The Family Life Project, Phase I, United States, September 2003-January 2008

The purpose of this project is to study the early development of a group of children who are at risk regarding later successful adjustment and for whom we have little information: children living in rural, largely poor communities. A birth cohort of 800 children in three rural counties of North Carolina and 600 children in three rural counties of Pennsylvania were studied over the first 3 years of life. A multidisciplinary team investigated multiple levels of influences affecting the early development of these children. The research emphases of the component research projects include the following: Project I: Temperament: Emphasizes the development of child-related factors and how they predict preschool social-emotional and cognitive competence; Project II: School Readiness: Emphasizes the pathways to and precursors of school readiness; Project III: Family Process: Emphasizes how family processes mediate or moderate the effects of rural poverty on children; Project IV: Work and Family: Emphasizes the impact of parents' occupational conditions on parenting, and, in turn, children's social, cognitive, emotional and linguistic development; Project V: Ethnography: Emphasizes two components:; an in-depth contextual appraisal of community characteristics; a family ethnography with 72 families developmentally ahead of the cohort above to provide input to design and measurement; This project used a cumulative risk model to examine the relation between social risk and children's executive functioning, language development and behavioral competence at 36 months. Using both the Family Process Model of development and the Family Investment Model of development, observed parenting was examined over time in relation to child functioning at 36 months. Different aspects of observed parenting were examined as mediators/moderators of risk in predicting child outcomes. Results suggested that cumulative risk was important in predicting all three major domains of child outcomes and that positive and negative parenting and maternal language complexity were mediators of these relations. Maternal positive parenting was found to be a buffer for the most risky families in predicting behavioral competence. In a final model using both family process and investment measures, there was evidence of mediation but with little evidence of the specificity of parenting for particular outcomes. Results demonstrate the importance of cumulative risk and parenting in understanding child competence in rural poverty and the implications for possible intervention strategies that might be effective in maximizing the early development of these children.本研究旨在探究一批存在后续社会适应良好风险且现有研究资料匮乏的儿童的早期发展状况，此类儿童均生活在以贫困为主要特征的农村社区。本研究对北卡罗来纳州3个农村县的800名出生队列儿童，以及宾夕法尼亚州3个农村县的600名儿童开展了生命前3年的追踪调查。多学科研究团队针对影响此类儿童早期发展的多维度因素展开了系统考察。各分项研究的核心研究重点如下： 项目一：气质（Temperament）：聚焦儿童自身相关因素的发展轨迹，及其对学龄前儿童社会情感能力与认知能力的预测作用； 项目二：入学准备（School Readiness）：聚焦儿童入学准备能力的形成路径与前置影响因素； 项目三：家庭过程（Family Process）：聚焦家庭过程如何介导或调节农村贫困对儿童发展的影响； 项目四：工作与家庭（Work and Family）：聚焦父母职业状况对养育行为的影响，及其如何进一步作用于儿童的社会、认知、情感与语言发展； 项目五：民族志（Ethnography）：聚焦两大研究模块：其一为对社区特征的深度情境化评估；其二为针对72个发育水平超前于上述队列的家庭开展家庭民族志研究，为研究设计与测量工具开发提供实证依据。 本研究采用累积风险模型（cumulative risk model），考察了36月龄时社会风险与儿童执行功能、语言发展及行为能力之间的关联。同时结合发展的家庭过程模型（Family Process Model）与家庭投资模型（Family Investment Model），本研究追踪考察了养育行为的动态变化，并分析其与36月龄儿童发展功能状态的关联。研究还针对观察到的养育行为的不同维度展开分析，以探究其作为风险因素预测儿童发展结局时的中介/调节效应。 研究结果显示，累积风险对儿童三大核心发展领域的结局均具有显著预测作用，而积极与消极养育行为以及母亲语言复杂度均在上述关联中发挥中介效应。研究还发现，母亲的积极养育行为可作为保护缓冲因素，为高风险家庭预测儿童行为能力提供支持。在整合家庭过程与养育投入指标的最终模型中，虽验证了养育行为的中介效应，但未发现养育行为对特定儿童发展结局具有特异性关联的实证证据。 本研究结果证实了累积风险与养育行为在理解农村贫困背景下儿童发展能力中的重要意义，并为制定可有效促进此类儿童早期发展的干预策略提供了理论依据与实践参考。