IRADS: Collaborative on the Analyses of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood

这项合作的目的是促进对与人类发展途径有关的现有纵向数据集进行创新的跨学科分析和解释。追踪童年时期家庭、同伴、邻里和学校对生活成功和成年后问题行为的相互影响是一项具有挑战性的任务，这对于理解人类发展和设计干预措施治疗适应不良行为至关重要。长期跟踪儿童的个人纵向研究项目通常关注的是可能影响日后行为的有限数量的童年因素。这次合作的核心是认识到社会和行为科学中的每一个学科都对我们对人类行为和发展的集体理解做出了重大贡献。我们科学的发展现在需要一个协调的方法来进一步阐明经验和发展的复杂性；因此，当前的协作包括社会学家、经济学家、教育专家和心理学家。这次合作在几个方面比以前的努力范围更广：(1)它开始于一组相对较大的已建立的、类似的和承诺的纵向项目，涉及来自一系列行为科学学科的学者；(2)它考察了从童年到青春期到成年并跨越几代人的整个生命历程的发展；(3)它在许多环境中考察人类发展，包括家庭、同伴群体、邻里、学校和社区；（四）采用最先进的统计分析技术；(5)研究结果将对理解和创造有效的干预措施产生影响；(6)将广泛传播实质性和方法论知识。具体主题的样本包括：影响儿童入学准备的因素；父母获得额外教育经验对孩子的影响；父母教养策略对儿童行为的双向影响以及童年和青少年攻击的成年结果（如教育和职业成功、物质使用）。总而言之，经过几十年富有成效但零散的纵向研究，该合作计划整合和复制现有纵向（社区水平、国家和国际）研究的结果，并在我们的发展科学知识方面取得许多进展。协作组培养新的方法和统计方法，特别是研究同时发生的、多种相互作用的生态环境的模型，这些将通过会议、发表论文和邀请谈话传播。该项目包括来自不同学科的专家参加会议和活动，并鼓励未被充分代表的本科生、研究生和博士后学生以及密歇根大学和项目所在地的教师参与。结果将为社会心理干预和社会政策提供信息。在某种程度上，研究人员能够更充分地了解生活中成功和不成功的影响和机制，就越有可能创造出对个人、家庭、学校和社区产生影响的干预措施。研究不同国家的社会政策，以了解儿童和家庭的福祉如何因每个国家的政策条件而有所不同，这是这次合作的一个具体重点。努力将协作组的研究成果传播给学术界以外的政策制定者、研究人员和其他干预和政策制定的重要利益相关者。

This collaboration aims to stimulate innovative, interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of existing longitudinal data sets bearing on pathways through human development. Tracing the interacting effects of family, peer, neighborhood, and school influences during childhood on life success and problem behaviors in adulthood is a challenging task that is critical to understanding human development and designing interventions to treat maladaptive behavior. Individual longitudinal research projects that follow children over time usually have focused on a limited number of childhood factors that might shape later behavior. At the heart of this Collaborative is the recognition that each of the disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences has made substantial contributions to our collective understanding of human behavior and development. The evolution of our science now requires a coordinated approach to further elucidate the complexities of experience and development; thus, the current Collaborative involves sociologists, economists, education specialists, and psychologists. This Collaborative is broader in scope than previous efforts in several ways: (1) it begins with a relatively large set of established, similar, and committed longitudinal projects involving scholars from a range of behavioral science disciplines; (2) it examines the full span of life-course development, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and across generations; (3) it examines human development in the many contexts in which it occurs, including families, the peer group, neighborhoods, schools, and communities; (4) it utilizes the most advanced statistical analysis techniques; (5) findings will have implications for understanding and creating effective interventions; and (6) there will be widespread dissemination of both the substantive and methodological knowledge. A sample of specific topics include: factors affecting children's school readiness; effects on children of parents obtaining additional educational experiences; the bidirectional effects of parenting strategies on children's behavior over time; and adulthood outcomes (e.g., educational and occupational success, substance use) of childhood and adolescent aggression. In sum, after several decades of productive yet fragmented longitudinal research in the field, this Collaborative intends to integrate and replicate findings from existing longitudinal (community-level, national, and international) studies and take many steps forward in our knowledge of developmental science.The Collaborative fosters new methodological and statistical approaches, particularly models that examine simultaneous, multiple interacting ecological contexts, which will be disseminated through conferences, published papers, and invited talks. The Collaborative involves experts from a variety of disciplines in its meetings and activities, and encourages the participation of underrepresented undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students, and faculty both from the University of Michigan and from the project sites. Results will inform psychosocial interventions and social policy. To the extent that researchers can more fully understand the influences and mechanisms that contribute to success and lack of success in life, the more likely it is that interventions can be created that will make a difference to individuals, families, schools, and neighborhoods. It is a specific focus of this Collaborative to examine social policies in different countries to understand how the well-being of children and families may differ due to the policy conditions in each country. Efforts will be made to disseminate the research findings of the Collaborative beyond academic circles to policymakers, researchers, and other important stakeholders in intervention and policy development.