A Longitudinal Study of Adopted Youth and Their Families

被收养青少年及其家庭的纵向研究

• 批准号: 6834601
• 负责人: MATTHEW K. MCGUE
• 金额: $ 67.35万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-03-10 至 2007-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6834601
• 关键词: adolescence (12-20); behavioral /social science research tag; caregivers; child behavior; child foster care /adoption; child rearing; clinical research; developmental psychology; environment; family structure /dynamics; father child interaction; human genetic material tag; interview; longitudinal human study; mother child interaction; parents; psychological adaptation; questionnaires; sibling relations; substance abuse related disorder

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A longitudinal study of 400 adoptive and 200 nonadoptive families is proposed to address recent critiques of research aimed at identifying environmental influences on psychological adjustment. Specifically, we seek to confirm the existence of shared environmental influences on adolescent problem behavior, determine whether they are developmentally stable, and explicate the specific sibling and parent factors that underlie their effect. Participating families will consist of adolescent sibling pairs and parents who completed an extensive in-person mental health and psychological assessment three years prior to the proposed follow-up. The in-person follow-up assessment will focus on the siblings and their primary caregivers and closely parallel the intake assessment by including: 1) mental health, 2) substance use and abuse, 3) behavioral Jeviance, 4) family and sibling relations, 5) adoption-specific risk factors, 6) individual-level risk factors, 7) other environmental risk and protective factors, and 8) demographic factors. The focus of the data analysis will be on: 1) estimating the strength of shared environmental influences using standard behavioral genetic models, 2) determining whether parent characteristics are associated with adolescent outcome in adoptive families, where genetic mediation is controlled, 3) testing a developmental model of sibling effects based on the notion of "legitimization", and 4) determining whether specific environmental factors potentiate individual-level risk factors. Our large, representative sample of adopted adolescents also gives us an unprecedented opportunity to rigorously explore the adjustment of adopted individuals who had been placed in infancy. In this regard, we are especially interested in the adjustment of adopted individuals relative to nonadopted individuals, the contribution of adoption-specific risk factors to adoptee adjustment, and the effect of age on adoptees' concerns about birth background and ethnic identification.

描述（由申请人提供）：一项针对400个收养家庭和200个非收养家庭的纵向研究被提出，以解决最近对旨在确定环境对心理适应影响的研究的批评。具体而言，我们试图确认共同环境对青少年问题行为的影响是否存在，确定它们是否具有发展稳定性，并解释其影响的具体兄弟姐妹和父母因素。参与家庭将由青少年兄弟姐妹和父母组成，他们在建议的随访前三年完成了广泛的亲自心理健康和心理评估。面对面随访评估将侧重于兄弟姐妹及其主要照顾者，并通过包括以下内容与摄入评估密切平行：1)精神健康，2)药物使用和滥用，3)行为犯罪，4)家庭和兄弟姐妹关系，5)收养特定风险因素，6)个人层面风险因素，7)其他环境风险和保护因素，8)人口因素。数据分析的重点将放在：1)使用标准的行为遗传模型估计共同环境影响的强度；2)确定父母特征是否与收养家庭的青少年结局有关，其中遗传中介是受控的；3)基于“合法化”概念测试兄弟姐妹效应的发展模型；4)确定特定环境因素是否会加剧个人层面的风险因素。我们大量的，有代表性的被收养的青少年样本也给了我们一个前所未有的机会来严格探索被收养的人在婴儿期的调整。在这方面，我们特别感兴趣的是被收养者相对于非被收养者的调整，被收养特定风险因素对被收养者调整的贡献，以及年龄对被收养者对出生背景和种族认同的关注的影响。