Center Grant for the Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood

这个儿童研究倡议中心将汇集来自20个多学科国家和国际纵向项目的研究人员，合作分析旨在解决儿童环境如何影响他们在儿童中期发展的一些关键问题。具体来说，该中心将侧重于解开影响儿童的复杂性，因为他们从青春期发展到成年期，甚至养育自己的孩子。调查人员将使用最先进的分析技术处理重要数据的共同问题。该中心将重点关注四个具体问题：1)童年中期是否是一个特别敏感的时期，在此期间，态度、信念和对自我的看法会具体化，从而决定日后生活的成功（例如，职业、教育、人际关系的成功）或困难（例如，攻击行为、抑郁）？2)哪些童年影响（例如，家庭、学校、同伴）对青少年和成人的积极和消极结果影响最大，在什么时间点它们的影响最大？3)儿童的个人特征（如性情、智力、性别）是否会影响家庭、学校和同伴对其未来生活结果的影响？4)父母和孩子在积极行为（如社交技能、智力成就）和消极行为（如攻击性）方面有多相似？家庭、同伴和学校的影响如何影响这些跨代的异同？虽然在任何一个项目中研究的影响都是有限的，但将本中心参与的许多项目加在一起，可以研究儿童时期广泛的影响。此外，由于这些纵向项目的广度，中心的努力将促进新的方法和统计方法。该中心将通过课程、研讨会和合作研究经验，促进本科生、研究生和博士后的创新、多学科培养。研究结果有望通过确定对发展有强大的短期和长期影响的具体因素，导致创造有效的干预措施，以改善生活结果。分析将讨论家庭、同伴、学校、社区和媒体对社会和临床重要结果的影响，如学业成功/失败、抑郁、攻击/犯罪和关系成功。最后，本中心将与学校系统、社区团体和精神卫生机构合作，设计和实施基于科学的干预措施，以减少这些问题的发生率，促进生活的成功。

This Children's Research Initiative Center will bring together investigators from 20 multi-disciplinary national and international longitudinal projects to work collaboratively on analyses aimed at resolving some of the key issues about how children's environment affects their development during middle childhood. Specifically, the Center will focus on disentangling the complexity of influences on children as they develop through adolescence, into adulthood, and even into rearing their own children. The investigators will address common issues of importance with their data using state-of-the-art analysis techniques. The Center will focus on four specific questions: 1) Is middle childhood a particularly sensitive time during which attitudes, beliefs, and views of the self crystallize and thus determine later life success (e.g., occupational, educational, relationship success) or difficulty (e.g., aggressive behavior, depression)? 2) Which childhood influences (e.g., family, school, peer) matter the most for positive and negative adolescent and adult outcomes, and at what points in time do they have the most influence? 3) Do personal characteristics of the child (e.g., temperament, intelligence, gender of the child) influence the impact of family, school, and peer influences in predicting later life outcomes? 4) How similar are parents and their children in positive behaviors (e.g., social skills, intellectual achievement) and negative behaviors (e.g., aggression), and how do family, peer, and school influences affect these cross-generational similarities and differences? Although the influences studied in any one project are limited, taken together the many projects participating in this Center can examine a wide range of influences during childhood. In addition, because of the breadth of these longitudinal projects, the Center's efforts will foster new methodological and statistical approaches. The Center will promote innovative, multi-disciplinary training of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students through courses, workshops, and collaborative research experiences. The findings are expected to lead to the creation of effective interventions for improving life outcomes by identifying specific factors that have powerful short- and long-term influences on development. Analyses will address the effects of family, peer, school, neighborhood, and media influences on socially and clinically important outcomes such as school success/failure, depression, aggression/delinquency, and relationship success. Finally, in partnership with school systems, community groups, and mental health agencies, the Center will move towards design and implementation of scientifically based interventions to reduce the incidence of these problems and to promote life success.