ABSTRACT
The age span extends from perinatal or thereabouts to adolescence and later. These studies, drawn from widely different arenas, report meaningful antecedents to outcomes that include psychopathology, learning, social-role function, and gender identity. There are two reasons, however, for changing the strategy in the next stage to one of more complex causal modeling, complex in the sense of including measures of social structure, social adaptational status, psychological, and biological conditions as these evolve during the intervening period of the life cycle. Causal model’s whether they involve genetic, early neurological, early endocrine, or early child-rearing characteristics require the inclusion of measures such as evolving family structure, evolving social adaptational status in fields such as school, peer group, or work, and psychological and physical status. Genetic and early biological, psychological, and social characteristics will in many if not most cases be more clearly visible in their impact on short-term outcomes early in the life-span than on long-term adolescent or adult outcomes.
