PREVENTING ADOLESCENT SOCIAL & COGNITIVE DISABILITIES

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Adolescent behavioral problems are the best predictors of adult adjustment. Preventing adolescent social and cognitive disabilities requires (1) the identification of those factors that are primary contributors to behavioral problems so that (2) the best targets for intervention can be specified. This study is a continuation during late adolescence of our evaluation of the relative contributions to social and cognitive competence of characteristics of (a) the child, (b) the child's family life, and (c) the social and economic environment in a sample of children tested since birth. At an 18-year-assessment we will relate continuity in child competence to continuity in environmental risk and examine whether child behavior was more strongly related to a cumulative environmental risk score than any single risk factor as was found at prior assessment points at 4 and 13-years of age . We will recontact our sample of 170 children and their families to schedule retesting. The children will be assessed for mental health status, school achievement, and intellectual competence as outcome measures. The family assessment of concurrent predictor variables will include (1) child personality factors, (2) parental childrearing style, expressed emotion, values, and mental health. (3) family adaptation, organization, and stress, (4) neighborhood composition and problems, and (5) family social status. Interactions between parenting style and neighborhood risk will be reexamined to determine if restrictive parenting facilitates child competence in high risk environments but reduces competence in low-risk, environments as was found at 13-years. Interactions between the child's locus of control and stress will be retested to see if unknown locus of control continues to be an exacerbating factor in high-- stress but not low-stress environments. Continuities in competence between 13 and 18 years will be examined to determine if stronger relations are found for girls than boys as was the case between 4 and 13 years. Models will be tested to compare the impact on adolescent outcomes of proximal variables, such as parenting style, and distal variables, such as social status, in order to identify targets for intervention within the causal chains leading from risk to problem behavior.