This proposed collaborative research project (collaborative R-01 ) is the next step in a coordinated program of research on the prevention of emotional and behavioral disorders in children and families experiencing job loss. Pursued by investigators at the Center for Family Research at the George Washington University and the Prevention Intervention, Research Center at Arizona State University, the proposed project brings together unique scientific resources from each research team that, when combined, will allow us to conduct a multisite study of risk and protective processes influencing adjustment children experiencing parental job loss, a study that could not be achieved by either team alone. These teams, strengthened also by direct involvement of investigators from the University of Michigan Prevention Research Center and the Johns Hopkins University Prevention Research Center, have developed a strong collaboration that includes The development of a shared conceptual framework, the integration of measurement strategies from all four centers, and collaborative planning of data analysis and hypothesis testing.
The aim of the proposed study is to test a transactional theory of risk and protective process concerning the links between parental job loss, subsequent stressful events and difficulties, parent-child interaction, patterns of child coping, and child trajectories of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, impairment, school competence, and competence in peer relations. This theory is designed to help us understand which child are most at risk as a result of parental job loss, and to identify specific child and family adaptation mechanisms that increase or decrease risk for the development of behavioral and emotional problems. We propose to identify and study children aged 9-12 coming from 300 families living in the greater urban/suburban Baltimore region. We will identify families through state unemployment agencies, and interview mothers, fathers, and one index child in the home within one to four months after job loss. We will collect observational data on parent-child interactions around coping issues, and will use recently developed methods for assessing challenges and stressors. Families will provide data on child symptoms, impairment, and competence every six months, and will be interviewed about stressful events and difficulties one year after enrollment. This multiwave dataset will be analyzed using time-sensitive methods such as latent growth curve modeling, to test a series of hypotheses concerning risk and child adaptation in the face of parental job loss.
