Project Title:
Rochester Longitudinal Study
Principal Investigator:
Arnold Sameroff
Co-Investigators:
Tim Kasser, Leslie Gutman, Katherine
Rosenblum, Ronald Seifer,
Contact Person and Information:
Arnold Sameroff
University of Michigan
Center for Development and Mental Health
University of Michigan
300 N. Ingalls Bldg.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0406
e-mail: Sameroff@umich.edu
STUDY AIMS:
The study examines the intergenerational transmission of mental health between
parents with psychiatric diagnoses and their offspring. The cognitive,
psychomotor, emotional, and social functioning of index children are being
followed from birth through adulthood when index offspring are raising their own
families. The effect of environmental risk scores are examined during each wave.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INITIAL SAMPLE:
Selection criteria:
Pregnant women with and without a history of psychiatric diagnosis.
Sample characteristics:
Gender:
55% female, 45% male
Ethnicity:
67% white, 32% African-American, 1% Hispanic
Socioeconomic Status:
24% high, 45% middle, 31% low (using
Hollingshead)
COMPLETED WAVES:
Wave
Age of Subjects
N:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
perinatal
4 mos.
12 mos.
30 mos.
4 yrs.
13 yrs.
18 yrs.
337
262
263
234
214
180
157
30 yrs.
---
CURRENT FUNDED WAVES:
8
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES:
Infancy
Early Childhood
Adolescence
Young Adulthood
MEASURES
Personal
Personality:
Temperament
Locus of control
Self-Esteem
Cognitive Competence:
Intelligence
School performance
Symptoms and Syndromes:
Minor Physical Anomalies
Psychiatric Diagnoses ,
Social-medical history
Social
Family:
Parent mental illness
Parenting Values and Attitudes
Family Functioning
Mother-child interaction
Peers:
Peer-Parent conflict
Neighborhood:
Neighborhood Problems
Stresses and Supports:
Social support
Life events
Environmental Risk
REPRESENTATIVE FINDINGS:
1.
2.
3.
Mother’s specific psychiatric diagnosis was not found to be related to early child
outcomes but general factors of severity of symptoms and chronicity of illness
were.
Cumulative environmental risk was related to child outcomes at each wave.
The number of risk factors was a better predictor of child outcomes than any
specific single risk factor or characteristic of the child.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS:
Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R., & Zax, M. (1982). Early development of children at risk for
emotional disorder. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development,
47:(Serial No. 199).
Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R., Zax, M., & Barocas, R. (1987) Early indicators of developmental risk:
The Rochester Longitudinal Study. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13:383-393.
Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R., Baldwin, A. & Baldwin, C. (1993). Stability of intelligence from
preschool to adolescence: The influence of social and family risk factors. Child
Development, 64, 80-97.
Sameroff, A. J., Bartko, W. T., Baldwin, A., Baldwin, C., & Seifer, R. (1999). Family and social
influences on the development of child competence. In M. Lewis & C. Feiring (Eds.),
Families, risk, and competence (pp. 161-186). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.