This article summarizes the research on the developmental outcomes of postinstitutionalized children and discusses the implications for social policy. Postinstitutionalized children often reach their adoptive families with varying degrees of physical growth retardation, cognitive delays, and socioemotional problems. Many children demonstrate remarkable recovery following adoption. Unfortunately, some of the children continue to display significant problems that require professional intervention. It appears that the children's recovery may be influenced by their early experiences with their birth family and in institutional care, and there is suggestive evidence that postadoption experiences also play a role. These findings indicate that preadoption and postadoption services may support the outcome of postinstitutionalized children.

In a recent article, Cowan, Harter, and Kandel (2000) concluded that much of the success and excitement engendered by modern neuroscience can be attributed to the incorporation of several previously independent disciplines into one intellectual framework. During the 1950s and 1960s, neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, and neurophysiology, disciplines that had largely functioned in a separate and distinct fashion, gradually merged into a unified field of neuroscience. The penultimate step in the coalescence of neuroscience occurred in the early 1980s, when neuroscience integrated with molecular biology and molecular genetics. The confluence of these fields enabled scientists to understand the genetic basis of neurological diseases for the first time without requiring foreknowledge of the underlying biochemical abnormalities. The final phase of the merger of neuroscience into a single discipline took place in the mid-1980s, when cognitive psychology joined with neuroscience, leading to the formation of cognitive neuroscience.

The end of the last millennium witnessed an unprecedented degree of public awareness regarding mental disorder as well as motivation for policy change. Like Sartorius, we contend that the continued stigmatization of mental illness may well be the central issue facing the field, as nearly all attendant issues (e.g., standards of care, funding for basic and applied research efforts) emanate from professional, societal, and personal attitudes towards persons with aberrant behavior. We discuss empirical and narrative evidence for stigmatization as well as historical trends regarding conceptualizations of mental illness, including the field's increasing focus on genetic and neurobiological causes and determinants of mental disorder. We next define stigma explicitly, noting both the multiple levels (community, societal, familial, individual) through which stigma operates to dehumanize and delegitimize individuals with mental disorders and the impact of stigma across development. Key developmental psychopathology principles are salient in this regard. We express concern over the recent oversimplification of mental illness as “brain disorder,” supporting instead transactional models which account for the dynamic interplay of genes, neurobiology, environment, and self across development and which are consistent with both compassion and societal responsibility. Finally, we consider educational and policy-related initiatives regarding the destigmatization of mental disorder. We conclude that attitudes and policy regarding mental disorder reflect, in microcosmic form, two crucial issues for the next century and millennium: (a) tolerance for diversity (vs. pressure for conformity) and (b) intentional direction of our species' evolution, given fast-breaking genetic advances.

We examined the relations of verbal ability and self-regulation in preschool to emotion knowledge in first grade, and concurrent relations between emotion knowledge and indexes of social functioning in 143 children from low-income families. After controlling for children's verbal ability in preschool, teacher reports of attentional control and caregiver reports of behavioral control in preschool predicted children's emotion expression knowledge and emotion situation knowledge 2 years later. After controlling for verbal ability and attentional and behavioral control, children's emotion knowledge predicted concurrent teacher-reported social problems and social withdrawal. Results suggest that low levels of emotion knowledge co-occur with many important aspects of children's early social adaptation.

The development of language and communication may play an important role in the emergence of behavioral problems in young children, but they are rarely included in predictive models of behavioral development. In this study, cross-sectional relationships between language, attention, and behavior problems were examined using parent report, videotaped observations, and performance measures in a sample of 116 severely and profoundly deaf and 69 normally hearing children ages 1.5 to 5 years. Secondary analyses were performed on data collected as part of the Childhood Development After Cochlear Implantation Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hearing-impaired children showed more language, attention, and behavioral difficulties, and spent less time communicating with their parents than normally hearing children. Structural equation modeling indicated there were significant relationships between language, attention, and child behavior problems. Language was associated with behavior problems both directly and indirectly through effects on attention. Amount of parent–child communication was not related to behavior problems.

Attachment security was assessed in children who had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO) and two comparison groups of children: a Canadian-born, nonadopted comparison group (CB) and a comparison group adopted from Romania before the age of 4 months (RC). We also assessed differences in displays of indiscriminately friendly behavior between the two adopted groups of children. Attachment security was assessed using parent report on a questionnaire comprised of the 23 items with the highest and lowest loadings on the Waters and Deane (1985) attachment Q-sort. Indiscriminately friendly behavior was assessed using parents' responses to five questions about their children's behavior with new adults. Children's attachment security scores were also compared to parents' scores on the parent attachment subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1990). RO children scored significantly lower on security of attachment than did either the RC or CB children. RC and CB children did not differ on attachment security. Based on their parents' reports, RO children displayed significantly more indiscriminately friendly behaviors than did RC children, but such behaviors were not correlated with security of attachment. Children's attachment security scores were related to their parents attachment scores only in the RO group. It is suggested that RO children's experience of extreme neglect contributed to their low attachment-security scores, and that indiscriminate friendliness may be an important behavior to consider in the study of attachment in institutionalized children.

This study examined the etiology and course of anxiety symptoms from infancy through adolescence in a longitudinal high-risk community sample. One hundred fifty-five subjects were assessed using a variety of observational, projective, and objective measures. Results of path analyses revealed the following: (a) anxiety symptoms showed moderate stability during childhood and adolescence; (b) heightened neonatal biobehavioral reactivity and poor regulation predicted emotion regulation difficulties in preschool, which predicted anxiety symptoms in childhood; (c) developmental incompetence in childhood predicted anxiety symptoms in preadolescence, and anxiety symptoms in preadolescence predicted incompetence in adolescence; (d) insecure attachment relationships in infancy predicted negative peer relationship representations in preadolescence, and these representations predicted anxiety symptoms in adolescence; (e) compared to males, females showed similar rates of anxiety symptoms in childhood but greater and more stable rates in adolescence; however, males and females showed similar patterns of association between risk factors and anxiety symptoms across childhood and adolescence; and (f) the model tested was specific in predicting anxiety symptoms and not psychopathology in general. The results support a developmental model of the etiology and maintenance of anxiety symptoms in childhood and highlight factors to consider in efforts to prevent and treat childhood anxiety.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation completed by the first author. The research was supported by a Philanthropic Educational Organization Scholarship to the first author and by funds provided by grants to the second author from the Maternal and Child Health Service (MC-R-270416); the William T. Grant Foundation, New York; and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH-40864). This study is currently supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH-40864-18). The authors thank Manfred van Dulmen for the invaluable statistical guidance he provided in the preparation of this manuscript and the families and teachers whose generation donation of time made this project possible.

This paper examined the relation of early environmental adversity associated with poverty to child resting or basal level of cortisol in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1135 children seen at 7, 15, 24, 35, and 48 months of age. We found main effects for poor housing quality, African American ethnicity, and low positive caregiving behavior in which each was uniquely associated with an overall higher level of cortisol from age 7 to 48 months. We also found that two aspects of the early environment in the context of poverty, adult exits from the home and perceived economic insufficiency, were related to salivary cortisol in a time-dependent manner. The effect for the first of these, exits from the home, was consistent with the principle of allostatic load in which the effects of adversity on stress physiology accumulate over time. The effect for perceived economic insufficiency was one in which insufficiency was associated with higher levels of cortisol in infancy but with a typical but steeper decline in cortisol with age at subsequent time points.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social and communication deficits, and repetitive behavior. Studies investigating the integrity of brain systems in autism suggest a wide range of gray and white matter abnormalities that are present early in life and change with development. These abnormalities predominantly affect association areas and undermine functional integration. Executive function, which has a protracted development into adolescence and reflects the integration of complex widely distributed brain function, is also affected in autism. Evidence from studies probing response inhibition and working memory indicate impairments in these core components of executive function, as well as compensatory mechanisms that permit normative function in autism. Studies also demonstrate age-related improvements in executive function from childhood to adolescence in autism, indicating the presence of plasticity and suggesting a prolonged window for effective treatment. Despite developmental gains, mature executive functioning is limited in autism, reflecting abnormalities in wide-spread brain networks that may lead to impaired processing of complex information across all domains.

This article provides a targeted review of the scientific literature on the effects of experience on early brain and behavioral development and later outcome as it pertains to risk for some forms of child psychopathology. It is argued that ample evidence exists indicating that the prenatal and early postnatal years likely represent a sensitive period with respect to the effects of stress on the developing nervous system and behavioral outcome, and with respect to the long-term beneficial effects of early interventions on brain and behavioral development for some genetically based disorders, such as phenylketonuria and autism. Moreover, evidence suggests that parental mental health during the first years of life has a significant influence on early brain activity and behavior, and long-term behavioral outcome. It is concluded that, although prevention and early intervention efforts should not exclusively focus on the earliest years of development, such efforts should begin during this period. By directing such efforts toward promoting optimal prenatal and infant–toddler development, the long-term negative consequences of factors that have their greatest influences during early development and which set the stage for future development can be minimized or avoided entirely. Several recommendations for public policy and future research pertaining to the effects of early experience on child outcome are offered.

This multiwave longitudinal study investigated potential transactional and accumulating influences among corumination, interpersonal stressors, and internalizing symptoms among a sample of early and middle adolescents (N = 350; 6th–10th graders). Youth completed self-report measures of corumination at Times 1, 2, and 4, and negative life events, internalizing symptoms (general depressive, specific anhedonic depressive, anxious arousal, general internalizing), and externalizing problems at all four time points (5 weeks between each assessment across 4 months). Results supported hypotheses. First, baseline corumination predicted prospective trajectories of all forms of internalizing symptoms but not externalizing problems. Second, baseline corumination predicted generation of interpersonal-dependent, but not interpersonal-independent or noninterpersonal stressors. Third, interpersonal-dependent events partially mediated the longitudinal association between baseline corumination and prospective internalizing symptoms. Fourth, a transactional, bidirectional set of associations was supported in that initial internalizing symptoms and stressors predicted later elevations in corumination, and in turn, corumination predicted later symptoms through the mediating role of interpersonal stressors to complete both streams in the transactional chain of influence. Fifth, girls and older adolescents exhibited higher corumination, but neither age nor sex moderated any associations. These findings are discussed within a transactional, developmental cascade model.

Sensitive periods (SP) in behavioral development appeared in the biological sciences during the first decade of the 20th century, and research in animal models beginning in the 1950s provide terminology and evidence for SP effects. This paper proposes a rigorous program for human SP research and argues that the complexity of the human brain and variability of the human ecology necessitate that SP effects must be studied in humans, employ longitudinal designs starting at birth, test mechanism-based hypotheses based on animal studies that manipulate early environments, and utilize high-risk conditions as “natural experiments.” In light of research on the molecular basis of critical periods and their sequential cascades, it is proposed that the oxytocin (OT) system, an ancient and integrative system that cross-talks with the stress, reward, immune, and brain stem mediated homeostatic systems and supports mammalian sociality, plays a unique role in experience-dependent plasticity that buttresses SP effects due to its (a) dendritic mode of release leading to autoregulated functioning primed by early experience, (b) pulsatile pattern of activity, and (c) special role in neural plasticity at the molecular and network assembly levels. Synchrony, the coordination of biology and behavior during social contact, is suggested as a mechanism by which SP exert their effect on OT functionality, the social brain, and adult sociality. Findings from four high-risk birth cohorts, each followed repeatedly from birth to 10 years, provide unique “natural experiments” for human SP research based on specific programs in animal models. These include prematurity (maternal proximity), multiple birth (peer rearing), postpartum depression (low licking and grooming), and chronic unpredictable trauma (maternal rotation, variable foraging demands). In each cohort, hypotheses are based on the missing environmental component during SP, and findings on social synchrony, OT functionality, stress response, emotion regulation, and mental health accord with the multilevel and dynamic principles of developmental psychopathology. The results on the potential for reparation versus chronicity following early deprivation highlight a flexible conceptualization of resilience based on human SP research. Consideration of SP effects at the molecular, endocrine, brain, and behavioral levels and in relation to the neural plasticity and multifinality of human social functions may assist in fine-tuning early detection and the construction of targeted individualized interventions.

Although no prospective epidemiological studies have evaluated the relationship between family interactions and the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD), there is considerable evidence for the central role of family interactions in the development of BPD. This paper describes the role of family interactions or processes, especially those that might be regarded as invalidating or conflictual, negative or critical, and the absence of more validating, positive, supportive, empathic interactions, in the development of BPD. Perhaps more importantly, the proposed model considers how these parental and family behaviors transact with the child's own behaviors and emotional vulnerabilities, resulting in a developmental model of BPD that is neither blaming of the family member with BPD nor of her or his parents and caregivers, and has important and specific implications for both prevention and intervention.

We examined the course of maternal depressive symptoms and children's attachment security at 36 months in a large sample of mother–child pairs from 10 sites across the country participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N = 1077). Maternal depressive symptoms predicted higher rates of insecure attachment. Women who reported intermittent symptoms across the first 36 months had preschoolers who were more likely to be classified as insecure C or D; women with chronic symptoms were more likely to have preschoolers who were classified as insecure D. Symptoms reported only during the first 15 months were not associated with elevated rates of later insecurity. After controlling for potentially confounding demographic variables, maternal sensitivity (observed at 6, 15, 24, and 36 months) did not meaningfully account for links between attachment security and patterns of depressive symptoms. However, the course and timing of maternal depressive symptoms interacted with maternal sensitivity to predict insecurity. Women with late, intermittent, or chronic symptoms who were also low in sensitivity were more likely to have preschoolers who were insecure, in contrast to symptomatic women who were high in sensitivity. These data have implications for understanding the combined impact of maternal depressive symptoms and maternal sensitivity on children's socioemotional development.These data were collected under the auspices of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Susan B. Campbell, Celia A. Brownell, and Susan J. Spieker are investigators in this multisite study. We acknowledge the generous support of the NICHD (Grants HD25420 and HD25447). The study is directed by a Steering Committee and supported by NICHD through a cooperative agreement (U10) that calls for a scientific collaboration between the grantees and the NICHD staff. The authors thank their coinvestigators who worked with them on the design of the larger study, the site coordinators and research assistants who collected the data, and the children and families who continue to participate in this longitudinal study. Our appreciation is also expressed to Dr. Carey Ryan for statistical advice. We also thank the coders who scored the maternal sensitivity and preschool attachment videotapes.

Previous studies with nonhuman species have shown that animals exposed to early adversity show differential DNA methylation relative to comparison animals. The current study examined differential methylation among 14 children raised since birth in institutional care and 14 comparison children raised by their biological parents. Blood samples were taken from children in middle childhood. Analysis of whole-genome methylation patterns was performed using the Infinium HumanMethylation27 BeadChip assay (Illumina), which contains 27,578 CpG sites, covering approximately 14,000 gene promoters. Group differences were registered, which were characterized primarily by greater methylation in the institutionalized group relative to the comparison group, with most of these differences in genes involved in the control of immune response and cellular signaling systems, including a number of crucial players important for neural communication and brain development and functioning. The findings suggest that patterns of differential methylation seen in nonhuman species with altered maternal care are also characteristic of children who experience early maternal separation.

Despite considerable research demonstrating the adverse consequences of child maltreatment, including a heightened risk for adaptational failures and psychopathology, longitudinal evaluations of processes contributing to negative outcomes have been limited. Problems in peer relations constitute a critical developmental risk for future maladaptation among maltreated children, transferring relationship disturbance from the family to new interpersonal contexts. The linkages of a history of child maltreatment to early deviations in cognitive/affective processes, which subsequently lead to difficulties in peer relations were examined. Specifically, in a sample of 46 maltreated and 43 nonmaltreated low-income children, laboratory assessments of affect understanding and cognitive control functioning were conducted, followed by later peer and teacher assessments of peer relations in the school setting. Maltreated children were shown to evidence early deviations in their understanding of negative affect as well as immaturity in their cognitive controls. Maltreated children also were shown to have lower social effectiveness and higher levels of undercontrolled and aggressive behavior in the school setting. Physically abused children were found to be more rejected by their peers. Cognitive control functioning partially mediated the effect of maltreatment on later social effectiveness. Negative affect understanding mediated both the relation of maltreatment on later dysregulated behavior in the peer setting and the effect of physical abuse on later rejection by peers. The results are discussed in terms of their support for organizational/transactional theory and the implications they have for prevention and intervention.

Recent evidence suggests that impulsivity and sensation seeking are not stable risk factors for substance use among adolescents and early adults but rather that they undergo significant developmental maturation and change. Further, developmental trends of both personality facets may vary across individuals. In the current investigation, we used longitudinal data from ages 15 to 26 on 5,632 individuals drawn from the offspring generation of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine whether interindividual differences in intraindividual change in impulsivity and sensation seeking predicted the escalation of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use in adolescence and early adulthood. Latent growth curve models revealed significant individual differences in rates of change in both personality and substance use. Age-related changes in personality were positively associated with individual differences in substance-use change. Individuals who declined more slowly in impulsivity increased in alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette more rapidly, whereas individuals who declined more slowly in sensation seeking increased more rapidly in alcohol use only. Although risk for substance use across the population may peak during adolescence and early adulthood, this risk may be highest among those who decline more gradually in impulsivity.

Although neurocognitive impairments in theory of mind and in executive functions have both been hypothesized to play a causal role in autism, there has been little research investigating the explanatory power of these impairments with regard to autistic symptomatology. The present study examined the degree to which individual differences in theory of mind and executive functions could explain variations in the severity of autism symptoms. Participants included 31 verbal, school-aged children with autism who were administered a battery of tests assessing the understanding of mental states (knowledge and false belief) and executive control skills (working memory, combined working memory and inhibitory control, and planning) and who were behaviorally evaluated for autism severity in the three core symptom domains. Whereas theory of mind and executive control abilities explained the significant variance beyond that accounted for by language level in communication symptoms, neither explained the significant variance in reciprocal social interaction or repetitive behaviors symptoms. These findings are discussed in terms of a proposed distinction between higher level, cognitive–linguistic aspects of theory of mind and related executive control skills, and more fundamental social–perceptual processes involved in the apprehension of mental state information conveyed through eyes, faces, and voices, which may be more closely linked to autistic deficits in social reciprocity.This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (RO3 HD37898) to Robert Joseph and from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (PO1 DC03610) to Helen Tager–Flusberg. In addition, this study was conducted as part of the NICHD/NIDCD Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism. We thank the following individuals for their assistance in collecting and preparing the data reported in this article: Susan Bacalman, Laura Becker, June Chu, Susan Folstein, Anne Gavin, Margaret Kjelgaard, Lauren McGrath, Echo Meyer, and Shelly Steele. We are especially grateful to the children and families who generously participated in this study.

This study tested a developmental cascade model of peer rejection, social information processing (SIP), and aggression using data from 585 children assessed at 12 time points from kindergarten through Grade 3. Peer rejection had direct effects on subsequent SIP problems and aggression. SIP had direct effects on subsequent peer rejection and aggression. Aggression had direct effects on subsequent peer rejection. Each construct also had indirect effects on each of the other constructs. These findings advance the literature beyond a simple mediation approach by demonstrating how each construct effects changes in the others in a snowballing cycle over time. The progressions of SIP problems and aggression cascaded through lower liking, and both better SIP skills and lower aggression facilitated the progress of social preference. Findings are discussed in terms of the dynamic, developmental relations among social environments, cognitions, and behavioral adjustment.

Controversy surrounds the role of early social experience in the development of personality disorder. In particular, little is known of the means by which continuities from infancy through adulthood might be mediated. One suggestion is that a person's mental representations of relations between him- or herself and other people, either in the form of “internal working models” or “internal object relations,” provide the essential link. We report on an investigation of this issue in which we focused on the formal qualities of accounts of childhood offered by adults who were drawn from two contrasting clinical groups; borderline personality disorder and dysthymia. The results lend support to the claims made by attachment theory and the object relations school of psychoanalysis, that at least in certain groups of individuals, adults' modes of representing early experience are intimately related to styles of interpersonal functioning. More specifically, the form of interpersonal Psychopathology characteristic of borderline personality disorder may be associated with enmeshed and unresolved patterns of responding to the Adult Attachment Interview of George, Kaplan, and Main (1985) and with reports of low maternal care and high maternal overprotection on the Parental Bonding Instrument of Parker, Tupling, and Brown (1979).