U.S.-Federal Republic of Germany Cooperative Research: Developmental Transitions and Adolescent Problem Behavior

这一奖项将使宾夕法尼亚州立大学个人和家庭研究系的Anne C.Petersen教授能够与德意志联邦共和国吉森大学的Rainer K.Silbereisen教授合作。他们将研究挑战在一些青少年产生问题行为的发展转变中所起的作用。被牵连的一些挑战包括青春期提前成熟、青春期早期转校，以及对有限的学校教育和成人工作机会的期望。彼得森教授对美国的两个青少年样本进行了纵向研究，一个是中上阶层青少年，另一个是中下阶层青少年。Silbereisen教授一直在做类似的研究，使用了更大的德国和波兰样本。通过他们的共同努力，研究人员将能够检查关于他们感兴趣的变量的更广泛的信息，他们将能够测试一些年轻人发展问题的过程的因果模型。由于合作研究所包括的社会的差异，诸如上学时间表、进入劳动力市场的时间和结构以及对何时开始组建家庭的预期等变量可以被检查并包括在假设中。

This award will enable Professor Anne C. Petersen, Department of Individual and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, to collaborate with Professor Rainer K. Silbereisen, University of Giessen, Federal Republic of Germany. They will study the role of challenges in developmental transitions for producing problem behavior among some adolescents. Some challenges that have been implicated are early pubertal maturation, a school change in early adolescence, and expectations of limited schooling and adult work opportunities. Professor Petersen has carried out longitudinal studies on two samples of adolescents in the United States, one of middle to upper middle class adolescents, the other of lower to lower middle class adolescents. Professor Silbereisen has been doing similar research, using larger German and Polish samples. By combining their efforts the researchers will be able to examine a broader range of information on their variables of interest, and they will be able to test causal models of the processes by which some young people develop problems. Because of differences in the societies included in the collaborative research, such variables as schooling schedules, times and structures for entering the workforce, and expectations about when to start a family can be examined and included in the hypotheses.