Family Aggression and Trajectories of Adolescent Adaptation: Bioregulatory Effect

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Aggressive marital conflict and harsh parenting (family aggression) are highly prevalent. Chronic exposure to family aggression elevates adolescents' risk for antisocial and risky behavior, depressed mood, and cognitive decrements - significant public health problems that increase in prevalence and severity during adolescence. Explaining variability in trajectories of adaptation in the context of family aggression - why some adolescent's exhibit resilience and others deteriorate - is a critical need for science and practice. Findings stemming from the proposed study will illuminate autonomic nervous system activity and sleep regulation variables (bioregulatory processes), as well as economic and social context (peer affiliation) variables, which may mediate the risk of family aggression or operate to exacerbate or protect against its effects on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral maladjustment from late childhood through late adolescence. The design builds on a well-characterized 3-wave study; children ranged between 8-11 years across waves. The proposed study will involve 3 additional waves with a 1-year lag: 50% girls, ~14-15 years at T4, with high representation of both African-American and lower SES families. Study constructs are assessed with multiple informants and measures. Sleep parameters are examined objectively, via actigraphy, and subjectively. ANS activity (sympathetic and parasympathetic) is measured with standard indices, and reactivity is assessed with well-established lab procedures. The large and diverse sample, breadth of measurement across important adolescent outcome domains, and a 6-wave longitudinal design will permit analyses of long- term developmental trajectories, interactions among biopsychosocial processes, and profiles of family, bioregulatory and socioecological risk. The proposed study will create new knowledge in areas of great significance through investigations of bioregularoty and socioecological variables that have the potential to enhance understanding of risk among adolescents exposed to family aggression and to identify physiological, behavioral, and ecological targets for intervention. Outcome variables include public health priorities, such as behavioral and emotional adjustment, academic performance (PA-07-046, Research on Mind-Body Interactions and Health), violence (PA-09-169, Research on Teen Dating Violence), and sleep disturbances (PA-07-140, Research on Sleep and Sleep Disorders). Hypotheses will be tested across a wide range of socioecological contexts with a diverse community sample (PA-07-379, Behavioral and Social Science Research on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities). Other key strengths include our focus on estimating trajectories of adolescent functioning across multiple domains; considering the direction of effects between constructs; and comparing the strength of associations at different time points across development.