Current Research Activities: 

• 32-year Assessment of Normative Development. We are currently conducting interviews with our participants as they turn 32 years old. The focus of this interview is on normative development. The interview includes questions regarding relationship status and quality, parenting, work adjustment, and factors that may influence these outcomes (e.g. social support).  Key aims are to determine the degree of continuity and the predictors of discontinuity from infancy forward; of particular interest are the continuity of parenting across generations and the developmental processes and pathways linking salient relationships prior to adulthood to the formation and quality of romantic partnerships in adulthood. We are also gathering information about our participants’ physical and mental health, emotional regulation, balance between work and family, level of stress, satisfaction with life, social support, and level of education.
• Assessment of the Quality of Romantic Relationships.  All participants involved in an intimate relationship of 4-months or longer are asked if they would like to participate in the romantic relationship assessment.  We either bring couples into the laboratory or see them in their home.  Couples are given the Current Relationship Interview, a series of questionnaires that assess relationship quality and satisfaction, and couples are observed in a series of interaction tasks.
• Second Generation Assessment.  We ask our participants who have children between the ages of 12-months to 42-months if they would like to participate in a series of tasks with their children.  These tasks are the same as those that we did with them and their mothers.  At 12-months we assess the quality of the parent-infant attachment using the Strange Situation.  At 24-monthes we observed the parent and child in a problem-solving situation.  Finally, at 42-months we observe the parent and child interacting in a series of teaching tasks.

Conference Activities:

• April, 2009: The biennial meeting for the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) was held in Denver, CO.  Click here for a list of Project presentations.

• March, 2008: The biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) was held in Chicago, IL.  Click here for a list of Project presentations.

Recent Doctoral Dissertations from the Project:

            Shaffer, A. E. (2007). Comparing multiple types of boundary dissolution in adolescence: Relations to childhood antecedents and early adulthood outcomes. Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota.

Haydon, K. C. (2008). Pathways to generalized and partner-specific attachment representations in adulthood: A developmental perspective on the organization of romantic behavior. Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota.

Kovan, N. M. (2008). The continuity of parenting across two generations using a prospective, longitudinal design. Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota.

Quevedo, K. (2008). Developmental risk factors and patterns of continuity leading to adult depression. Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota.

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