews will be conducted with the participants who have MR, their mothers, fathers, selected siblings, and, as needed, other key informants to assess current adaptive functioning, maladaptive behaviors, and occupational and social functioning for the person with MR, along with personal well-being for family members, and the quality of family relationships. Their extensive data on earlier child functioning and family relationships will allow the investigators to construct hierarchical linear models to focus on understanding mechanisms of influence surrounding three developmental issues: 1) how families promote social development and adaptive functioning for the child 2) how caregiving affects the personal well-being of parents and siblings, and 3) how family relationships adapt over the life course.
