John D. Coie - US grants

The goal of this project is to identify the patterns of behavior that contribute directly to antisocial aggression and social rejection among urban black elementary school boys. Socially rejected boys in this population are known to be at risk for later psychopathology, behavior disorders, and delinquency. In order to design intervention programs aimed at enhancing social competence and preventing later maladaptive outcomes in this population, the behavioral paths leading to social rejection must be identified. Three strategies will be used to identify these paths. The first strategy will be observation by adults. In previous rsearch, the PIs have developed a novel methodology for studying the emergence of peer status, namely, the establishment of a play group of previously unacquainted peers who are observed by adults over time as peer status emerges. This methodology will be used in this project. Also, boys will be observed in their classroom peer groups, during the beginning of a school year as status develops. The focus of observation will also be novel, in that boys' responses to specific, naturally-occurring situations will be coded an evaluated through sequential analyses. Situations of interest include peer group entry episodes, resolution of peer conflicts, and attempts to persuade a peer. The second strategy will consist of interviews with boys who are in the play groups about their reactions to peers and the bases for their labelling and differential bahavior toward peers. The third strategy consists of having boys view videotapes of other boys (whom they have never met) and responding to questions about the bases for their acceptance or rejection of those boys. The hypothesis will be tested that there exist two distinct paths to social rejection, both involving aggression. For one group, the aggression is instrumental in that these boys use coercive strategies in order to gain dominance over peers. For the second group, aggression is a response to frustration which results from social ineffectiveness and the misconstrual of peers' intentions. If this conceptualization is supported empirically, distinct preventive intervention programs can be designed.

This is a proposal to continue the longitudinal study of adjustment and disorder among three large, population-based cohorts of adolescents from predominantly African-American, low-income, urban families. Each cohort was initially assessed for peer social status, academiC achievement, and social behavior, particularly aggression and prosocial behavior in third grade, and those assessments were repeated in fourth and fifth grades. Adjustment to the first year of middle school, delinquency, and teen parenthood was assessed for each total cohort (n = 1749) at the end of sixth grade, and intensiVe assessments of conduct problems, psychological disorder, and drug or alcohol abuse were made on representatiVe, random, stratified subsamples of each cohort (n =648). These assessments will have been repeated at the end of the eighth and tenth grade year for all three cohorts by the end of this project year. Data on family structure and functioning, as well as stressful life events for the subject have been collected on all subsamples concurrently with the psychological assessment. Police records on delinquency, school records on truancy and drop out, and public health records of teen mother live births have been collected for the full cohorts during this period. Social network data, including information on deviant peer group membership was obtained for one cohort at sixth, eighth, and tenth grades and at eighth and tenth grades for one older cohort. The goal of the project for the next five years is to continue the same schedule of data collection on all three cohorts until their class finishes high school. Retainees will be assessed at the time of their cohort and until they graduate. When the majority of each cohort completes twelfth grade, the representative subsamples will be assessed each year for three years, assuring that all subjects will have reached the age of twenty-one. The samples in each cohort are over-sampled for a group of children who fit both Patterson's and Moffitt's theories of early starting delinquents. The additional years of data collection will allow us to identify the late starter groups postulated by these theories. The validity of propositions about social development and peer network involvement for these two groups will be tested on this inner-city African-American population. A second data analytic goal is to analyze patterns of individual change within each of the three major developmental periods covered by this project - preadolescence, adolescence, and early adulthood - and to identify major patterns of development across the three periods. Within this framework, we will establish predictors of risk for delinquency and disorder both in terms of point-to-point predictions and dynamic growth trends. A final goal is to identify patterns of resilience among this sample and to determine protective processes operating within the family and the community. A subsidiary goal will be to track the longterm implications of two small sample interventions that were successful at one year of follow-up prior to middle school.

This is a request for an ADAMHA RSA. The long range goal of this project is to reduce the incidence of multiple forms of disorder in a population of black, urban preadolescents who are at risk because of chronic problems in relating effectively with their peers. Chief among the causes of these problems is that of excessive aggressiveness. One goal of he project is to continue a longitudinal follow-up of three large cohorts on whom data on peer relations, social behavior and achievement were obtained at several points in preadolescence. Adolescent adjustment is assessed from multiple sources on delinquency, school problems, and psychological disorder. Initial analyses of early adolescent adjustment support the hypothesis that aggressive, rejected children are at significantly greater risk for disorder than other children. Two intervention programs are proposed. One is designed to have impact on parents and teachers as well as aggressive, rejected children. The second involves a series of investigations of intervention methods with highly aggressive dyads, first in experimental small groups and then in school settings. The goal of these latter studies is to alter hostile attributions between dyad members and determine whether methods that reduce aggression within dyads are also successful in reducing aggression toward members of the larger peer group. The direction of this research is toward greater attention to the social systems in which risk children interact. One purpose is seeking this award is to have greater time available for developing methods for analyzing dyadic and group behavior from the extensive set of video records of preadolescent group behavior. Closely related to this goal is opportunity to analyze the process by which focused change in aggression takes place within these same groups. On immediate plan for the professional growth of the PI is to acquire greater expertise in recent developments in data analytic methods appropriate for longitudinal, epidemiological data sets. A longer term goal is to prepare for research on the development of emotional control. At present, the primary emphasis of aggression research has been on cognitive mediation factors and social skill deficits. While these are closely related to emotional regulation issues, it is clear that the monitoring and self-regulation of affect is critical to social adjustment.

This is a competing continuation proposal, based on recent findings by the PIs that most of boys' aggression occurs within a small number of dyadic relationships. The major aims of this project are: 1) to develop a reliable and valid method of identifying, aggressive dyadic relationships in boys' peer groups in the school setting; 2) to the relation between social information processing patterns (specifically, hostile attributional biases and motivational withdrawal) and dyadic aggressive behavioral exchanges; and 3) to examine the cognition-behavior relation temporally as boys come to be acquainted with each other. Three studies will be conducted. The first study is directed toward the reliable and valid identification of several types of dyadic relationships in boys' classroom peer groups. Peer, teacher, self-report, teacher diary, and direct observation methods will be employed to identify and validate different kinds of dyadic relationships, including mutually aggressive, asymmetrically aggressive, low-conflict, and unstable dyads. In the second study, boys in these dyadic relationships will interact with each other in experimental play groups conducted on five consecutive days. Boys' hostile attributional biases and motivational withdrawal toward dyadic partners will be related to their socially interactive behaviors with these partners in the free play setting of these groups. It is hypothesized that boys who display hostile attributional biases and motivational withdrawal toward a dyadic partner will aggress frequently and angrily toward that partner. In the third study, the temporal relation between social information processing patterns and aggressive behavior in dyads will be assessed by asking previously unacquainted boys to interact for five play sessions in consecutive days. Daily interviews will assess attributions and motivation toward dyadic partners. It is hypothesized that hostile attributional biases and motivational withdrawal will increase later aggressive conflicts. These studies will lead to a greater understanding of aggressive behavior in dyadic relationships and the role of social cognition in the development of aggressive conflicts. This work will also lead to preventive interventions aimed at reducing aggressive conflicts.

This project consists of the implementation and evaluation of a developmentally based, long-term, comprehensive intervention designed to prevent conduct disorder and social maladaptation in adolescence and adulthood. The hypotheses will be tested that such an intervention will lead to proximal improvements in child behavior and family ecology and, in turn, that these changes will lead to the long-term prevention of conduct disorder. The project will be carried out at four sites (Durham, NC/Duke, Nashville, TN/Vanderbilt, rural Pennsylvania/Penn State, and Seattle, WA/U. of Washington) with three successive cohorts of children who will be followed over 12 years. Kindergarten-age children who are at high risk for conduct disorder will be randomly assigned to an intervention (child n = 480) or control (child n = 480) group. The initial two-year-long intervention will attempt to promote children's compliant behavior, so- cial-cognitive skills, peer relations, and academic success; to promote parents' and teachers' skills in child behavioral management; to assist teachers in promoting children's social competence; and to develop coordination between families and schools. Effects of intervention will be evaluated in multiple theoretically based ways. In addition, a randomly selected group of low-risk children in both intervention and control schools will be followed to examine possible effects of intervention as well as risk factors in the development of conduct disorder. In the proposed three-year grant period, intervention will focus on the developmental period of school entry (grades 1 and 2). Further preventive intervention and evaluation is planned for the transition to middle school and early adolescence in a subsequent grant period.

This project consists of the continued implementation and evaluation of a developmentally based, long-term, comprehensive intervention designed to prevent conduct disorder and social maladaptation in adolescence and adulthood. The hypothesis will be tested that such an intervention will lead to proximal improvements in child behavior and family ecology and, in turn, that these changes will lead to the long-term prevention of conduct disorder. The project is being carried out at four sites (Durham, NC/Duke; Nashville, TN/Vanderbilt; rural Pennsylvania/Penn State, and Seattle, WA/U. of Washington). Two successive cohorts of children who will be followed over twelve years have already been identified, and a third cohort will have been identified prior to the start of the next grant period. Kindergarten-age children who are at high-risk for conduct disorder are randomly assigned to an intervention (child n=480) or control (child n=480) group. The intervention attempts to promote children's compliant behavior, social-cognitive skills, per relations, and academic success; to promote parents' and teachers' skills in child behavioral management; to assist teachers in promoting children's social competence; and to develop coordination between families and schools. This multi- system program is designed to provide intensive intervention for two year periods at two developmentally important transition points (school entry and the transition to middle school), and to provide less intensive criterion-based intervention, classroom-based tutoring and home visiting during the middle elementary school years. The effects of intervention will be evaluated in multiple theoretically based ways. In addition, representatively selected normative group of children in the control schools will be followed to provide normative comparisons for the intervention group, as well as to further investigate risk factors in the development of conduct disorder. Analyses of data comparing the first cohort of high-risk children and their families to the normative children and their families confirm the assumptions of the developmental model of conduct disorder on which this proposal is based. In the proposed three year grant period, intervention will focus on elementary school intervention and the developmental transition that occurs with entrance into middle school (for the first cohort). Further preventive intervention and evaluation is planned to complete the transition to middle school and early adolescence for all cohorts in a subsequent grant period.

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): This project consists of the continued implementation and evaluation of a developmentally based, long-term, comprehensive intervention designed to prevent conduct problems in adolescence. This array of conduct problems which escalate sharply during the adolescent years includes delinquency, psychological disorder, substance abuse, school failure and dropout, and risky sexual practices. The project is being carried out at four sites (Durham, NC/Duck; Nashville, TN/Vanderbilt; rural Pennsylvania/Penn State; and Seattle, WA/Univ. of Washington). Three successive cohorts of children are involved in the project. The screening procedure of Fast Track identified high-risk children in kindergarten by their early conduct problems at home and school. These kindergarten-age children were randomly assigned by school to an intervention control group. Intervention began in the first grade with high-risk children, their adult caretakers, and their teachers. The elementary school phase of the prevention program addressed six areas or risk and protective factors derived from the developmental model: parenting, child problem-solving and emotional coping skills, peer relations, classroom atmosphere and curriculum, academic achievement and home-school relations. Project results thus far indicate that the intervention has effectively improved parenting practices and children's social-cognitive skills, peer relations, reading achievement, and problem behavior at home and school during the elementary school years. The primary aims of this renewal proposal are: 1) to take these three cohorts through the transition-to-adolescence phase of the project, with an intensive intervention in the sixth and seventh grades and then with monitoring and facilitation of their progress through the tenth grade year; and 2) to evaluate the long-term outcomes of this intervention through the high school years. The adolescent phase of intervention emphasizes four protective factors: parental monitoring and positive involvement, protection from deviant peer influences, positive identity and social-cognitive processes, and academic achievement and commitment to school. The proposed adolescent program includes curriculum-based parent and youth sessions (grades 5-7), and individualized prevention services through grade 10 (e.g., academic tutoring, vocational development support, mentoring, consultation with teachers, and home-visiting). Using multiple sources of information on the five categories of adolescent problem behavior, evaluations of outcome will focus on the intervention's success in reducing the latency to onset, frequency, severity, and chronicity of these problems. Comparisons will continue to be made to a control group and to a normative sample representative of the four communities. Universal prevention effects on the classmates of the high-risk participants will also be examined over time.