John E. Bates, Ph.D. - US grants

The goal of this project is to understand how chronic conduct problems develop from birth through adolescence. Through prospective inquiry, a comprehensive though not exhaustive model will be tested in which biological predispositions (e.g., temperament, heart rate reactivity), sociocultural contexts (e.g., poverty, violent neighborhood), and life experiences (e.g., physical abuse, peer social rejection) are posited as risk factors for conduct problem occurrence and growth. It is proposed that these risk factors combine additively to predict a large portion of variance in adolescent outcomes but also interactively through synergistic effects and moderation of one factor by another. It is hypothesized that life experiences mediate the effects of disposition and context (e.g., difficult temperament and poverty predispose a child to experience harsh parenting which then leads to conduct problem outcomes). Furthermore, this ecosymbiotic developmental model posits reciprocal influences among dispositions, contexts, and life experiences. It is hypothesized that risk factors lead to conduct problems through the development of social knowledge structures which guide cognitive-emotional processes which are proximal to antisocial actions. Developmental sensitivity suggests that different aspects of life experiences are crucial at different developmental eras. This project focuses specifically on adolescent processes, including deviant peer pressure, identity development, and romantic partner relationships. The participants are the 585 boys and girls (100 African-Americans) from three geographic sites and two cohorts of the Child Development Project. They have been followed annually since preschool (age 5) with low attrition, will be in grade 10 (or 9) at the beginning of the proposed project period, and will be followed until the 15th project year 18 months after high school graduation. Data collection will include interviews with parents, adolescents, and their romantic partners, parent-adolescent direct observation, teacher reports, psychiatric interviews, and archival records. Regressions, contrasts of structural equation models, and growth curve plotting will test hypotheses. Emphasis will be given to testing gender-specific and ethnic culture- specific models of antisocial development. The major contributions of this project will be the formulation and empirical testing of a comprehensive theory of how chronic conduct problems develop and indirect implications for universal preventions and preventive interventions for children at high risk for chronic adolescent conduct problems.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application for a competing continuation of the Child Development Project (CDP) aims to test an empirical model of how chronic antisocial behavior develops in a longitudinal study of 585 boys and girls who have been followed annually since preschool and who will turn age 26 during the next five years. The CDP has been federally funded continuously since 1987 with cumulative attrition of less than I percent per year. The sample is diverse in background (17% African-American; 26% born in lowest SES groups; 3 geographic sites of Nashville, TN; Knoxville, TN; and Bloomington, IN) and varied in outcomes at the current age of 21 (36% treated for psychiatric disorders; 21% arrested; 37% suspended from school). 57 CDP publications support a transactional systems model of antisocial development that integrates biological and sociocultural context factors, child and adolescent life events, and acquired cognitive-emotional response patterns as mediators. Discoveries from the CDP include the first prospective demonstration that long-term adverse outcomes accrue from early physical maltreatment in a community sample and that social information processing patterns mediate these effects. Data will be collected annually for the next five years from participants, peers, romantic partners, offspring, observers, and archival records, toward the goal of assessing participants' level of participation, antisocial behavior, and competent prosocial behavior in relationships with other adults (peers, parents, authorities), romantic partners, and offspring. Major innovative aims are to: 1) test the interpersonal relationship domain-specificity of antisocial behavior and cognitive-emotional processes in young adulthood; 2) identify predictors of antisocial behavior in these three domains and to test hypotheses of an additive model, an interactive model, a life-experiences mediational model, a reciprocal-influence model, and a domain-specific model; 3) test the hypothesis that acquired, domain-specific social information-processing patterns mediate the effect of life experiences on antisocial outcomes; 4) test the generalizability of models across gender, ethnic, and cultural groups; 5) test the intergenerational transmission of behavior and cognitive-emotional processes; and 6) contribute to prevention practice and public policy by analyzing data in a way that addresses policy questions. This research will contribute both to basic theories of antisocial development and to prevention science and public policy.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application for a competing continuation of the Child Development Project (CDP) aims to test an empirical model of how chronic antisocial behavior develops in a longitudinal study of 585 boys and girls who have been followed annually since preschool and who will turn age 26 during the next five years. The CDP has been federally funded continuously since 1987 with cumulative attrition of less than I percent per year. The sample is diverse in background (17% African-American; 26% born in lowest SES groups; 3 geographic sites of Nashville, TN; Knoxville, TN; and Bloomington, IN) and varied in outcomes at the current age of 21 (36% treated for psychiatric disorders; 21% arrested; 37% suspended from school). 57 CDP publications support a transactional systems model of antisocial development that integrates biological and sociocultural context factors, child and adolescent life events, and acquired cognitive-emotional response patterns as mediators. Discoveries from the CDP include the first prospective demonstration that long-term adverse outcomes accrue from early physical maltreatment in a community sample and that social information processing patterns mediate these effects. Data will be collected annually for the next five years from participants, peers, romantic partners, offspring, observers, and archival records, toward the goal of assessing participants' level of participation, antisocial behavior, and competent prosocial behavior in relationships with other adults (peers, parents, authorities), romantic partners, and offspring. Major innovative aims are to: 1) test the interpersonal relationship domain-specificity of antisocial behavior and cognitive-emotional processes in young adulthood; 2) identify predictors of antisocial behavior in these three domains and to test hypotheses of an additive model, an interactive model, a life-experiences mediational model, a reciprocal-influence model, and a domain-specific model; 3) test the hypothesis that acquired, domain-specific social information-processing patterns mediate the effect of life experiences on antisocial outcomes; 4) test the generalizability of models across gender, ethnic, and cultural groups; 5) test the intergenerational transmission of behavior and cognitive-emotional processes; and 6) contribute to prevention practice and public policy by analyzing data in a way that addresses policy questions. This research will contribute both to basic theories of antisocial development and to prevention science and public policy.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sleep-related assessments and interventions are increasingly tested in pediatric, psychological, and educational practice. However, the developmental science basis for practice is quite limited. Studies of naturally-occurring sleep have identified sleep deficit variables, but have not placed them in a clear dimensional structure; they have implied but not sufficiently established that sleep affects children's social development; and they have suggested but not established a mechanism for how sleep might shape social development, via effects on growth in self-regulation. To better define the dimensions of sleep deficits and chart the role of sleep deficits in children's social development outcomes, the proposed project longitudinally studies children at ages 2 1/2 , 3, and 3 1/2, a period of relatively intense development in both sleep and self- regulation that sets the stage for later peer and academic success. Children's sleep deficits will be assessed by actigraphs and parent diary, and sleep problems by a clinically-used parent-report scale; self-regulation by laboratory tasks; and adjustment by parent and secondary caregiver reports. Family context, including stressors and parenting, will be assessed at the same times, with questionnaire, interview, and observational methods, and also with the topically relevant, novel method of observing the prelude to the child's bedtime. The following 7 hypotheses are tested: 1) Actigraphic and parent diary measures of child sleep deficit will yield 3, psychometrically sound, separable factors: short amount, night-to-night variability in timing and amount, and within-night fragmentation of sleep, and these factors will both form one 2nd-order factor at each age and apply at all 3 ages. 2) Children will show moderate levels of continuity on the sleep deficit factors. 3) Family context will relate to child sleep to moderate degrees. 4) Sleep deficit factors will be associated with child social adjustment measures both within and across ages, even controlling for family context variables that are also associated with child adjustment. 5) Sleep deficits will also be associated with child self-regulation and its growth, even controlling for family context. 6) Assuming hypotheses 4 and 5 will be supported, child growth in self-regulation will explain effects of sleep on child social development. 7) And as a secondary hypothesis, we expect that temperamental unmanageability and cognitive-verbal skills will each moderate the linkage between sleep deficits and social development outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed study evaluates whether and how young children's sleep deficits have important effects on development of self-regulation and behavioral adjustment. This longitudinal study, which precisely measures the dimensions of sleep deficit, controls for family factors, and tests self-regulation as a developmental mechanism for sleep deficit effects on adjustment, will provide the most authoritative answer to date. Results will guide early childhood programs to prevent behavioral and academic adjustment problems.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study addresses an under-researched, but likely important implication of sleep variations in a particular social and developmental context: It asks how mothers' sleep deficits arise and what they mean for parenting of toddlers. Toddlers create challenges for parents and many parents of toddlers experience sleep deficits, which could amplify the parenting challenges. The study will test a model in which (1) family stressors along with both family and mothers' individual resources influence (2) family chaos, in terms of fewer predictable routines and more noise, which in turn influences (3) mothers' sleep, in terms of extent, fragmentation, and variability, which influences (4) mothers' state levels of cognitive self-regulation, measured in structured tasks, which in turn influences (5) mothers' parenting of their toddlers. The study will also test a set of hypothesized mother temperament moderators of the paths from chaos to sleep (by trait negative affectivity), from sleep to self-regulation to parenting (by trait effortful control and by trait positive affectivity). The study will follow a sample of 250 mothers from toddler age 30 months to toddler age 36 months, and both continuity and predictors of change will be modeled. The sample will be recruited in two geographical areas and represent a range of socioeconomic levels and both European-American and African-American families. The study will advance knowledge about family environment and mother factors influencing mothers' sleep deficits, about how sleep deficits link to self-regulation and parenting, and about how mother temperament dimensions moderate the paths from environment to mother sleep and from mother sleep to self-regulation and parenting. Ultimately, the study will offer new targets for early childhood clinical and prevention research.