DEVELOPMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN MENTAL HEALTH

建议成立NIMH行为科学研究中心，以促进对一生中心理健康决定因素的纵向研究。该中心将开展三个关于儿童早期、青春期和成年早期适应性自我调节的多层次研究项目。该中心将整合密歇根大学对人类行为的40项纵向研究。将建立研究促进小组，以改善这些中心及其附属项目中对精神健康的发展、生态和方法学评估。将设立婴儿期和幼儿期、儿童期中期和青春期以及成年期的发展研究促进小组。将有生物过程(内分泌学和营养)、人际过程(家庭功能、婚姻、亲子、兄弟姐妹和同伴互动)、文化过程(亚文化因素、性别问题、少数群体地位和国际研究)和经济过程(收入水平、职业声望和失业)的背景分组。方法论分组成员将拥有一系列统计技术方面的专门知识，以分析不同时间的进程。个人研究项目#1将研究患有儿科发育问题的婴儿样本中生物(内分泌反应)和行为(情绪表达)调节过程之间的关系。个人研究项目#2将从密歇根州、威斯康星州、宾夕法尼亚州和马里兰州四个地理地点的5个纵向样本和一个全国样本中检查经济困难和青少年心理健康之间的家庭中介因素。个人研究项目#3将比较从出生到青春期评估的过去和当前的风险和保护因素对成年后心理健康的影响。研究学徒将与每个研究项目和中心核心联系在一起。研究结果将与预防、治疗和精神卫生服务有关的问题联系起来，通过确定风险因素和风险群体，这些风险群体将是干预努力的重要目标。

A NIMH Behavioral Sciences Research Center is proposed to facilitate longitudinal research on the determinants of mental health across the life span. The Center will carry out three multilevel research projects on adaptive self-regulation during early childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The Center Core will integrate 40 University of Michigan longitudinal studies of human behavior. Research Facilitation Groups will be established to improve developmental, ecological, and methodological assessment of mental health in these Center and Center-affiliated projects. There will be developmental research facilitation subgroups for infancy and early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence, and adulthood. There will be contextual subgroups for biological processes (endocrinology and nutrition), interpersonal processes (family functioning, marital, parent-child, sibling, and peer interactions), cultural processes (subcultural factors, gender issues, minority status, and international studies), and economic processes (income level, occupational prestige, and unemployment). The methodological subgroup members will have expertise in an array of statistical techniques for analyzing processes across time. Individual Research Project #1 will examine the relation between biological (endocrinological reactivity) and behavioral (emotional expression) regulation processes in a sample of infants with pediatric developmental problems Individual Research Project #2 will examine the family mediators between economic hardship and adolescent mental health in 5 longitudinal samples from four geographical sites in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Maryland and one national sample. Individual Research Project #3 will compare the influences of past, assessed from birth through adolescence, and current risk and protective factors on mental health in adulthood. Research Apprenticeships will be associated with each research project and the center core. Research findings will be linked to issues relevant to prevention, treatment and mental health services through the identification of risk factors and risk groups that would be important targets for intervention efforts.