PARENTAL INVESTMENTS AND CHILDRENS MENTAL HEALTH

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This proposal seeks a career award for research on the economics of children's behavior problems and for training in the area of children's mental health. The research plan proposes economic explanations for empirical correlations between family income, the development of behavior problems in children, and delinquent behaviors in adolescence. The research and training activities will enable the principal investigator to initiate a program of research on the family level determinants of children's mental health outcomes. Several mentors with complementary skills will advise the candidate. Dr. Margaret Ensminger (Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health) will be the principal mentor and advise the candidate's training in the area of child development and adolescent outcomes. Dr. Barbara Wolfe Director, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin) will provide guidance on developments in research on poverty and on appropriate econometric methods. She is a leader in the study of children's attainments. Dr. Robert Moffitt (Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University) will advise the candidate on econometric modeling of limited dependent outcome measures. Because delinquency and other behavior problems in adolescence have not previously been analyzed as being outcomes of economic decision-making, the training component of the award will involve instruction on recent theoretical and empirical work in child development and adolescent behaviors. The training will consist of formal course work in child development and children's mental health, interaction with mentors who are experts in poverty, adolescent outcomes, and economic attainment; and participation in conferences at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin and at the Society for Research on Child Development. Training in the area of children's mental health issues will facilitate the investigator's development of a long-term program of research on prevention of delinquent behavior in youths. The theoretical and empirical modeling strategies developed will be applicable to a range of children's mental health prevention problems, where preventive interventions may have dynamic effects.