Friendship and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的调查构成了NIMH资助的纵向项目（NIH #MH 58116）的延伸，在该项目中，社交退缩，攻击性和控制儿童的友谊和亲子关系在他们过渡到中学之前和之后进行了检查。拟议的研究的主要目的是检查发展轨迹的社会退缩和控制儿童/青少年从第一年到最后一年的中学（6日至8年级），并在整个过渡到高中的第一年（9年级），特别强调的作用，修改或加强这些轨迹的重要关系。一般来说，青春期早期，特别是向高中的过渡时期，是孩子们在社会、情感和身体上发生巨大变化的时期。这一时期的发育风险和潜在的保护因素可能比我们当前项目中研究的早期更强烈，更复杂，并带来更严重的后果。我们的研究扩展到9年级将使我们能够检查社会退缩的累积影响，以及跟踪潜在的发展轨迹，这将是不可能的测试与我们目前的数据。 第一个具体的目标是评估控制和撤回的儿童之间的差异，他们与最好的朋友和父母在6日，8日和9年级的关系的性质和质量。第二个具体目标是确定每个年级（6、8、9年级）的行为特征与调整结果之间的关系，以及这些关联如何受到与最好的朋友和父母关系的性质和质量的调节。“结果”包括内化和外化问题或缺乏问题，以及对各领域能力的自我认识。第三个具体目标是评估（a）行为特征（例如，社会退缩）和（B）与最好的朋友和父母的关系的性质和质量。最后，第四个具体目标是评估与最好的朋友和父母的关系如何随着时间的推移形成调整，以及这些途径如何作为行为状态（退缩与控制）的函数而有所不同。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed investigation constitutes an extension of a NIMH-funded longitudinal project (NIH # MH58116), in which the friendships and parent-child relationships of socially withdrawn, aggressive, and control children were examined before and after they made the transition to middle school. The primary purpose of the proposed study is to examine developmental trajectories of socially withdrawn and control children/adolescents from the first to the last year of middle school (6th to 8th grade) and across the transition into the first year of high school (9th grade), with particular emphasis on the roles of significant relationships in modifying or reinforcing these trajectories. The early adolescent period in general and, in particular, the transition to high school is a time of enormous social, emotional, and physical changes for children. The developmental risks and potential protective factors of this period are likely to be more intense, complex, and carry more serious consequences than the earlier period being studied in our current project. The extension of our study to 9th grade will allow us to examine the cumulative effects of social withdrawal, as well as tracking potential developmental trajectories, that would be impossible to test with our current data. The first specific aim is to evaluate differences between control and withdrawn children in the nature and quality of their relationships with best friends and parents in 6th, 8th, and 9th grades. The second specific aim is to determine how behavioral characteristics in each grade (6th, 8th, 9th) are related to adjustment outcomes, and how these associations are moderated by the nature and quality of relationships with best friends and parents. "Outcomes" include internalizing and externalizing problems or the lack thereof as well as self-perceptions of competence in various domains. The third specific aim is to assess the stability over time (grades 6, 8, 9) of (a) behavioral characteristics (e.g., social withdrawal) and (b) the nature and quality of relationships with best friends and parents. Finally the fourth specific aim is to evaluate the ways in which relationships with best friends and parents shape adjustment over time, and how these pathways differ as a function of behavioral status (withdrawal versus control).