Economic Stress & Child Development Across 3 Generations

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R01 application seeks five years of support to study family risk and resilience during the current national economic downturn. This research will focus on the social and economic circumstances of a cohort of over 500 adults in their mid to late 30s who have transitioned from the early adult years and are rapidly moving to middle age. The primary goals of the study are to shed light on the processes through which economic hardship affects them and their families and to increase understanding of which individuals and families are either most resilient or most vulnerable to the potentially negative effects of economic hardship. To accomplish these goals, we will build on an existing 3-generation study of rural Iowa families that began 20 years ago in 1989. The Family Transitions Project (FTP) is a community-based panel study of over 500 early adolescents grown to adulthood (G2 targets), their close-aged siblings, their parents (G1), their romantic partners, and their oldest biological child (G3). The FTP originally began as a study of rural family response to the severe recession in the agricultural economy in the U.S. during the 1980s (Conger & Elder, 1994; Conger & Conger, 2002). The G2 youths from the original study are now in their 30s with families of their own; therefore, we are coming full circle as the G2 generation now faces a similar, perhaps even a more severe recession in the national and local economy as faced by their parents 20 years ago. To capitalize on the unique opportunity to follow these participants at this particular point in history, we will collect two full waves of data from G2, G2's romantic partner, and G3 over a 5-year period. This research strategy will allow us to use the data we currently have, as well as to collect the data we need, to evaluate the effects of this downturn on family dynamics and child adjustment. For the past 20 years participants have been assessed on multiple occasions using a measurement strategy that is both extensive (i.e., covers multiple domains of personal and social characteristics) and intensive (i.e., employs a multi-informant approach that includes self-reports, other family member reports, teacher reports, ratings by trained observers, school records, and public records). By combining new data with our already rich archive, we will be uniquely positioned to evaluate how earlier characteristics and life experiences temper the influence of current economic crises. Given the long history of this study, we will be able to evaluate the degree to which pre-existing personality traits, strengths or difficulties in close relationships, occupational accomplishments or failures, and earlier adjustment problems influence responses to the current crisis. This line of research is consistent with NIH priorities regarding health disparities, which seeks to understand 1) why socially and economically disadvantaged adults and children are at increased risk for physical, emotional, and behavioral problems (Berkman & Kawachi, 2000; Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Haas, 2006; McLeod & Shanahan, 1996; Oakes & Rossi, 2003) and 2) how such understanding can be used to reduce such disparities. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Clarification of the intertwining of social, economic, and personal influences on child and adolescent development has the potential for enormous public health benefits, especially during times of economic crisis of the type currently being experienced in the U.S. and across the world. NIH has placed a high priority in its strategic plan on the study of health disparities, the internationally observed trend for more socially and economically disadvantaged people to suffer above average rates of physical, emotional, and behavioral problems. The goal of the current study is to improve knowledge regarding health disparities by investigating socio-environmental and personal processes that either promote competent development or exacerbate emotional or behavioral problems during the current economic downturn in the U.S.