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Biomedical subjects

A Sameroff

Publications and source records attributed to A Sameroff.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1987

Early indicators of developmental risk: Rochester Longitudinal Study.

Early indicators of schizophrenic outcomes were sought in a group of children of chronically ill schizophrenic women. A sample of pregnant women with varying degrees of mental illness were examined during the perinatal period and recruited into a 4-year longitudinal evaluation, which included cognitive, psychomotor, social, and emotional assessments at birth, 4, 12, 30, and 48 months of age. The mothers varied on mental health dimensions of diagnosis, severity of symptomatology, and chronicity of illness. Other factors included in the analyses were socioeconomic status (SES), race, sex of child, and family size. Hypotheses were tested to determine the relative impact of three sets of variables on the child's behavior: (1) specific maternal psychiatric diagnosis, (2) severity and chronicity of disturbance independent of diagnosis, and (3) general social status. We found that a specific maternal diagnosis of schizophrenia had the least impact. Neurotic-depressive mothers produced worse development in their children than schizophrenic or personality-disordered mothers. Both social status and severity/chronicity of illness showed a greater impact on development. Children of more severely or chronically ill mothers and lower-SES black children performed most poorly. These results do not support etiological models based on simple biological or environmental transmission of schizophrenia. The role of social and family environmental factors in predicting child cognitive and social-emotional competence was further evaluated using a multiple risk index. Children with high multiple environmental risk scores had much worse outcomes than children with low multiple risk scores.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Parents' roles in shaping early adolescents' occupational aspirations.

Relations among dimensions of parenting and adolescents' occupational aspirations were examined in two specific domains: academics and sports. The sample consisted of 444 seventh graders, with approximately equal numbers of African American and European American males and females, from two-parent nondivorced families. Multiple measures were used as indicators of parents' values and behaviors, youths' values and beliefs, positive identification with parents, and adolescents' occupational aspirations. In the academic domain, parents' values predicted youths' values directly rather than indirectly through their behaviors. In contrast, fathers' behaviors mediated the relation between parents' and youths' values in the sports domain. Positive identification was directly related to adolescents' values (especially about academics); however, positive identification did not moderate the transmission of values from parent to child in either domain. Parents' values predicted adolescents' occupational aspirations via both direct and indirect pathways. Similar results were obtained for African American and European American males and females. These findings highlight the potential role of parents as socializers of achievement-related values, and, ultimately, adolescents' occupational visions of themselves in the future.

Adolescent↗