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 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
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
 perinatal 337

2
 4 mos 262

3
 12 mos. 263

4

30 mos.
 234

5

4 yrs.
 214

 6
 13 yrs. 180

 7

 18 yrs.
  157
Currently Funded Waves:

8

30 yrs.
 --

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES:
Infancy
Early Childhood
Adolescence
Young Adulthood		    

MEASURES    
Personal:
  Personality: Temperament
Locus of control
Self-Esteem
   Cognitive Compentence: 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. 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.

2. Cumulative environmental risk was related to child outcomes at each wave.

3. 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.