PATHWAYS FOR YOUTH--RISK AND RESILIENCE

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Resilience in adolescence has been conceptualized as the process by which youths overcome contextual risks, such as poverty, family stress and maternal mental illness, attaining better outcomes than would be expected given these risk factors. Resiliency promoting characteristics (self- competence and efficacy, social and relational skills, optimism and a positive-self-image) are viewed as mediating and moderating the impact of risk factors on outcomes. Yet not enough is known about this process, especially for high risk youths. We developed a socially contextualized model of African American identity and future-oriented, possible selves as resiliency promoting characteristics. Studying the influence of resiliency promoting characteristics over time among high risk African American youths is critical because these youth are at particular risk of depression, conduct disorders - acting out or delinquent behaviors, school underperformance, and perhaps other problematic mental health outcomes. The proposed study builds on data already collected on a representative sample of mothers with a mental illness in the Detroit area; mothers will be reinterviewed twice and tracked over 5 year period (NIMH grant R01 MH54321-01, Mowbray and Oyserman). In the current study we will target the 180 African American mothers with children aged 9-16 at the first interview (1995-1996). Youth will be interviewed at two points in time: First 2 years after the original maternal interview when youth are aged 11-17; and again the following year when youth are aged 12-18. Maternal interviews focus on risk-resource factors for youth (maternal history, family-relational, material-ecological). Youth interviews will focus on resiliency promoting factors. Census block data will be used as an additional measure of ecological risk. Teacher, parent and youth CBCL assessments will form one component of the outcome measures; school performance the second; and symptomology (CDI, RCMAS, and the DIS-C) the third component. Youth and maternal CBCL reports will be obtained at both interviews, as will youth RCMAS, CDI, to allow for causal modeling controlling for prior outcomes while the other outcomes will be obtained in the second interview only. Examination of these longitudinal data will allow for strong conclusions about the role of youth resiliency in mediating and/or moderating the impact of risk and resource factors on youth outcomes.