Project Description
Compared to adolescents or adults in mid-life, young adults (aged 22-26) are at higher risk of death and disease from a variety of causes, most of which are preventable, including mental health problems, substance use, sexually transmitted infections, homicides, and motor vehicle accidents. Mental health and substance use disorders alone account for approximately two-thirds of the burden of disability in early adulthood in the United States, patterns that are similar in many other countries. Although the burden rate is similar to that of the United States in many other countries, little is known of cross-cultural heterogeneity in potential risk and protective factors during early adulthood. Is the risk associated with early adulthood bound to the culture of the United States, or is it a universal phenomenon? Do the early emerging risk factors, developmental trajectories from childhood, and mediating processes for young adult outcomes vary by culture? Understanding cross-cultural similarity and heterogeneity in childhood and adolescent risks could inform a comprehensive understanding of the etiology of the mental health and substance use disorder burden in young adults. This work utilizes a rigorous prospective longitudinal study from childhood, of samples diverse with respect to culture around the world to understand this distinct developmental period to identify treatment and intervention targets that may operate differently in distinct cultural contexts.
In 2008, our international team launched the Parenting Across Cultures Project, the largest and most culturally diverse study of behavioral development across the life course ever. The sample includes 1,417 8-year-old children and their mothers and fathers from 13 cultural groups in 9 countries selected for their diversity in socialization (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Families have been assessed annually through interviews with children, mothers, and fathers about parent-child relationships, the child’s adjustment, attitudes and beliefs, and cultural values. At ages 10, 13, 16, and 19, children completed a computerized battery to measure reward-seeking, self-regulation, and social information processing as well as risk-taking behavior. During this study, the original child participants will be 22 to 26 years old, providing an unprecedented opportunity to understand how childhood and adolescent experiences in the most diverse long-term longitudinal study ever conducted culminate in adjustment during early adulthood. The study includes interviews to assess family and cultural influences on decisions, risks, competencies, and opportunities during this developmental period that is characterized by major health risks and transitions in education, work, residential status, intimate partnerships, and parenthood.
Project Goals
- Build a developmental model of young adult adjustment (e.g., civic engagement, thriving) and maladjustment (e.g., anxiety, depression, antisocial behavior, substance abuse) using mediators and moderators at the individual, family, and culture levels, including potential risk and protective factors. The hypothesis is there will be cultural similarities in some mediating pathways (e.g., benefits of individual-level self-regulation and family-level warmth) but cultural differences in other mediating pathways (e.g., individual-level independence and family-level autonomy support), depending on the cultural normativeness of particular mediators.
- Examine predictors of parent-young adult relationships across cultures that normatively differ in how changes in family relationships are experienced and negotiated in early adulthood. Although earlier data have elucidated how parenting changes during childhood and adolescence, a number of pressing questions remain regarding parenting of young adult children. The hypothesis is that culturally normative experiences and expectations earlier in development (e.g., expectations regarding family obligations) will predict young adults’ and their parents’ experiences of the parent-young adult child relationship (e.g., negotiation of decision-making and autonomy, conflict, support).
- Examine the impact of COVID-related disruptions in education, work, and other important domains on subsequent adjustment and maladjustment. The pandemic instigated changes in normative transitions of young adults all over the world, with implications for their mental health and other aspects of adjustment. PAC has collected data on COVID-related experiences every 3 months since the start of the pandemic, situating us well to be able to examine these experiences in relation to adjustment in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Project Team Members
Liane Alampay (Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines), Suha Al-Hassan (Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, UAE), Dario Bacchini (University of Naples, “Federico II,” Naples, Italy), Marc H. Bornstein (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., USA), Lei Chang (University of Macau, Macau, China), Kirby Deater-Deckard (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., US), Laura Di Giunta (Rome University ‘LaSapienza’, Rome, Italy), Kenneth A. Dodge (Duke University, Durham, N.C., USA), Jennifer W. Godwin (Duke University, Durham, N.C., USA), Sevtap Gurdal (University West, Trollhättan, Sweden), Jennifer E. Lansford (Duke University, Durham, N.C., USA), Paul Oburu (Maseno University, Kisumu, Kenya), Concetta Pastorelli (Rome University ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy), W. Andrew Rothenberg (Duke University, Durham, N.C., USA), Ann Skinner (Duke University, Durham, N.C., USA), Emma Sorbring (University West, Trollhättan, Sweden), Laurence Steinberg (Temple University, Philadelphia, Penn., USA), Daranee Junla (Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand), Liliana M. Uribe Tirado (Universidad San Buenaventura, Medellin, Colombia), Saengduean Yotanyamaneewong (Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand)