This study proposes to conduct follow-up assessments at ages 14 and 17 of a group of 110 children who have been participating in a longitudinal study of personality and cognitive development since they were preschoolers. Previously, the children were extensively and individually assessed at ages 3, 4, 5, 7, and 11 with reguard to ego-functioning (ego-control and ego-resiliency), cognitive differentiation, affective differentiation, intellectual level, cognitive styles, creativity, moral reasoning and behavior, and social-emotional development. The parents will participate again in data collection, describing their child-rearing emphases, interacting with their children in standardized situations, and providing descriptions of self and ego-ideal. Data obtained in the current assessments will be related to data obtained earlier so that the continuity-discontinuity characterizing developmental trends in particular areas of psychological functioning may be assessed from early childhood to late adolescence. Indices of ego-control and ego-resiliency derived in early childhood will be related to adolescent behaviors and to the quality of psychological functioning in adolescence. Parental values, personality, and communication styles will be related to psychological characteristics and functioning of the adolescent. Changes in parental socialization practices and perceptions of their child will be evaluated as a function of the changing developmental status of the child and related to measures of adolescent functioning. The specific test situations included in the comprehensive assessment battery at each age have been scaled with respect to several contextual dimensions to permit analyses relating specific personality characteristics of the adolescents to their responses in specific types of situations.
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