Wolchik Sharlene A, Tein Jenn-Yun, Rhodes C Aubrey, Sandler Irwin N, Luecken Linda J, Porter Michele M
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2025 May;37(2):1027-1043. doi: 10.1017/S0954579424000889. Epub 2024 Oct 4.
Using data from a 15-year longitudinal follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of a parenting-focused preventive intervention for divorced families ( = 240) with children aged 9-12, the current study examined alternative cascading pathways through which the intervention led to improvements in offspring's perceived health problems, BMI, and cigarette smoking in emerging adulthood. It was hypothesized that the program would lead to improvements in these health-related outcomes during emerging adulthood through progressive associations between program-induced changes in parenting and offspring outcomes, including mental health problems, substance use, and competencies. Intervention-induced improvements in positive parenting at posttest led to improvements in mental health problems in late childhood/early adolescence, which led to lower levels of mental health and substance use problems as well as higher levels of competencies in adolescence, which led to improvements in the health-related outcomes. Academic performance predicted all three health-related outcomes and other aspects of adolescent functioning showed different relations across outcomes. Results highlight the potential for intervention effects of preventive parenting interventions in childhood to cascade over time to affect health-related outcomes in emerging adulthood.
本研究利用一项针对有9至12岁孩子的离异家庭（n = 240）开展的以育儿为重点的预防性干预随机对照试验的15年纵向随访数据，检验了该干预通过哪些替代级联途径在成年早期改善了后代感知到的健康问题、体重指数（BMI）和吸烟情况。研究假设该项目将通过项目引起的育儿变化与后代结果（包括心理健康问题、物质使用和能力）之间的渐进关联，在成年早期改善这些与健康相关的结果。干预后积极育儿方面由干预引起的改善导致儿童晚期/青少年早期心理健康问题的改善，这又导致青少年期心理健康和物质使用问题水平降低以及能力水平提高，进而带来与健康相关结果的改善。学业成绩预测了所有三个与健康相关的结果，青少年功能的其他方面在不同结果中显示出不同的关系。结果凸显了儿童期预防性育儿干预的效果随着时间推移可能产生级联效应，从而影响成年早期与健康相关结果的潜力。
