Vonnie C. McLoyd - US grants

The goal of this research is to study four basic issues: (1) the effects of maternal job loss on the mental health of single Afro- American mothers and their children, (2) the influence of social support, the quality of the mother-child relationship, and family decision-making style on children's response to maternal job loss, (3) the effects of maternal job loss and unemployment on children's achievement behavior, values, and expectations, and (4) the relationship of children's causal attributions about job loss and employment to their achievement behaviors, values, and expectations. The study also will examine the influence of several cognitive factors on mothers' response to job loss. Though few studies have examined the impact of parental job loss on contemporary children, the findings that are available justify concern about the mental health of children of unemployed workers. The proposed research will provide information about an understudied group that may be at increased risk of economic deprivation and psychological harm following job loss. It will provide insight into those factors that mitigate adverse effects of job loss on children and mothers. The subjects will be 150 unemployed, single Afro-American women and their 7th and 8th grade children and 75 employed, single Afro- American women and their 7th and 8th grade children. The study will use a 2-wave longitudinal design. Mothers and children will be interviewed twice, separated by a period of 5-6 months. Among the child variables that will be assessed are anxiety, depression, values and expectations about education, achievement behavior, values and expectations about work, and causal beliefs about unemployment. The degree of social support an the quality of the mother-child relationship also will be assessed. At each wave, teachers will provide an assessment of the child's school performance, peer relations, behavioral problems, and adaptive functioning. Among the mother variables that will be assessed are anxiety, depression, self-esteem, schema about individual- various system-blame, family decision-making style, expectations for the child and, causal attributions about job loss.

This is the second submission of a project that seeks funding to replicate findings across five major longitudinal studies to evaluate the effects of economic hardship on adolescent adjustment. It will replicate the basic mediating model of economic stress and parenting. In this theoretical model the effects of economic hardship on adolescents are mediated by their effects on parents' mental health and subsequently, parenting behaviors. As parents become distressed due to perceived financial distress, they become depressed, irritable, and less warm and supportive toward their children. In turn, the children manifest less positive developmental outcomes than those from families not experiencing economic hardship.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Training Program in Research on Black Child Development seeks to prepare highly selected predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in psychology and related disciplines for distinguished careers in behavioral research focusing on African American children and families. Support for 4 predoctoral students and 2 postdoctoral fellows each year for a 5-year period is requested. The impetus for the program is the acute need for well-trained scientists who will advance knowledge about development in African American children. Because the program will train both ethnic minority and non-minority graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, it will serve the critical needs for a continuing supply of well trained scientists equipped to pursue innovative and exemplary research and a better representation of ethnic minority scientists in behavioral research. The program is structured to achieve several complementary goals: (a) to equip trainees with expertise in diverse research methodologies, especially longitudinal methods, and their application to the behavioral study of African American children and families;(b) to promote broad, multidisciplinary, and multi-level perspectives on African American children's socioemotional and psychoeducational development, health-related behaviors, and physical well being;(c) to foster competence in research strategies that enhance the cultural sensitivity and validity of research with African American populations;(d) to develop skills in addressing ethical issues, especially those prone to arise in research with ethnic minority and poor children and parents;and (e) to promote understanding of the application of developmental research to issues of practice and policy. Training of each predoctoral student and postdoctoral fellow will extend over a 2-year period. Predoctoral trainees typically will begin the program upon entry into graduate study in Developmental Psychology and the child/family subspeciality area of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill. All trainees will receive research training through (a) active participation in supervised research in the laboratory of training faculty in Psychology and the Center for Developmental Science, (b) participation in advanced seminars and workshops focusing on ethnic minority research issues and populations, human development, developmental methodology, and policy issues, and (c) involvement in national professional meetings and summer institutes.

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): American youth are growing up in more contextually varied and distinct circumstances. Extensive research indicates that these circumstances profoundly impact the health and well-being of individuals both positively and negatively across the life course. However, little is known about how economic, cultural and ethnic contexts become biologically embedded and how this interaction with biology during development influences trajectories of developmental and health outcomes. Part of the reason for the sparse knowledge is that few investigators have expertise in the three domains necessary to successfully grapple with these questions, namely, developmental science of context, human neurobiology, and advanced research methods. We propose a training program that will help fill this gap in understanding. The objective is to train an outstanding cohort of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows on three pillars of knowledge: (1) developmental science of context; (2) human neurobiology, including brain imaging, genetics, epigenetics, and endocrine function; and (3) advanced research methods (e.g., quantitative statistics appropriate for combining and analyzing longitudinal data from different levels of functioning). This cross-training, which is predicated on an understanding of basic developmental processes, will produce researchers well-positioned to develop cutting- edge work that advances knowledge about how neurobiological factors interact with environmental contexts to influence development across several domains and contexts. It will help meet the demand for developmental scientists who integrate neuroscience perspectives and methods into their programs of research and possess the requisite skills for successful, collaborative, interdisciplinary work at the interface of neurobiology, context, and behavioral development. The demand for this expertise is strong and predicted to grow for years to come, as appreciation increases for the role of neurobiology in normative cognitive and social development and in developmental, learning, and behavior disorders. We request funds to support four advanced predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees each year. Trainees will engage in a two-year series of courses and mentor-based research training that will allow them to integrate work on context and human neurobiology. The training program will be housed in the Developmental Area within the Department of Psychology. In addition to the 22 members of the Developmental faculty, the training grant includes six additional faculty members from other units including Human Genetics, Biopsychology and Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience. The training will draw on the rich resources of the University of Michigan, including extensive training in integrative research, courses in advanced methodology and statistics and opportunities for engaging in international research. The training program will prepare predoctoral and postdoctoral students to bridge research in the developmental science of context and human neurobiology in order to decipher how the social environment interacts with genetics and the brain to guide development.