The overall goal of this follow-up project is to determine how familial and individual forces in adolescence may shape early adult social development. We begin with an existing database of adolescent and parental levels of ego development, assessed when the adolescent was between 14 and 17 years old. In addition, we have repeated measures of adolescent self-esteem over these same years. Finally, our rich dataset includes repeated observations of family behaviors (e..g. mother accepting son), and conceptually meaningful sequences of these behaviors (e.g. mutual enabling between father and son). By now following-up this sample of previously middle adolescents who are now young adults, we will examine the extent to which these existing data predict aspects of their social development. The original sample consisted of normal high school freshman (n=72) and non-psychotic, non-organically impaired psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents (n=71). We have now re-located 83% of this original sample. All of the planned assessments in early adulthood are based (as were the adolescent measures) on multiple methods, including behavioral observations, self-report, and interview. A single panel of new observations is planned, allowing us to address four different sets of questions, through four conceptual bounded studies. The 4 planned studies are: 1) Adolescent Ego Development and Self-Esteem Contributions to Early Adult development; 2) Family Interaction Patterns as Antecedents of Early Adult Social Functioning; 3) Concurrent Relationships of Early Adult Attachment Status and Ego Development, and Social Functioning; and 4) Pathways to Young Adult Social Development. Our research design is to obtain a new wave of selected individual assessments, at one time point. These new measured are guided by 3 considerations; 1) their relevance to the previously collected adolescent variables; 2) relevance to developmentally salient dimensions of early adulthood; and, 3) sufficient breadth to allow other investigators, or ourselves, to ask new questions not apparent at the time of planning these new observations. Methods include interview (attachment status and current relationships), self-report (e.g. closeness inventory, and peer ratings (Q-sort). Statistical analyses are primarily hierarchical multiple regressions and multiple discriminant function analyses.
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