Developmental Pathways to Antisocial Behavior: A Translational Research Program

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的首要目标是阐明幼儿如何内化规则和价值观，从而发展良心或道德品质。良心是一个包含道德情感、行为自律、道德理解和道德自我的复杂系统，它可能是引导亲社会、遵守规则的行为并防止无情、反社会行为的最强大的因素。良心是在儿童性情、社会关系和家庭生态之间错综复杂的相互作用中发展起来的。提出了良心发展的适应和不适应两种途径的研究。第一项研究将沿用目前100个低风险家庭的样本。在7、15、25、36和52个月时收集了母亲、父亲和孩子独特丰富、大量、多方法、多特征的行为和报告数据。这些丰富的发展历史将与儿童在家庭、学校和同伴环境中的良心和心理健康以及生物学测量有关。为此，建议在66、78和96个月时进行广泛的行为和生物学评估。研究2将在实验设计中测试基于理论的干预措施的有效性，以促进190名低收入母亲的24-42个月大的孩子的良心发展，这些孩子有行为问题的风险。一半的母子二人组将参加为期10周的干预，旨在提高母亲的反应能力，从而加强母子相互反应取向。MRO反过来将促进儿童良心和社会道德能力的多个方面，并防止行为问题。将在干预前、干预后和干预后6个月获得所有测量数据，并与对照组进行比较。在整个项目中，将跟踪母亲和儿童的行为和影响。孩子的气质，母亲的个性，和生态因素的压力和支持将被检查调节干预的有效性。研究2将目前的基础研究项目与发展精神病理学和预防科学联系起来。在这两项研究中，分析阐明了使用结构方程模型（SEM）的结构（中介）和多重因果途径（调节）之间联系的因果机制。这项工作与公共卫生有关，因为适应性良心是一种有效的内在行为指南，对心理健康和社会道德能力至关重要，而良心紊乱则标志着反社会障碍。通过关注适应和不适应的早期途径，我们阐明了早期发育风险和保护因素，并将这些知识转化为有效的干预措施。总之，对低风险群体的基本纵向研究和对高风险群体的干预研究将为社会化理论提供信息，并强调对理解和预防反社会行为问题至关重要的情感、社会和生物行为过程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this research is to elucidate how young children internalize rules and values, and thus, develop conscience, or moral character. Conscience, a complex system encompassing moral emotions, behavioral self-regulation, moral understanding, and the moral self, is perhaps the single most powerful factor that guides prosocial, rule-abiding behavior and prevents callous, antisocial conduct. Conscience develops in an intricate interplay among child temperament, social relationships, and family ecology. Two studies of adaptive and maladaptive pathways in conscience development are proposed. Study 1 will follow the current sample of 100 low-risk families. Uniquely rich, massive, multi-method, multi- trait behavioral and report data have been collected for mothers, fathers, and children at 7, 15, 25, 36, and 52 months. Those rich developmental histories will be related to children's conscience and mental health in family, school, and peer contexts, and to biological measures. Toward that end, extensive behavioral and biological assessments are proposed at 66, 78, and 96 months. Study 2 will test, in an experimental design, effectiveness of a theory-based intervention to promote conscience development in 190 24-42-month-old children of low-income mothers, a population at risk for conduct problems. Half of the mother-child dyads will participate in a 10-week intervention, designed to increase maternal responsiveness, and thus to enhance mother-child mutually responsive orientation (MRO). MRO, in turn, will promote multiple aspects of children's conscience and socio-moral competence and prevent conduct problems. All measures will be obtained prior to, immediately after, and 6 months after the intervention, and compared to the control group. Maternal and child behavior and affect will be tracked throughout the project. Child temperament, mother personality, and ecological factors of stress and support will be examined as moderating the effectiveness of the intervention. Study 2 bridges the current basic research program with developmental psychopathology and science of prevention. In both studies, analyses elucidate causal mechanisms responsible for links among constructs (mediation) and multiple causal pathways (moderation) using structural equations modeling (SEM). This work is relevant to public health because an adaptive conscience that is an effective inner guide of conduct is critical for mental health and socio-moral competence, whereas disturbances of conscience mark antisocial disorders. By focusing on adaptive and maladaptive early pathways, we elucidate early developmental risk and protective factors and translate this knowledge into an effective intervention. Together, basic longitudinal research on a low-risk group and an intervention study in a high- risk group will inform socialization theory and highlight emotional, social, and biobehavioral processes critical for understanding and preventing antisocial conduct problems.