Integrated Research Activities for Developmental Science (IRADS)- Child Development Research Collaborative

发育科学综合研究活动（IRADS）-儿童发展研究合作组织

• 批准号: 0720660
• 负责人: Martha Cox
• 金额: $ 250万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0720660&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Integrated; Research; Activities; Developmental; Science

From many sectors of our society, concerns have been raised about the poor academic achievement of large numbers of American children. Those children who struggle in the first few years of formal schooling are more likely than their high-achieving peers to exhibit academic difficulties in subsequent years. They are also at increased risk for a range of emotional and behavioral problems that are costly to society. Because the PIs have little understanding of why some children do well and others do not, this project was designed to addresses critical questions concerning the ways in which the transition to early formal schooling confers advantage on some children and disadvantage on others. From our perspective, progress in understanding the multiple pathways that may be taken by individual children requires a multi-level approach ? from genes to environments ? for characterizing development. Such a multidisciplinary approach is at the core of the program of Integrative Research Activities for Developmental Science (IRADS) research that is to be carried out by collaborators associated with the Center for Developmental Science (CDS).The transition to school presents the developing child with a unique set of social, cognitive, and emotional challenges, each of which carries with it increased demands for self control. In the context of the classroom, children not only interact with new authority figures and classmates, but they also engage in novel rule-based activities and encounter raised expectations for performance. Central to the PIs exploration of these critical challenges to the child is an investigation that builds upon the success of a unique longitudinal and mixed method study that was launched in 2002 with a broad sample of 200 infants and their families. The PIs unusual cohort ? composed of equal numbers of African Americans and European Americans, with each group including families across a wide socioeconomic spectrum ? was studied from birth through the preschool years. A complex protocol was employed to gather information concerning temperament and emotional regulation; cognitive processes and executive functioning; family and peer relationships; social, child-care, and community influences; and biological and genetic processes. Given this rich foundation, the plan is to follow the sample over the next five years, as the children navigate the transition to school. Assessments of the children, families, and school contexts will be carried out when the children are in Kindergarten and Grades 1, 2, and 3. In addition, the data from this study will be augmented by genetic information that we will obtain from participants in two additional longitudinal projects that are being conducted currently by CDS faculty members. The PIs efforts are informed fully by the exciting findings that the PIs have obtained to date and lead the PIs to specify unique hypotheses that span levels of analysis. As examples, consider the following two hypotheses, one that reflects the effects of Gene X Environment co-actions on development, and one that explores the implications of early emotion regulation and cognitive processes for the transition to school.-Children with the 7-repeat allele and the T.7 hapoltype are at an advantage with regard to focused attention, an advantage that will translate into better emotion regulation and/or cognitive performance and school achievement. Positive parenting and/or a structured classroom setting will be protective factors for children who do not have this genetic advantage. The disadvantages of poor classroom and/or home environment will be even more pronounced in children who also lack this genetic variation-Children who are highly reactive temperamentally as preschoolers will experience more difficulty with the transition to formal schooling than will less reactive children, but this relation will be moderated by cognitive factors (e.g., high levels of working memory, skills in phonic awareness), the nature of the classroom environment, and emotional regulation.By using tracking children as they make the transition to school with a multilevel genes-to-environments assessment protocol, it will be possible to elucidate both the plasticity of adaptation and development and the impact of contextual constraints. In addition, the project provides an unusual collaborative context for the professional development of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and young faculty members.

在我们社会的许多部门中，人们对大量美国儿童的学术成就不佳引起了人们的关注。那些在正规教育的头几年挣扎的孩子比他们的高分同龄人更有可能在随后的几年中表现出学术困难。他们也面临着一系列情感和行为问题的风险，这对社会来说是昂贵的。因为PI对某些孩子为什么做得很好，而其他人则不了解，因此该项目旨在解决有关早期正规教育过渡的方式的关键问题，从而使某些孩子对某些孩子的优势和对另一些孩子的劣势表示优势。从我们的角度来看，了解个别孩子可能采取的多种途径的进展需要多层次的方法吗？从基因到环境？用于表征发展。这种多学科的方法是由与发展科学中心（CDS）相关的合作者进行的发展科学综合研究活动（IRADS）研究计划的核心。向学校的过渡为发展中的孩子提供了独特的社会，认知和情感挑战，每种挑战都带来了对自我控制的需求。在课堂的背景下，孩子们不仅与新的权威人物和同学互动，而且还从事基于规则的新型活动和遭遇提高了对绩效的期望。 PIS探索对儿童的这些关键挑战的核心是一项研究，该调查基于一项独特的纵向和混合方法研究的成功，该研究于2002年推出了2002年的200个婴儿及其家人。 PI不寻常的队列？由相等数量的非裔美国人和欧洲人组成，每个群体都包括各个社会经济范围内的家庭？从出生到学龄前就被研究。 采用复杂的协议来收集有关气质和情绪调节的信息；认知过程和执行功能；家庭和同伴关系；社会，儿童保育和社区影响；以及生物学和遗传过程。 鉴于这个富有的基础，计划将在未来五年内遵循样本，因为孩子们渡过了学校。 当儿童在幼儿园和1、2和3年级时，将对儿童，家庭和学校环境进行评估。此外，这项研究的数据将通过我们将在CDS教师目前由CDS教师目前正在进行的其他两个纵向项目中获得的遗传信息来增强。 PIS的努力得到了令人兴奋的发现，即PI迄今为止已经获得的，并带领PI指定了跨越分析水平的独特假设。 As examples, consider the following two hypotheses, one that reflects the effects of Gene X Environment co-actions on development, and one that explores the implications of early emotion regulation and cognitive processes for the transition to school.-Children with the 7-repeat allele and the T.7 hapoltype are at an advantage with regard to focused attention, an advantage that will tr​​anslate into better emotion regulation and/or cognitive performance and school achievement.积极的育儿和/或结构化教室环境将成为没有这种遗传优势的儿童的保护因素。 The disadvantages of poor classroom and/or home environment will be even more pronounced in children who also lack this genetic variation-Children who are highly reactive temperamentally as preschoolers will experience more difficulty with the transition to formal schooling than will less reactive children, but this relation will be moderated by cognitive factors (e.g., high levels of working memory, skills in phonic awareness), the nature of the classroom environment, and emotional regulation.By使用跟踪儿童在通过多级基因到环境评估方案过渡到学校时，有可能阐明适应性和发展的可塑性以及上下文约束的影响。 此外，该项目为研究生，博士后研究员和年轻教职员工的专业发展提供了不寻常的协作背景。