Stability and Change in Attachment and Social Functioning, Infancy to Adolescence

说明(申请人提供)：青春期适应的一个重要方面是社交功能的性质和质量，包括与父母、朋友和浪漫伴侣的关系以及同龄人群体中的一般功能。依恋的安全感或不安全感被认为是对整个生命过程中适应或不适应社会功能的一个关键影响。除了少数值得注意的例外，对社会功能的纵向研究或试图将依恋质量与社会功能联系起来的研究只对相对较少的参与者进行了几年的跟踪调查。关于社会功能的连续性和随时间变化的来源、早期依恋质量与后期依恋质量的预测意义以及背景因素的作用(例如，家庭中的重大生活变化)等关键问题需要大量参与者的长期纵向数据。这些问题的答案对于理解成年后最佳健康功能的发育途径具有重要意义。这项拟议研究的主要目的是调查从婴儿期到青春期后期社会功能和依恋的性质和质量的途径。我们建议利用一个无与伦比的机会，通过登记现有的NICHD早期儿童保育和青年发展纵向研究(SECCYD)样本来解决这些问题。从婴儿期到青春期中期，对1000名SECCYD参与者进行了跟踪调查。我们计划在17.5岁时对这个队列进行评估，并增加依恋质量、社会功能和背景因素的多种衡量标准，我们将通过访谈和基于网络的问卷收集这些数据。青少年的父母、最好的朋友和恋人也将参与其中。其具体目标是：(1)确定青春期后期适应和不适应社会功能的发展途径；(2)评估从幼儿期到青春期后期的关系，以及特定关系质量和依恋质量之间关系的相对强度；(3)评估依恋的稳定性和变化，以及依恋与社会功能的关系，从婴儿期到青春期后期。第二个目标是(4)解决依恋研究中的方法学问题。青春期是研究积极和有问题的发展和行为的重要时期。在这一时期，经历为成年后的正常运作奠定了基础，因为个人会对风险和机会的轨迹进行分类，这些轨迹变得越来越难以改变。因此，了解适应或不适应社会行为和关系模式的发展路径，以及影响发展连续性和社会功能变化的过程，将提供与公共卫生相关的基础知识和理论。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An important aspect of adjustment in adolescence is the nature and quality of social functioning, which includes relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners as well as general functioning in the peer group. A key influence on adaptive or maladaptive social functioning across the life course is thought to be the security or insecurity of attachment. With a few notable exceptions, longitudinal studies of social functioning or studies attempting to link attachment quality with social functioning have followed a relatively small number of participants for only a few years. Key questions regarding sources of continuity and change in social functioning over time, the predictive significance of early vs. later attachment quality, and the role of contextual factors (e.g., significant life changes in the family) require long-term longitudinal data on a large number of participants. The answers to these questions are significant for understanding developmental pathways to optimal healthy functioning in adulthood. The primary purpose of the proposed study is to investigate pathways to the nature and quality of social functioning and attachment from infancy to late adolescence. We propose to take advantage of an unparalleled opportunity to address these questions by enrolling the existing longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) sample. The 1,000 SECCYD participants have been followed from infancy through mid-adolescence. We plan to assess this cohort at age 17.5 years and to add multiple measures of attachment quality, social functioning, and contextual factors, which we will collect via interviews and web-based questionnaires. Parents, best friends, and romantic partners of the study adolescents also will participate. The specific aims are (i) to identify developmental pathways to adaptive and maladaptive social functioning in late adolescence; (2) to evaluate the relations among relationships from early childhood to late adolescence and the relative strength of the associations between the quality of specific relationships and attachment quality; and (3) to evaluate stability and change in attachment, and in attachment in relation to social functioning, from infancy to late adolescence. A secondary aim is (4) to address methodological issues in attachment research. Adolescence is a fundamentally important period for the study of both positive and problematic development and behavior. In this period, experiences set the stage for functioning in adulthood, as individuals sort into trajectories of risk and opportunity that become increasingly difficult to alter. Thus, understanding developmental pathways to adaptive or maladaptive patterns of social behavior and relationships and the processes influencing developmental continuity and change in social functioning will provide fundamental knowledge that is relevant to public health as .well as theory.