Mental Health and the Transition to Adulthood

Trustees Of Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research focuses on the implications of mental health for the transition to adulthood. It has 4 specific aims: (1) to estimate the effects of youth's mental health problems on social outcomes (socioeconomic attainment, sexual behavior, romantic relationships) in early adulthood; (2) to establish the temporal form of the associations of youth's mental health problems with social outcomes; (3) to identify experiences in key social domains which mediate or moderate the effects of mental health problems on social outcomes; and (4) to estimate racial/ethnic and gender differences in the effects of youth's mental health problems on social outcomes, and in the processes that explain them. The project analyzes data from 3 existing data sets to address these aims: the Children of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1997 cohort, and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). It applies both basic and advanced statistical techniques to this data (ordinary least squares regression, logistic regression, event history analysis, latent growth curve models, and growth mixture models) to yield important new insights into the processes through which youth's mental health problems affect the transition to adulthood. The results of the analyses will inform general theoretical debates regarding developmental continuity and discontinuity, as well as the design of effective interventions for troubled youth.