RISK RESILIENCE AND DISORDER: AFRICAN AMERICANS TRANSITIONING TO ADULTHOOD

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks 5 years of continued funding for a study of approximately 710 African American children and their families. Our research to date has documented the ways in which ecological contexts such as family processes, peer influences, and community context combine with racial socialization and discrimination to serve as risk factors for depression and antisocial behavior among the target children. The children in the study are now 18-20 years of age and the next few years might be viewed as the most crucial period for our project. This is the peek age period for residential mobility, completing education, marriage, and unemployment. These role transitions represent important discontinuities that can serve as turning points in people's lives. For some, these transitions provide an opportunity to escape childhood risk factors and achieve improved mental health. For others, failure and frustration regarding these transitions may lead to an escalation of internalizing and externalizing problems. We propose to collect two more waves of data in order to investigate hypotheses pertaining to three issues. First, we will evaluate predictions regarding the manner in which ecological contexts combine with personal traits and schemas to influence adult role transitions. Most of our focus will be upon five role transitions: getting married/cohabitating, obtaining satisfactory employment, pursuing higher education, joining the military, and being incarcerated. Second, we will test hypotheses concerning the mechanisms whereby these role transitions reduce or amplify symptoms of depression and antisocial behavior. Finally, we will test explanations for the high incidence of antisocial behavior but lower than expected rates of depression seen among African Americans. This project should provide valuable information regarding the manner in which adult role transitions influence the incidence of antisocial behavior and depression. We have used past project findings to formulate preventative interventions. We hope that that the results obtained from this stage of the project will also serve this purpose.