Risk and Protective Factors in School Maladjustment

描述(申请人提供)：这项调查扩展了一项为期10年的纵向研究，在该研究中，多种风险和保护因素被调查为儿童心理和学校适应不良的先兆。该应用程序的长期目标是促进对心理和学校适应不良的前兆和演变的了解，从童年到青春期。具体目标是识别和跟踪儿童及其社会生态的特征，包括早期行为倾向和关系史，这些特征可能会显著改变早期和后来出现的功能障碍形式。对这些目标进行了发展性调查，包括标准样本和高风险样本。目前，参与者正进入青春期。由于青春期是一个过渡和变化的时期，就儿童的适应轨迹而言，这一发展阶段代表着一个关键时刻，可能标志着决定终身适应模式的敏感期。具体目标将在考虑儿童和环境如何在整个生命过程中促进稳定和变化的交易模型的背景下提出。将收集关于K-6年级期间评估的相同预测指标和调整指标的数据，以及利用其他形式的心理和学校调整的措施的数据--即根植于小学期间确定的风险概况和轨迹，但在青春期处于萌芽或流行状态的健康和功能障碍指标。我们还将评估过渡到青春期带来的发展挑战，包括儿童(青春期成熟)和环境(附属过渡，学校压力)的变化。这一扩展的新贡献包括：(A)建立并通过经验验证发展中适应的连续性和变化模型；(B)确定早期行为倾向和人际关系史影响青春期健康和功能障碍的过程；(C)确定早期行为倾向和人际关系史是否影响儿童如何协商过渡到青春期；(D)调查青春期过渡可能如何造成发展中适应的不连续性；以及(E)跟踪男孩和女孩的不同发展轨迹。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This investigation extends a 10-year longitudinal study in which multiple risk and protective factors have been investigated as precursors of children's psychological and school maladjustment. The application's long-term aim is to advance knowledge about the precursors and evolution of psychological and school maladjustment from childhood through adolescence. Specific aims are to identify and track attributes of the child and his or her social ecology, including early behavioral dispositions and relationship histories, that may significantly alter early- and later-emerging forms of dysfunction. These aims are investigated developmentally with both normative and high-risk samples. Currently, participants are entering adolescence. Because adolescence is a time of transition and change, this developmental stage represents a critical juncture in terms of children's adjustment trajectories, perhaps marking a sensitive period in determining life-long patterns of adaptation. Specific aims will be addressed in the context of transactional models that consider how both the child and the environment contribute to stability and change across the life course. Data will be gathered on the same predictor and adjustment indicators assessed during grades K-6, as well as on measures that tap additional forms of psychological and school adjustment--that is, indicators of health and dysfunction that are rooted in the risk profiles and trajectories identified during grade school, but nascent or endemic to adolescence. We will also assess developmental challenges presented by the transition to adolescence, including changes in the child (pubertal maturation) and environment (affiliative transitions, school stress). Novel contributions of the extension include: (a) developing and empirically validating models of continuity and change in adjustment across development; (b) identifying the processes through which early behavioral dispositions and relationship histories influence adolescent health and dysfunction; (c) determining whether early behavioral dispositions and relationship histories affect how children negotiate the transition to adolescence; (d) investigating how adolescent transitions may create discontinuity in adjustment across development; and (e) tracking the distinct developmental trajectories of boys and girls.