TWIN/ADOPTION STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

描述：童年中期是一个重要的发展时期， 儿童走出家庭进入社会系统， 认知和社会情感长期预测的出现 在以后的生活中发挥作用。 尽管童年中期的理论和实践重要性， 关于遗传和环境的起源知之甚少， 这一时期的个体差异，或关于他们与 童年中期前后的发展。 的目的 拟议的3年延续期是为了完成调查员的 一项针对7岁儿童的纵向前瞻性研究， 采用和孪生数据，以提供最强大的设计， 研究童年中期个体差异的起源， 他们早期和后期的发展联系。 对183对7岁的双胞胎进行测试将完成研究人员的研究 624名收养和非收养儿童以及435对7岁的双胞胎， 每年都会在婴儿期和幼儿期进行研究，其中 将继续在青春期和成年早期进行研究。 遗传 环境对行为的影响将采用 多变量最大似然模型拟合分析 遗传和环境对7岁儿童功能影响的假说 以及7年功能与早期和晚期之间的关联 这些儿童的发育和环境数据。 该项目的大样本，其多元和纵向的方法， 它结合了家庭、收养和孪生设计， 儿童中期行为发展的里程碑式研究。 的 本请求的目的是利用以前提供的支助， 完成这项独特的研究。

DESCRIPTION: Middle childhood is an important developmental era marked by the child's entry into social systems outside the home and by emergence of long-term prediction of cognitive and socioemotional functioning later in life. Despite the theoretical and practical importance of middle childhood, little is known about the genetic and environmental origins of individual differences during this era or about their links with development before and after middle childhood. The purpose of the proposed 3-year continuation is to complete the investigators' longitudinal prospective study of 7-year-olds that combines family, adoption, and twin data to provide the most powerful possible design to investigate the origins of individual differences in middle childhood and their earlier and later developmental links. Testing 183 twin pairs at age 7 will complete the investigators' study of 624 adopted and nonadopted children and 435 twin pairs at 7 years who have been studied yearly during infancy and early childhood and whom will continue to be studied in adolescence and early adulthood. Genetic and environmental influences on behavior will be assessed employing multivariate maximum-likelihood, model-fitting analyses to test hypotheses of genetic and environmental influences on 7-year functioning and on the association between 7-year functioning and earlier and later developmental and environmental data obtained for these same children. The project's large sample, its multivariate and longitudinal approach, and its combined family, adoption, and twin design have made this a landmark study of behavioral development in middle childhood. The purpose of the present request is to capitalize on previous support in order to complete this unique study.