Child Representation & Regulation Project (ChiRRP)

This project aims to understand the specific relations between how children think and feel about themselves, others, and relationships (i.e., representation) and various indices of regulation (e.g., emotional, behavioral, physiological, and interpersonal). We are interested in understanding how early experience affects these representational and regulatory systems to influence child adaptation. We are especially interested in how features of the parent-child relationship may strengthen or undermine these systems individually, and/or the relationship between them.

The ChiRRP is a longitudinal study of 240 children, who were first assessed at age 4 and will be followed across the transition into formal schooling. Participants are drawn from various agencies, particularly those serving low-income families and/or families at risk for child maltreatment. Joined by their caregivers, children are evaluated in the Adversity and Adaptation Lab using behavioral observations of the child in a series of game-like tasks and of caregiver-child interactions. In addition, questionnaire and interview data are gathered from the child, caregivers, and teachers.

This study addresses key questions about the relation between representation and regulation, if and how these relations may vary as a function of early childhood experience, and how they affect children's early socioemotional and academic functioning. Future expansions of this work will include annual follow-ups through age 8, and the incorporation of biological measures of stress reactivity and regulation (e.g., vagal tone, cortisol).

We expect to complete Wave 1 in January 2010, and Wave 2 data collection is currently underway.

Children of Mothers with Major Mental Illnesses

Dr. Yates is a co-investigator on Dr. Suniya Luthar's NIMH-funded study of risk and resilience among children of mothers with major psychiatric disorders. This study includes three groups of mothers: those with histories of cocaine or heroin abuse; depression or anxiety; or neither of these sets of diagnoses. 360 mother-child dyads have been followed from middle childhood to young adulthood across 3 waves of multi-level, multi-method data collection. Current projects using this data set include investigations of mother's ego development and its influence on parenting and child outcomes across different diagnostic groups, and a study of risk and protective factors among children of mothers with psychiatric disorders.

Adapting to Aging Out:

Risk & Resilience Among Former Foster Youth

With the support of the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation , this investigation explores the experiences of youth (ages 17-21) as they transition out of the foster care system and into adult independence, a process commonly referred to as "aging out". This is a mixed methods longitudinal study that focuses on trajectories of education, employment, health and relationships among transition-age youth. Interviews are collected on an annual basis, in addition to objective reports from youths' friends, school records, and child protection records.

This study focuses on a new notion of “cascading representations” in an effort to understand how early relational experiences, and the expectations they engender, spill over to shape development and adaptation in age-salient domains of functioning. This research advances beyond identification and quantification of material barriers to care and success, to explore the internal, psychological, and representational processes that may serve as equally strong barriers to success among adversity-exposed young people.

More than 40 Wave 1 interviews have been completed so far with data collection continuing over the next 3 years.

The Young Adult Adaptation Survey

(YAAS)

Amidst dramatic increases in distress and risk-taking among adolescents and young adults, the Young Adult Adaptation Survey examines the etiology and developmental pathways underlying trajectories toward and away from specific (mal)adaptive outcomes. In keeping with the AD Lab's interest in both positive and negative development, we are interested in processes leading to psychopathology (e.g., substance use, dating violence, risk-taking), as well as those contributing to competence (e.g., self-esteem, emotion regulation, positive attachment to friends and family). We are especially interested in mechanisms that explain if and how adverse and traumatic experiences in childhood influence these developmental pathways.

Data collection for this survey study was completed in the winter of 2008, with a sample of ~2700 college students. The survey focuses on adverse life events in childhood, various symptoms related to traumatic experience, and adaptation with respect to age-salient developmental issues in young adulthood, including relationships with peers, partners, and family, and adjustment to school and work. Data were gathered via the individual administration of questionnaires to students drawn from the UCR participant pool. This study sought to understand if and how childhood experiences influence pathways toward and away from specific (mal)adaptive outcomes (e.g., substance use, self-injury, eating disorders, relationship quality, school achievement).