Although indirectly aggressive behavior and anxiety symptoms can co-occur, it is unclear whether anxiety is an antecedent or outcome of indirect aggression at the individual level and whether other personality traits can contribute to these longitudinal associations. Therefore, the between- and within-person associations among indirect aggression, anxiety symptoms, and empathic concern were examined across adolescence from ages 11 to 16 in a cohort of individuals followed annually (N = 700; 52.9% girls; 76.0% White) controlling for direct aggression and demographic variables. Results of autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals supported an acting out model at the within-person level. Specifically, anxiety symptoms positively predicted indirect aggression and indirect aggression negatively predicted empathic concern at each adjacent time point. These findings suggest that methods of reducing worries about the self and increasing healthy self-confidence could prevent indirect aggression and help build concern and compassion toward others.

Informed by developmental ecological and epigenetic theory, the current study examined three aims concerning adolescent marijuana use with a large community sample (N = 755; gender = 53% female) and six annual assessments that spanned 11–18 years of age. First, the natural history of adolescent marijuana use was modeled using a two-part latent growth curve analysis. Second, the validity of the mixtures was examined with a broad array of known correlates of adolescent marijuana use. Third, temperament (e.g., surgency, effortful control, and negative affect) was tested as individual differences that would enter into statistical interactions with peer substance use and prior alcohol and cigarette use to distinguish trajectories of marijuana use. The results suggested that escalations in marijuana use were observed for some youth who initiated marijuana use early in adolescence. Youth whose marijuana use did escalate substantially (10%) were distinguished on temperament, conduct disorder, peer delinquency, and pubertal development at baseline. Furthermore, hypothesized interactions between surgency and both peer substance use and prior substance use discriminated different patterns of marijuana use. The findings are discussed with respect to strategies for timing and content of preventive interventions.

Early threat exposure is a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology, and evidence suggests that genetic variation in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) moderates this association. However, it is unclear if this gene-by-environment (G×E) interaction is tied to unique risk for disorder-specific outcomes or instead increases shared risk for general psychopathology. Moreover, little is known about how this G×E interaction increases risk. The current study utilized a prospective, longitudinal sample of females (n = 2,020) to examine: (a) whether the interaction between early threat exposure and OXTR variation (rs53576, rs2254298) confers risk for disorder-specific outcomes (depression, anxiety, borderline and antisocial personality disorders) and/or general psychopathology in early adulthood; and (b) whether social–emotional deficits (emotion dysregulation, callousness, attachment quality) during adolescence constitute mediating mechanisms. Consistent with hypotheses, the interactive effects of early threat exposure and OXTR variation (rs53576) predicted general psychopathology, with threat-exposed women carrying at least one copy of the rs53576 A-allele at greatest risk. This interaction was mediated via emotional dysregulation in adolescence, with threat-exposed A-allele carriers demonstrating greater emotion dysregulation, and greater emotion dysregulation predicting general psychopathology in early adulthood. Findings suggest that this G×E places women at risk for a broad range of psychopathology via effects on emotion dysregulation.

Exposure to chronic early trauma carries lasting effects on children's well-being and adaptation. Guided by models on resilience, we assessed the interplay of biological, emotional, cognitive, and relational factors in shaping two regulatory outcomes in trauma-exposed youth: emotion recognition (ER) and executive functions (EF). A unique war-exposed cohort was followed from early childhood to early adolescence. At preadolescence (11–13 years), ER and EF were assessed and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), biomarker of parasympathetic regulation, was quantified. Mother–child dyadic reciprocity, child's avoidance symptoms, and cortisol (CT) were measured in early childhood. Trauma-exposed youth displayed impaired ER and EF abilities. Conditional process analysis described two differential indirect paths leading from early trauma to regulatory outcomes. ER was mediated by avoidance symptoms in early childhood and modulated by cortisol, such that this path was evident only for preadolescents with high, but not low, CT. In comparison, EF was mediated by the degree of dyadic reciprocity experienced in early childhood and modulated by RSA, observed only among youth with lower RSA. Findings pinpoint trauma-related disruptions to key regulatory support systems in preadolescence as mediated by early-childhood relational, clinical, and physiological factors and highlight the need to specify biobehavioral precursors of resilience toward targeted early interventions.

Several studies link adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to delinquency. Yet, developmental sequalae accounting for this association remain unclear, with previous research limited by cross-sectional research designs and investigations of singular mediating processes. To redress these shortcomings, this study examines the longitudinal association between ACEs and delinquency as mediated by both sleep problems and low self-control, two factors which past research implicates as potentially important for understanding how ACEs contribute to antisocial behavior. Data collected from 480 adolescents (71.3% boys; 86.3% White) and their parents participating in the Michigan Longitudinal Study was used to conduct a serial mediation analysis. The association between ACEs (prior to age 11) and delinquency in late adolescence was found to operate indirectly via sleep problems in early adolescence and low self-control in middle adolescence. Nonetheless, a direct association between ACEs and later delinquency remained. Pathways through which ACEs contribute to later delinquency are complex and multiply determined. Findings indicate that early behavioral interventions, including improving sleep and self-control, could reduce later delinquency. Still, more research is needed to identify additional avenues through which the ACEs–delinquency association unfolds across development.

Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder caused by a hemizygous deletion on chromosome 7q11.23, resulting in atypical brain structure and function, including abnormal morphology of the corpus callosum. An influence of handedness on the size of the corpus callosum has been observed in studies of typical individuals, but handedness has not been taken into account in studies of callosal morphology in Williams syndrome. We hypothesized that callosal area is smaller and the size of the splenium and isthmus is reduced in individuals with Williams syndrome compared to healthy controls, and examined age, sex, and handedness effects on corpus callosal area. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained on 25 individuals with Williams syndrome (18 right-handed, 7 left-handed) and 25 matched controls. We found that callosal thickness was significantly reduced in the splenium of Williams syndrome individuals compared to controls. We also found novel evidence that the callosal area was smaller in left-handed participants with Williams syndrome than their right-handed counterparts, with opposite findings observed in the control group. This novel finding may be associated with LIM-kinase hemizygosity, a characteristic of Williams syndrome. The findings may have significant clinical implications in future explorations of the Williams syndrome cognitive phenotype.

Over the past 30 years, hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars have been spent on research related to child maltreatment. Yet, with some notable exceptions, this research has produced disappointingly little information that is relevant to policy-makers. In part, this reflects the difficulty of doing policy-relevant research, a problem exacerbated by the unwillingness of most funding sources to support the types of large-scale research projects needed to answer many policy questions. However, part of the blame lies with the research community itself. Too often, researchers have failed to understand the policy issues at stake. As a result, they have not asked the right questions or utilized appropriate research designs. In fact, they often have failed to conceptualize adequately the questions they were trying to address.

Problem alcohol use among women is increasingly recognized as an important public health and mental health issue. Younger women appear to be at increased risk for heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems compared to women from earlier cohorts. Understanding the sources for inter- and intra-individual differences in alcohol consumption is an important first step in addressing these trends. We studied the sources underlying variation in alcohol consumption in a sample of 2,163 female twins born in Virginia between 1934 and 1970. Measures of past-year alcohol consumption quantity and frequency were obtained on two occasions across a 5-year interval. Quantity and frequency of consumption declined over age, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Intra-individual correlations over the interval were substantial for frequency of drinking (r = .62) and quantity consumed per drinking occasion (r = .56) but lower for quantity consumed weekly (r = .22). There was significant intrapair resemblance for all measures, with the drinking behavior of identical twin pairs being more similar than that of fraternal pairs. Twin analyses of patterns of change in consumption over a 5-year interval revealed little within-pair similarity in rate of change, with correlations ranging from .06 to .18, suggesting that among young adult to middle-aged women, determinants of changing alcohol consumption are largely individual-specific. There was some evidence for significant age interactions, with the role of individual-specific sources increasing over age.

In sub-Saharan countries, like South Africa, there is scant understanding of adolescent resilience to depression over time; the multisystemic resource combinations that support such resilience; and whether more diverse resource combinations yield better mental health dividends. In response, we conducted a longitudinal concurrent nested mixed methods study with 223 South African adolescents (mean age: 17.16 years, SD = 1.73; 64.60% girls; 81.60% Black). Using longitudinal mixture modeling, the quantitative study identified trajectories of depression and associations between trajectory membership and resource diversity. Using a draw-and-write methodology and reflexive thematic analyses, the qualitative study explored the resource diversity associated with each trajectory. Taken together, these studies identified four depression trajectories (Stable Low; Declining; Worsening; Chronic High) with varying resource diversity at baseline and over time. Resource diversity was inclusive of personal, relational, contextual, and culturally valued resources in both the Stable Low and Declining trajectories, with emphasis on relational supports. Personal resources were emphasized in the Worsening and Chronic High trajectories, and culturally valued and contextual resources de-emphasized. In summary, resource constellations characterized by within and across system diversity and cultural responsiveness are more protective and will be key to advancing sub-Saharan adolescent mental health.

Studies examining associations between fetal serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) exposure and child autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses or delayed language remain mixed and rarely prospectively follow children or employ gold-standard assessments. We prospectively followed a cohort of mother–child dyads from pregnancy through early elementary school (N = 178), and obtained maternal and alternate–caregiver ratings of behaviors related to ASD (N = 137), as well as direct, gold-standard assessments of child ASD symptoms and pragmatic language among dyads who experienced prenatal depression and either took SRIs or were medication free during pregnancy (N = 44). Prenatal SRI exposure was related to maternal ratings of ASD-related behaviors (β = 0.24 95% confidence interval; CI [0.07, 0.48]), and, among boys, alternative caregiver ratings (males-only β = 0.28 95% CI [0.02, 0.55], females-only β = −0.21 95% CI [–0.63, 0.08]). However, results of our direct assessments suggest an association between SRI exposure and reduced pragmatic language scores (β = –0.27, 95% CI [–0.53, –0.01], but not ASD (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule β = 0.14 95% CI [–0.15, 0.41]; Social Responsiveness Scale β = 0.08 95% CI [–0.25, 0.40]). These discrepancies point to issues regarding how ASD is assessed, and the possibility that SRIs may be more strongly associated with language or other broader behaviors that coincide with ASD. Larger prospective studies that incorporate thorough, gold-standard assessments of ASD, language, and other ASD-related behaviors are needed.

The current study examined the effects of attachment on autonomy, relatedness, and emotion regulation during an attachment interview (Friends and Family Interview; FFI) and a Parent×Child Conflict interaction (Family Interaction Task; FIT) in 49 adolescents (11 to 17 years old). Disorganized adolescents displayed behaviors promoting autonomy and relatedness less frequently and at a lower extent than organized ones in the FIT with mothers but not with fathers. Disorganized adolescents also showed a steeper decrease in heart rate variability (HRV) than organized ones, during both the FFI and the FITs. Moreover, disorganized adolescents responded with a more marked increase in skin conductance level to the FIT with mothers than organized individuals. Dismissing adolescents showed behaviors promoting autonomy and relatedness less frequently and to a lesser extent than secure ones, while displaying more often behaviors undermining autonomy and relatedness in the FITs. Dismissing adolescents also showed a more pronounced decrease in HRV during the FFI than secure and preoccupied individuals; no differences were found between these groups in HRV during the FITs. The results suggest that disorganized adolescents had more difficulties in regulating their emotions during both the FFI and the FITs, whereas dismissing individuals seemed effectively challenged only during the interview.

This research aims to investigate the salience of mothers’ emotional expressivity and its links with adolescents’ emotional wellbeing and expressivity in an urban society endorsing more individualism and a rural society ascribing to more collectivism. By comparing Chinese urban (N = 283, Mage = 14.13) and rural (N = 247, Mage = 14.09) adolescents, this research found that urban mothers’ expression of positive-dominant and positive-submissive emotions (PD and PS) were more common while expression of negative-dominant (ND) emotions was less common than rural mothers’. PD and PS had significant links with urban and rural adolescents’ increased emotional expressivity and self-esteem, however, only significantly related to urban adolescents’ decreased depression but not with rural adolescents’. ND had significant links with both urban and rural adolescents’ expression of negative emotions, however, only significantly correlated with urban adolescents’ less level of self-esteem and rural adolescents’ more expression of positive emotions. No significant difference was found in the salience of urban and rural mothers’ expression of negative-submissive (NS) emotions, which positively related to both urban and rural adolescents’ depression and emotional expressivity. Moreover, we found that adolescents’ emotional wellbeing (i.e., self-esteem and depression) mediated the relationship between mothers’ emotional expressivity and adolescents’ expressivity in both societies. Overall, the study findings document that the salience of mothers’ emotional expressivity and its relations with adolescents’ emotional adjustment differ between urban and rural societies.

This article extends the research focusing on the early origins of psychopathology into the prenatal period, by exploring the association between maternal prenatal depression and offspring (fetal and infant) neurobehavior. The sample is recruited from a rural population in South India where women in the third trimester of pregnancy were assessed for depression and the heart rate responses of their fetuses to extrinsically applied vibroacoustic stimuli were studied. At 2 months postbirth, infant temperament and cortisol responsivity to immunization were assessed. The association between maternal prenatal depression and fetal responsivity to vibroacoustic stimulation, and infant responsivity to immunization, was U shaped with higher levels of responsivity noted in the offspring of mothers with very high and very low depression scores, and lower levels noted in the offspring of mothers with moderate depression scores. Maternal prenatal depression was not associated with infant temperament. The findings highlight the importance of environmental influences in the developmental origins of neurobehavior, suggesting that such differences, not evident at baseline, may emerge upon exposure to stressors. The study also emphasizes the need for further investigation in low- and middle-income contexts by providing preliminary evidence of the differing patterns of association observed between high- and low-income populations.

Neurobiological and social-contextual influences shape children’s adjustment, yet limited biopsychosocial studies have integrated temporal features when modeling physiological regulation of emotion. This study explored whether a common underlying pattern of non-linear change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) across emotional scenarios characterized 4–6 year-old children’s parasympathetic reactivity (N = 180). Additionally, we tested whether dynamic RSA reactivity was an index of neurobiological susceptibility or a diathesis in the association between socioeconomic status, authoritarian parenting, and the development of externalizing problems (EP) and internalizing problems over two years. There was a shared RSA pattern across all emotions, characterized by more initial RSA suppression and a subsequent return toward baseline, which we call vagal flexibility (VF). VF interacted with parenting to predict EP. More authoritarian parenting predicted increased EP two years later only when VF was low; conversely, when VF was very high, authoritarian mothers reported that their children had fewer EP. Altogether, children’s patterns of dynamic RSA change to negative emotions can be characterized by a higher order factor, and the nature by which VF contributes to EP depends on maternal socialization practices, with low VF augmenting and high VF buffering children against the effects of authoritarian parenting.

An estimated 12 million girls aged 15–19 years, and 777,000 girls younger than 15 give birth globally each year. Contexts of war and displacement increase the likelihood of early marriage and childbearing. Given the developmentally sensitive periods of early childhood and adolescence, adolescent motherhood in conflict-affected contexts may put a family at risk intergenerationally. We propose that the specifics of normative neuroendocrine development during adolescence, including increased sensitivity to stress, pose additional risks to adolescent girls and their young children in the face of war and displacement, with potential lifelong consequences for health and development. This paper proposes a developmental, dual-generational framework for research and policies to better understand and address the needs of adolescent mothers and their small children. We draw from the literature on developmental stress physiology, adolescent parenthood in contexts of war and displacement internationally, and developmental cultural neurobiology. We also identify culturally meaningful sources of resilience and provide a review of the existing literature on interventions supporting adolescent mothers and their offspring. We aim to honor Edward Zigler's groundbreaking life and career by integrating basic developmental science with applied intervention and policy.

Despite burgeoning evidence linking early exposure to child maltreatment (CM) to deficits in self-regulation, the pathways to strong regulatory development in these children are not well understood, and significant heterogeneity is observed in their outcomes. Experiences of autonomy may play a key role in transmitting self-regulatory capacity across generations and help explain individual differences in maltreatment outcomes. In this study, we investigated multigenerational associations between Generation 1 (G1)–Generation 2 (G2) mothers' early experience of warmth and autonomy in relation to their own mothers and their Generation 3 (G3) children's autonomic physiological regulation in CM (n = 85) and non-CM (n = 128) families. We found that G2 mothers who recalled greater autonomy in their childhood relationship with their G1 mothers had preschool-age G3 children with higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia at baseline when alone while engaged in individual challenge tasks, during social exchanges with their mother in joint challenge tasks, and during the portions of the strange situation procedure when the mother was present. Although no clear mediators of this association emerged, multigenerational links among G1–G2 relations, maternal representations of her child, child behavior, and child respiratory sinus arrhythmia differed by maltreatment status, thus possibly representing important targets for future research and intervention.

Adolescence is a sensitive period for sociocultural development in which facets of social identity, including social status and race, become especially salient. Despite the heightened importance of both social status and race during this developmental period, no known work has examined how individual differences in social status influence perceptions of race in adolescents. Thus, in the present study, we investigated how both subjective social status and objective socioeconomic status (SES) influence neural responses to race. Twenty-three Mexican American adolescents (15 females; mean age = 17.22 years) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they viewed Black and White faces in a standard labeling task. Adolescents rated their subjective social status in US society, while their parents responded to questions about their educational background, occupation, and economic strain (objective SES). Results demonstrated a negative association between subjective social status and neural responses in the amygdala, fusiform face area, and medial prefrontal cortex when adolescents viewed Black (relative to White) faces. In other words, adolescents with lower subjective social status showed greater activity in neural regions involved in processing salience, perceptual expertise, and thinking about the minds of others when they viewed images of Black faces, suggesting enhanced salience of race for these youth. There was no relationship between objective SES and neural responses to the faces. Moreover, instructing participants to focus on the gender or emotion expression on the face attenuated the relationship between subjective social status and neural processing of race. Together, these results demonstrate that subjective social status shapes the way the brain responds to race, which may have implications for psychopathology.

The term “child maltreatment” is of relatively recent origin in its present usage: an umbrella term to refer to a variety of phenomena, child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and subcategories of these, including “emotional abuse” and “emotional neglect.” As such, it carries with it all of the definitional ambiguities and confusion of the terms designating the subcategories. The emphasis in this discussion is not on what is “psychological,” but rather what is “maltreatment”? However “psychological” might be defined, or whatever phenomena are subsumed under it, the first issue is the criteria under which these might be considered as “maltreatment.” Ultimately, the utility of any definition lies in the purposes for which the classification is being made. Wisely, McGee and Wolfe (1991) point to this in their opening statements in referring to “the diverse reasons for classifying psychological maltreatment” and delineate “clinical assessment and intervention and legal and statutory requirements,” as distinct from their own purpose, “to develop conceptual and operational definitions of psychological maltreatment that are suitable for research purposes.” Clarification of the different purposes of defining “mal-treatment” can avoid contamination of irrelevancies pertinent to one purpose but not another. Toward that end, I examine Address reprint requests to: Jeanne Giovannoni, School of Social Welfare, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024. the definitional purposes and issues in one of the cited arenas, the “statutory and legal.” Historically, that designation of “child maltreatment” precedes both the clinical and the research endeavors. Historical precedence carries with it the danger that subsequent definers, pursuing the term for different purposes, might contaminate their own pursuits by carrying over connotations of the term inappropriate to their purposes.

Theory of mind, the ability to represent the mental states of others, is an important social cognitive process, which contributes to the development of social competence. Recent research suggests that interactions between gene and environmental factors, such as oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and maternal parenting behavior, may underlie individual differences in children's theory of mind. However, the potential influence of DNA methylation of OXTR remains unclear. The current study investigated the roles of OXTR methylation, maternal behavior, and their statistical interaction on toddlers’ early emerging theory of mind abilities. Participants included a community sample of 189 dyads of mothers and their 2- to 3-year-old children, whose salivary DNA was analyzed. Results indicated that more maternal structuring behavior was associated with better performance, on a battery of three theory of mind tasks, while higher OXTR methylation within exon 3 was associated with poorer performance. A significant interaction also emerged, such that OXTR methylation was related to theory of mind among children whose mothers displayed less structuring, when controlling for children's age, sex, ethnicity, number of child-aged siblings, verbal ability, and maternal education. Maternal structuring behavior may buffer the potential negative impact of hypermethylation on OXTR gene expression and function.