An Ethological Analysis of Children's Profiles of Security in Peer Contexts

描述（由申请人提供）：应对同伴逆境是儿童时期的常见现象，会显着增加精神病理学和适应问题的风险。然而，很少有人知道的性质，前兆，相关因素和发展的后遗症，儿童的行为模式的个体差异，以应对同伴困难。在解决这一知识差距，这一建议的目的是应用行为学的情绪安全理论（EST-R;戴维斯和Sturge-Apple，2007年），以推进儿童的社会行为的研究，在agonic同伴关系的目标，在同伴环境中保持安全感。作为EST-R用于研究生物学动态的第一个测试，本申请试图解决以下具体目标：（1）确定性质和发展过程（即，儿童收养中的个体差异 （2）阐明安全性特征与同伴生态学邻近特征之间的相互关系;（4）检验一年内安全性特征在心理健康和社会适应后遗症方面的假设特异性。 为了实现这些目标，本申请建议利用丰富的现有数据集，通过间隔一年的两个夏令营，对超过238名6至11岁的儿童进行高风险样本。作为该项目的补充，将实施一种新的测量方法，严格检查儿童的行为模式，以应对威胁的同伴事件在自然的同伴设置使用创新的基于行为学的编码方案。在仔细观察和更广泛的多方法，多信息设计的背景下，复杂的多层次结构方程建模和基于模式的分析旨在为新的理论指导的假设提供严格的测试。因此，这项研究有可能显着推进知识的发展性质，前兆和不和谐的同伴关系的后遗症，直接影响提高有针对性的识别风险儿童的指导研究，确定不同的因果过程和目标机制的变化干预措施。. 公共卫生相关性：鉴于压力性同伴事件的普遍存在及其对儿童和社会造成的深刻心理和经济代价，了解儿童如何适应威胁性同伴互动是一个重要的公共卫生优先事项。因此，这个项目的总体目标是（a）区分儿童对压力性同伴事件的行为反应模式，（2）阐明与不同反应特征相关的同伴生态的近端特征，以及（c）绘制这些对压力性同伴事件的反应对儿童心理健康的影响。通过解决这些问题，该应用程序将有助于提供必要的知识，为旨在改善儿童福利的临床和政策举措提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Coping with peer adversity is a common occurrence in childhood that markedly increases the risk for psychopathology and adjustment problems. However, little is known about the nature, precursors, correlates, and developmental sequelae of individual differences in children's behavioral patterns of responding to peer difficulties. In addressing this knowledge gap, this proposal is designed to apply the ethological reformulation of Emotional Security Theory (EST-R; Davies & Sturge-Apple, 2007) to advance the study of children's social behavior within agonic peer relationships in relation to the goal of maintaining sense of security in peer contexts. As a first test of the utility of the EST-R for the study of per dynamics, this application seeks to address the following specific aims: (1) identify the nature and developmental course (i.e., stability, change) of individual differences in children's adoption of five security profiles of defending against peer threat, (2) explicate interrelationships betwee the security profiles and the proximal characteristics of the peer ecology, and (4) examine hypothesized specificity in the mental health and social adjustment sequelae of the security profiles over the course of one year. To address these objectives, this application proposes to utilize a rich existing data set that followed a high risk sample of over 238 6- to 11-year-old children through two summer camps spaced one year apart. As a supplement to the project, a novel measurement approach will be implemented to rigorously examine children's patterns of behavioral responding to threatening peer events in naturalistic peer settings using an innovative ethologically-based coding scheme. Within the context of careful observations and a broader multi-method, multi-informant design, the sophisticated multi-level structural equation modeling and pattern-based analyses are designed to offer rigorous tests of the novel, theoretically guided hypotheses. Consequently, the study has the potential to significantly advance knowledge on the developmental nature, precursors, and sequelae of discordant peer relationships with direct implications for improving targeted identification of children at risk an guiding studies that identify distinct causal processes and target mechanisms for change in intervention initiatives. . PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In light of the prevalence of stressful peer events and its profound psychological and economic costs to children and society, understanding how children adapt to threatening peer interactions is an important public health priority. Accordingly, the overarching objective of this project is to (a) distinguish between patterns of children's behavioral responses to stressful peer events, (2) explicate the proximal characteristics of the peer ecology that are associated with different profiles of reactivity, and (c) chart the implications of these responses to stressful peer events for children's mental health. By addressing these questions, this application will help provide knowledge necessary to inform clinical and policy initiatives designed to improve the welfare of children.