Center Grant for the Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood

这个儿童研究倡议中心将汇集来自20个多学科的国家和国际纵向项目的调查人员，共同研究旨在解决儿童环境如何影响他们在童年中期发展的一些关键问题的分析。具体来说，该中心将专注于解开对儿童的影响的复杂性，因为他们通过青春期发展，进入成年，甚至到抚养自己的孩子。研究人员将使用最先进的分析技术，利用他们的数据解决常见的重要问题。该中心将重点关注四个具体问题：1）童年中期是否是一个特别敏感的时期，在此期间，对自我的态度、信仰和观点会具体化，从而决定以后的生活成功（例如，职业、教育、关系成功）或困难（例如，攻击性行为、抑郁症）？2)童年的影响（例如，家庭、学校、同伴）对青少年和成人的积极和消极结果最重要，在什么时候它们最有影响力？3)儿童的个人特征（例如，气质，智力，孩子的性别）影响家庭，学校和同伴的影响，在预测以后的生活结果？4)父母和他们的孩子在积极行为方面有多相似（例如，社会技能，智力成就）和消极行为（例如，攻击性），以及家庭，同龄人和学校的影响如何影响这些跨代的相似性和差异？虽然在任何一个项目中研究的影响是有限的，但将参与该中心的许多项目放在一起可以研究童年时期的广泛影响。此外，由于这些纵向项目的广度，中心的努力将促进新的方法和统计办法。该中心将通过课程，研讨会和合作研究经验促进本科生，研究生和博士后学生的创新，多学科培训。预计研究结果将导致制定有效的干预措施，通过确定对发展具有强大的短期和长期影响的具体因素来改善生活成果。分析将解决家庭，同龄人，学校，邻里和媒体对社会和临床重要结果的影响，如学校的成功/失败，抑郁症，侵略/犯罪和关系的成功。最后，在与学校系统，社区团体和精神卫生机构的合作伙伴关系，该中心将朝着设计和实施科学为基础的干预措施，以减少这些问题的发生率，促进生活的成功。

This Children's Research Initiative Center will bring together investigators from 20 multi-disciplinary national and international longitudinal projects to work collaboratively on analyses aimed at resolving some of the key issues about how children's environment affects their development during middle childhood. Specifically, the Center will focus on disentangling the complexity of influences on children as they develop through adolescence, into adulthood, and even into rearing their own children. The investigators will address common issues of importance with their data using state-of-the-art analysis techniques. The Center will focus on four specific questions: 1) Is middle childhood a particularly sensitive time during which attitudes, beliefs, and views of the self crystallize and thus determine later life success (e.g., occupational, educational, relationship success) or difficulty (e.g., aggressive behavior, depression)? 2) Which childhood influences (e.g., family, school, peer) matter the most for positive and negative adolescent and adult outcomes, and at what points in time do they have the most influence? 3) Do personal characteristics of the child (e.g., temperament, intelligence, gender of the child) influence the impact of family, school, and peer influences in predicting later life outcomes? 4) How similar are parents and their children in positive behaviors (e.g., social skills, intellectual achievement) and negative behaviors (e.g., aggression), and how do family, peer, and school influences affect these cross-generational similarities and differences? Although the influences studied in any one project are limited, taken together the many projects participating in this Center can examine a wide range of influences during childhood. In addition, because of the breadth of these longitudinal projects, the Center's efforts will foster new methodological and statistical approaches. The Center will promote innovative, multi-disciplinary training of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students through courses, workshops, and collaborative research experiences. The findings are expected to lead to the creation of effective interventions for improving life outcomes by identifying specific factors that have powerful short- and long-term influences on development. Analyses will address the effects of family, peer, school, neighborhood, and media influences on socially and clinically important outcomes such as school success/failure, depression, aggression/delinquency, and relationship success. Finally, in partnership with school systems, community groups, and mental health agencies, the Center will move towards design and implementation of scientifically based interventions to reduce the incidence of these problems and to promote life success.