Contact: Deborah Capaldi, Phone (541) 485-2711 or on-line at www.oslc.org.
Eugene, OR – The non-profit Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) has been awarded a $5.3 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to continue studying the transmission of strengths and problem behaviors across three generations of over 130 local families.
The ongoing research project, which began 10 years ago, examines mechanisms that affect the transmission of parenting, positive adjustment, problem behaviors, substance use, and health risking sexual behaviors from one generation to the next.
The new grant will fund data collection on the third generation from childhood to adolescence as well as data analyses and scientific writing over the next five years.
The “Three Generations Study”, or 3GS, was designed by the late Dr. Beverly Fagot and Dr. Deborah Capaldi, developmental psychologists who completed their doctoral training at the University of Oregon. Senior scientist Capaldi has led the project since its inception.
3GS is an offshoot of the Oregon Youth Study, which was started by Dr. Gerald Patterson in 1984 as a study of 206 fourth grade boys who were living in Eugene and Springfield neighborhoods with higher than average rates of juvenile delinquency. Participants, their parents, and their romantic partners have been followed since, and the study recently ended when participants reached the age of 32 years.
Findings to date from 3GS indicate significant intergenerational associations in parenting practices, conduct problems and depressive symptoms. For example, parenting of young fathers in the second generation is not only significantly influenced by their experiences with their own parents, but also by their own partners’ risk behaviors and parenting practices.
In the first decade of the study, 3GS brought $8.7 million in federal funds to the local economy.
For more information about the Three Generations Study, please contact Dr. Deborah Capaldi at the Oregon Social Learning Center (541-485-2711). To learn more about the Oregon Social Learning Center, please visit www.oslc.org. Additional information about the National Institute on Drug Abuse is available at www.nida.nih.gov.