Parent- Teen Lab

 

Drs. Kobak and Ackerman direct the Parent-Teen lab. Our broad goal is to identify and understand trajectories of risk for adolescent mood disorders and anti-social behavior.  Both disorders increase following puberty and require longitudinal designs that track children’s symptoms over time.


Our research topics address three aspects of personality and environmental risk for adolescent psychopathology.  They Include:


  1. •Family factors--caregiver adaptation, attachment security, contextual risk

  2. •School factors--achievement growth and school engagement

  3. •Stress exposure, reactivity and recovery


SAMPLES


Our Parent-Teen Project has followed two cohorts of economically disadvantaged families.  The first cohort began in Head Start programs in 1992/93.  The second cohort consists of economically disadvantaged families with 13 year old children. Both cohorts have been followed to age 17.


We are also conducting several short-term longitudinal studies of elementary, middle and high school students.  These studies investigate more proximal factors such as achievement growth that reduces children’s risk for psychiatric disorder.