Early adverse experiences are believed to have a profound effect on inhibitory control and the underlying neural regions. In the current study, behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data were collected during a go/no-go task from adolescents who were involved with the child welfare system due to child maltreatment (n = 129) and low-income, nonmaltreated adolescents (n = 102). The nonmaltreated adolescents were more accurate than the maltreated adolescents on the go/no-go task, particularly on the no-go trials. Paralleling the results with typically developing populations, the nonmaltreated adolescents displayed a more pronounced amplitude of the N2 during the no-go trials than during the go trials. However, the maltreated adolescents demonstrated a more pronounced amplitude of the N2 during the go trials than during the no-go trials. Furthermore, while the groups did not differ during the go trials, the nonmaltreated adolescents displayed a more negative amplitude of the N2 than the maltreated adolescents during no-go trials. In contrast, there was not a significant group difference in amplitude of the P3. Taken together, these results provide evidence that the early adverse experiences encountered by maltreated populations impact inhibitory control and the underlying neural activity in early adolescence.

Temper tantrums are sudden, overt negative emotional displays that are disproportionate to the eliciting event. Research supports that severe temper tantrums during the preschool period are associated with preschool psychopathology, but few studies have identified which characteristics of preschool tantrums are predictive of distal psychopathological outcomes in later childhood and adolescence. To examine this question, we used a prospective, longitudinal dataset enriched for early psychopathology. Participants (N = 299) included 3-to 6-year-old children (47.8% female) assessed for tantrums and early childhood psychopathology using diagnostic interviews and then continually assessed using diagnostic interviews over 10 subsequent time points throughout childhood and adolescence. We identified two unique groupings of tantrum behaviors: aggression towards others/objects (e.g., hitting others) and aggression towards self (e.g., hitting self). While both types of tantrum behaviors were associated with early childhood psychopathology severity, tantrum behaviors characterized by aggression towards self were more predictive of later psychopathology. Children displaying high levels of both types of tantrum behaviors had more severe externalizing problems during early childhood and more severe depression and oppositional defiant disorder across childhood and adolescence. Findings suggest that tantrum behaviors characterized by aggression towards self are particularly predictive of later psychopathology.

Altered autobiographical memory (ABM) processing characterizes some individuals with experiences of childhood maltreatment. This fMRI study of ABM processing evaluated potential developmental plasticity in neural functioning following maltreatment. Adolescents with (N = 19; MT group) and without (N = 18; Non-MT group) documented childhood maltreatment recalled specific ABMs in response to emotionally valenced cue words during fMRI at baseline (age 12.71 ± 1.48) and follow-up (14.88 ± 1.53 years). Psychological assessments were collected at both timepoints. Longitudinal analyses were carried out with BOLD signal changes during ABM recall and psychopathology to investigate change over time. In both groups there was relative stability of the ABM brain network, with some developmental maturational changes observed in cortical midline structures (ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (pCC), and retrosplenial cortex (rSC). Significantly increased activation of the right rSC was observed only in the MT group, which was associated with improved psychological functioning. Baseline group differences in relation to hippocampal functioning, were not detected at follow-up. This study provides preliminary empirical evidence of functional developmental plasticity in children with documented maltreatment experience using fMRI. This suggests that altered patterns of brain function, associated with maltreatment experience, are not fixed and may reflect the potential to track a neural basis of resilience.

Stress has been linked with children’s socioemotional problems and lower language scores, particularly among children raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances. Much of the work examining the relations among stress, language, and socioemotional functioning have relied on assessments of a single dimension of maternal stress. However, stress can stem from different sources, and people may appraise stressors differently. Taking a dimensional approach, this manuscript characterizes stress in multiple ways: as an overall composite; across the constructs of psychological appraisal vs. environmental stressors; and the independent contributions of a variety assessments. Data are from 548 mother–infant dyads (M = 13.14 months, SD = 2.11) who served as the control group for a poverty reduction clinical trial. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding the different types of stresses they may have experienced, as well as their children’s language and socioemotional development. Results indicate that, collectively, higher maternal report of stress is associated with lower reports of children’s socioemotional and language development. In addition, maternal psychological appraisals of stress were associated with both socioemotional and language development, whereas reports of environmental stressors were only associated with socioemotional development. Together, these findings suggest that maternal reports of stress are associated with lower maternal report of child development among low-income children.

The successful integration of immigrant-origin youth is a highly important issue for multiple stakeholders in many countries. It has important benefits both to countries of destination and countries of origin, as well as to immigrants and nonimmigrants. In this article, I examine immigrant-youth adaptation through the lens of a recently developed resilience model integrating acculturation and social psychological influences on adaptation. Who among immigrant-origin youth adapt well, academically, and socially, in the Greek school context? What is the role of acculturation in immigrant youth resilience? These questions are addressed using scientific evidence drawn from the Athena Studies of Resilient Adaptation (AStRA) project, a three-cohort, three-wave longitudinal project on immigrant-origin youth adaptation conducted in Greece, as well as from the international literature. Following an anti-racist research approach to understanding the AstRA findings, I will argue that the lived school experiences of immigrant-origin youth may be a reflection of societal-level xenophobic and anti-immigrant attitudes. Such systemic and structural racism is the key determinant of the difficulties they face in their adaptation. The findings presented reveal the need to promote an equitable and inclusive education that will be beneficial for all students promoting their well-being, and their sense of belonging to school and society.

In an effort to elucidate new factors that may contribute to developmental psychopathology, the current study examined whether accelerated epigenetic aging at birth related to children's differential susceptibility to the effects of aversive parenting on early emerging mental health risk. Using data from a multiethnic birth cohort, the interaction between Horvath's methylation age in umbilical cord blood and hostile parenting behaviors was examined in relation to perceptions of infant's temperament at 6 months and to children's psychological symptoms at 3 years in 154 families. Results broadly revealed that children with higher levels of accelerated methylation aging evinced more unpredictable temperaments and more psychological symptoms if their mothers reported more hostile parenting, but showed fewer difficulties if mothers engaged in less hostile parenting; children with lower levels of accelerated methylation age did not show associations between hostility and temperament or psychological symptoms. Effects were not accounted for by gestational age at birth, demographic factors, or the distribution of cell subtypes. These findings suggest that accelerated epigenetic age may function as a form of differential susceptibility, signaling increased risk for psychopathology in more aversive contexts but decreased risk in less aversive early environments. Taken together, they point to a novel biological process to consider within risk for psychopathology.

This study used a person-centered approach to identify subgroups of adolescents who are at risk for depression and suicidal ideation. Latent class analysis was first applied to 1,290 adolescents from a Canadian cohort study in order to identify latent vulnerability subtypes based on 18 psychosocial vulnerability factors. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the associations between class membership and depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation 2 years later. The moderating role of sex in the associations between latent classes and depressive symptoms was explored. Five latent classes were identified: Low Vulnerability (42%), Substance Use Only (13%), Moderate Vulnerability (28%), Conduct Problems (8%) and High Vulnerability (9%). Compared with the Low Vulnerability class, the probabilities of presenting depressive symptoms were higher for the Substance Use Only class, OR = 1.93, 95% CI [1.21, 3.06], the Moderate Vulnerability class, OR = 2.96, 95% CI [2.09, 4.20], the Conduct Problems class, OR = 3.03, 95% CI [1.84, 4.98], and the High Vulnerability class, OR = 5.4, 95% CI [3.42, 8.53]. Furthermore, interaction effects with sex were identified in relation to depressive symptoms only. The probability of presenting suicidal ideation was higher only for the High Vulnerability class, OR = 4.51, 95% CI [2.41, 8.43]. This study highlights the importance of a person-centered perspective that considers both vulnerability subtypes and sex because these associations are complex rather than linear or additive.

Childhood adversities have a well-established dose–response relationship with later mental health. However, less attention has been given to intergenerational influences. Further, it is unknown how intergenerational influences intersect with children’s developmental stages and gender. The current study examined whether a developmental inflection point exists when the intergenerational influences of childhood adversities gain salience and explored differences by children’s gender. Data were from the Young Women and Child Development Study (n = 361). Time-varying effect models (TVEMs) and moderation TVEMs by child’s gender were evaluated. Our findings reveal that ages 5–8, the period of transition into primary schools, may represent a developmental inflection point when the intergenerational influences of maternal childhood adversity start emerging substantially. The results from gender interaction TVEMs reveal that maternal childhood adversity was a statistically significant predictor of internalizing problems until age 11, regardless of child’s gender, and remained statistically significant for girls’ internalizing problems until age 16.7. For externalizing problems, maternal childhood adversity was a statistically significant predictor until age 13, regardless of gender.

In this article, I highlight core ideas, empirical findings, and advances in the study of how stress during pregnancy may prenatally program child neurodevelopmental, psychopathological, and health outcomes, emphasizing reviews, metanalyses, and recent contributions of conceptual and empirical work. The article offers a perspective on the history of this area of science, the underrecognized contributions of influential scholars from diverse fields of study, what we know from the evidence to date, the persistent challenges in sorting through what is left to learn, and suggestions for future research. I include sections focused on promoting resilience, pregnancy interventions that demonstrate positive effects across two generations, and the translational implications of the accruing data for practice and policy, highlighting opportunities for integrating across a range of fields and sectors. In the concluding sections, I discuss lessons learned from conducting this work and provide a closing summary of progress and future directions. The goal of this writing was to provide a viewpoint on some ways that emerging intergenerational transmission scholars might responsibly contribute to the future of the field of developmental psychopathology.

Informed by a developmental psychopathology perspective, the present study applied a person-based approach to examine whether associations between early sociocontextual experiences (e.g., socioeconomic factors and maternal discipline practices) and preschool-age children's delay of gratification vary across profiles of children's temperamental reactivity. In addition, the study examined the direct and mediating role of children's set shifting in associations with delay of gratification within each profile. The sample consisted of 160 socioeconomically and ethnically diverse mothers and their 5-year-old children drawn from a longitudinal study of mother–child relationships. Latent profile analyses identified three profiles of temperamental reactivity distinguished by sensitivity to reward and punishment and negative affectivity. Multigroup analysis revealed maternal sensitive discipline (observed during a parent–child compliance task) at age 3.5 predicted longer delay of gratification at age 5 in the punishment reactivity/negative affectivity group. Maternal inductive reasoning discipline at age 3.5 predicted longer delay in the low temperamental reactivity group. For children with the reward reactivity/negative affectivity profile, higher family income at age 3.5 predicted longer delay of gratification at age 5, which was mediated by children's set shifting. Findings underscore the utility of person-based approaches for delineating differential developmental routes toward children's delay of gratification.

Adolescent females are at elevated risk for the development of depression. In this study, we addressed two questions: Are pubertal hormones associated with adolescent mental health? Might this association depend on pubertal development? We tested the hypothesis that estradiol, which has been associated with adolescent social sensitivity, might interact with pubertal stage to predict depression risk at three time points in ninth and tenth grade. Hormones and pubertal development were measured ninth-grade females. Linear regression analyses were used to predict fall ninth-grade (N = 79), spring ninth-grade (N = 76), and spring tenth-grade (N = 67) Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) scores. The hypothesized model was not statistically significant, but exploratory analyses revealed that two- and three-way interactions incorporating estradiol, puberty (stage and perceived onset), and cortisol predicted current and future CDI scores. Our exploratory model did not predict changes in CDI but did account for future (spring of ninth grade) CDI scores. Specifically, estradiol was positively correlated with fall and spring ninth-grade depressive symptoms in participants with high cortisol who also reported earlier stages and later perceived onset of pubertal development. These findings suggest that hormones associated with sensitivity to the social environment deserve consideration in models of adolescent depression risk.

This study tested the independent effects and interactions of sympathetic nervous system reactivity and hostile attribution biases (HAB) in predicting change in pure and co-occurring relational bullying and victimization experiences over one year. Co-occurring and pure relational bullying and victimization experiences were measured using a dimensional bifactor model, aiming to address methodological limitations of categorical approaches, using data from 300 preschoolers (Mage = 44.70 months, SD = 4.38). Factor scores were then saved and used in nested path analyses with a subset of participants (n = 81) to test main study hypotheses regarding effects of HAB and skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-R). Bifactor models provided good fit to the data at two independent time points. HAB and SCL-R interacted to predict increases in co-occurring relational bullying/victimization with evidence for over- and underarousal pathways.

The United States is entering a pivotal period in history, led by extraordinary shifts in the demographic makeup of children who are in need of medical, educational, and developmental services. For the first time in this country's history, the majority of children are being born to non-white populations. Simultaneously, racism (personal, institutional, and systemic) is now being recognized as a powerful social determinant of children's mental and physical health by the time they enter kindergarten. It is crucial to evaluate how early childhood development (ECD) settings are prepared to authentically engage racially diverse children. In this paper, we critically analyze the narratives of the architect of Head Start, Dr. Edward Zigler, and investigate his evolving contributions to early childhood programming. We propose that Zigler's conceptualization of culture and its impact on children's development, although advanced for his time, had historical limitations that have perpetuated the personal, institutional, and systemic racism that children of color experience in early childhood settings. This paper concludes with suggestions to include topics covering implicit bias, white privilege, and the impact of slavery, colonization, and oppression as core principles in professional training. Only then will we be able to eliminate racism across early childhood settings in the United States.

Peer victimization is a developmentally salient stressor that elevates adolescents’ risk for anxiety disorders. However, modifiable mechanisms that explain this link and can be targeted via therapeutic interventions remain poorly understood. Drawing from psychobiological models implicating aberrant threat sensitivity in the development and maintenance of psychopathology, the current study investigated sensitivity to peer-related social threats as a mechanism underlying the association between peer victimization and anxiety. A sample of 197 dyads of early adolescents (Mage = 12.02; 46% female) and parents/guardians (Mage = 41.46; 90% female) completed online surveys assessing peer victimization, sensitivity to potential (i.e., ambiguous) social threats, and anxiety. Controlling for potentially confounding demographic and psychosocial factors, both self- and parent-reported peer victimization were positively associated with adolescent anxiety symptoms. Additionally, there were significant indirect effects from self- and parent-reported peer victimization to anxiety via social threat sensitivity. Supplemental analyses indicated unique effects of covert, but not overt, peer victimization on social threat sensitivity and anxiety. The findings provide initial evidence that peer victimization experiences lower adolescents’ threshold for interpreting threats in ambiguous social situations, which contributes to heightened anxiety. These results implicate social threat sensitivity as a potential therapeutic target for interrupting links from peer victimization to psychological distress.

Edward Zigler's groundbreaking research on child development resulted in the historic Head Start program. It is useful to examine the theoretical implications of his work by applying a human development theoretical perspective. Phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a strengths-based theoretical framework that engages the variability of resource access and coping strategies that promote positive identity development for diverse children. While skill acquisition is a key focus of human capital theory's engagement of early childhood needs, this article highlights the on-going status of human vulnerability that undergirds identity development over the life course. The authors note that “inequality presence denial” combines with high-risk contexts, framed by geography and psychohistoric moments (e.g., The Great Recession, COVID-19), to alter diverse children's developmental pathways. The acknowledgement of “morbid risk” motivates the urgency for research that builds upon Zigler's innovations and privileges human development imperatives. The case study explores these concepts by examining the challenges and assets available to mothers in a low-income community. The article's closing notes developments in the field of economics that ameliorate human capital theory's conceptual limitations, underscoring human development's theoretical strength in motivating research and policies that are maximally responsive to children's positive identity development.

Without even knowing of their existence, Mendel discovered how genes operate when they are completely penetrant, although they rarely are, at least with respect to human personality and psychopathology; yet quantitative genetics results have conclusively demonstrated their substantial macrolevel influence. Now we need to understand just how incompletely penetrant genes make their contributions to psychopathology. Exciting new developments in molecular genetics and epigenetics provide new insight into gene action in principle but have been of limited value so far in understanding the emergence of psychopathology. Some of the most helpful postulates might come from evolutionary and developmental biology and agricultural breeding experiments. I describe the all but forgotten evolutionary mechanisms articulated by Schmalhausen, a Russian evolutionary biologist whose work was suppressed by Stalin in the 1940s. I focus on Schmalhausen's law, the observation that organisms living in conditions at the boundary of their tolerance in any one aspect of existence will be vulnerable to expression of genetic liabilities related to all other aspects of existence. I show how Schmalhausen's ideas are relevant to the results of a century-long corn-breeding experiment and the current concepts of facilitated variation and cryptic genetic variation. I then discuss the relevance of all of these to understanding genetic influences on personality and psychopathology.

Research on the etiology of dyslexia typically uses an approach based on a single core deficit, failing to understand how variations in combinations of factors contribute to reading development and how this combination relates to intervention outcome. To fill this gap, this study explored links between 28 cognitive, environmental, and demographic variables related to dyslexia by employing a network analysis using a large clinical database of 1,257 elementary school children. We found two highly connected subparts in the network: one comprising reading fluency and accuracy measures, and one comprising intelligence-related measures. Interestingly, phoneme awareness was functionally related to the controlled and accurate processing of letter–speech sound mappings, whereas rapid automatized naming was more functionally related to the automated convergence of visual and speech information. We found evidence for the contribution of a variety of factors to (a)typical reading development, though associated with different aspects of the reading process. As such, our results contradict prevailing claims that dyslexia is caused by a single core deficit. This study shows how the network approach to psychopathology can be used to study complex interactions within the reading network and discusses future directions for more personalized interventions.

This study tested whether the associations between interparental conflict, children’s emotional reactivity, and school adjustment were moderated by children’s cortisol reactivity in a sample of young children (N = 243; mean age = 4.6 years at Wave 1; 56% female, 44% male) and their parents. Using a longitudinal, autoregressive design, observational assessments of children’s emotional reactivity at Wave 2 mediated the relationship between an observational measure of Wave 1 conflict between parents and teacher’s report of children’s school adjustment at Wave 3. However, children’s cortisol reactivity to parent conflict at Wave 1 moderated the first link, such that emotional reactivity operated as a mediator for children with heightened cortisol reactivity but not children with low cortisol reactivity. Moderation was expressed in a “for better” or “for worse” form hypothesized by biological sensitivity to context theory. Thus, children with high cortisol reactivity experienced greater emotional reactivity than their peers when faced with more destructive conflict but also lower emotional reactivity when exposed to more constructive interparental conflict. Results are discussed as to how they advance emotional security and biological sensitivity to context theories.

This study utilised a longitudinal population-based study to explore mother and child mental health trajectories over time from child age 0 to 14 years, between children with ASD, ADHD, or ASD + ADHD. It explored whether a bidirectional relationship between mother psychological distress and child emotional and behavioural problems (EBPs) existed. The birth cohort from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children was used. Child EBPs were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; and mother emotional distress using the Kessler K6. Generalised estimating equations and structured equation modelling was used to understand changes over time, differences between groups and bidirectional relationships. As expected, children with ASD, ADHD or ASD + ADHD had higher EBPs than children without, and their mothers had higher levels of psychological distress across most time points, but with differing trajectories. Mothers of children with ASD (with or without ADHD) showed increasing psychological distress over time, while mothers of children with ADHD had reducing distress. The bidirectional relationship between mother and child mental health found in children without diagnoses was only partially present in children with ASD/ADHD. Findings highlight support needs and discuss implications for transactional models of parent/child emotional problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Children with conduct problems and high callous-unemotional (CP+CU) traits are characterized by dampened emotional responding, limiting their ability for affective empathy and impacting the development of prosocial behaviors. However, research documenting this dampening in young children is sparse and findings vary, with attachment-related stimuli hypothesized to ameliorate deficits in emotional responding. Here we test emotional responsiveness across various emotion-eliciting stimuli using multiple measures of emotional responsiveness (behavioral, physiological, self-reported) and attention, in young children aged 2–8 years (M age = 5.37), with CP+CU traits (CP+CU; n = 36), CPs and low CU traits (CP−CU; n = 82) and a community control sample (CC; n = 27). We found no evidence that attachment-related stimulus ameliorated deficits in emotional responding. Rather, at a group level we found a consistent pattern of reduced responding across all independent measures of responsiveness for children with CP+CU compared to the CC group. Few differences were found between CP+CU and CP−CU groups. When independent measures were standardized and included in a regression model predicting to CU trait score, higher CU traits were associated with reduced emotional responding, demonstrating the importance of multimodal measurement of emotional responsiveness when investigating the impact of CU traits in young children.