An understanding of child psychopathology and resilience requires attention to the nested and interconnected systems and contexts that shape children’s experiences and health outcomes. In this study, we draw on data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, 2016 to 2021 (n = 182,375 children, ages 3– to 17 years) to examine associations between community social capital and neighborhood resources and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, and whether these associations were moderated by experiences of racial discrimination. Study outcomes were caregiver-report of current internalizing and externalizing problems. Using logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics of the child and household, higher levels of community social capital were associated with a lower risk of children’s depression, anxiety, and behaviors. Notably, we observed similar associations between neighborhood resources and child mental health for depression only. In models stratified by the child’s experience of racial/ethnic discrimination, the protective benefits of community social capital were specific to those children who did not experience racial discrimination. Our results illustrate heterogeneous associations between community social capital and children’s mental health that differ based on interpersonal experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination, illustrating the importance of a multilevel framework to promote child wellbeing.

Childhood adversity is common and associated with elevated risk for transdiagnostic psychopathology. Reward processing has been implicated in the link between adversity and psychopathology, but whether it serves as a mediator or moderator is unclear. This study examined whether alterations in behavioral and neural reward processing function as a mechanism or moderator of psychopathology outcomes following adversity experiences, including threat (i.e., trauma) and deprivation. A longitudinal community sample of 10–15-year-old youths was assessed across two waves (Wave 1: n = 228; Wave 2: n = 206). Wave 1 assessed adverse experiences, psychopathology symptoms, reward processing on a monetary incentive delay task, and resting-state fMRI. At Wave 2, psychopathology symptoms were reassessed. Greater threat experiences were associated with blunted behavioral reward sensitivity, which, in turn, predicted increases in depression symptoms over time and mediated the prospective association between threat and depression symptoms. In contrast, reward sensitivity moderated the association between deprivation experiences and prospective externalizing symptoms such that the positive association of deprivation with increasing externalizing symptoms was absent for children with high levels of reward sensitivity.

High levels of early emotionality (of either negative or positive valence) are hypothesized to be important precursors to early psychopathology, with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) a prime early target. The positive and negative affect domains are prime examples of Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) concepts that may enrich a multilevel mechanistic map of psychopathology risk. Utilizing both variable-centered and person-centered approaches, the current study examined whether levels and trajectories of infant negative and positive emotionality, considered either in isolation or together, predicted children's ADHD symptoms at 4 to 8 years of age. In variable-centered analyses, higher levels of infant negative affect (at as early as 3 months of age) were associated with childhood ADHD symptoms. Findings for positive affect failed to reach statistical threshold. Results from person-centered trajectory analyses suggest that additional information is gained by simultaneously considering the trajectories of positive and negative emotionality. Specifically, only when exhibiting moderate, stable or low levels of positive affect did negative affect and its trajectory relate to child ADHD symptoms. These findings add to a growing literature that suggests that infant negative emotionality is a promising early life marker of future ADHD risk and suggest secondarily that moderation by positive affectivity warrants more consideration.

It is unclear how much adolescents’ lives were disrupted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic or what risk factors predicted such disruption. To answer these questions, 1,080 adolescents in 9 nations were surveyed 5 times from March 2020 to July 2022. Rates of adolescent COVID-19 life disruption were stable and high. Adolescents who, compared to their peers, lived in nations with higher national COVID-19 death rates, lived in nations with less stringent COVID-19 mitigation strategies, had less confidence in their government’s response to COVID-19, complied at higher rates with COVID-19 control measures, experienced the death of someone they knew due to COVID-19, or experienced more internalizing, externalizing, and smoking problems reported more life disruption due to COVID-19 during part or all of the pandemic. Additionally, when, compared to their typical levels of functioning, adolescents experienced spikes in national death rates, experienced less stringent COVID-19 mitigation measures, experienced less confidence in government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, complied at higher rates with COVID-19 control measures, experienced more internalizing problems, or smoked more at various periods during the pandemic, they also experienced more COVID-19 life disruption. Collectively, these findings provide new insights that policymakers can use to prevent the disruption of adolescents’ lives in future pandemics.

The majority of children living in foster care in the United States have a history of maltreatment and/or disrupted caregiving. Maltreatment in early childhood adversely affects development at many levels, including neurobiology and behavior. One neurobiological measure associated with maltreatment is alpha electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry. Prior research has found greater right frontal asymmetry among children with a history of maltreatment. However, little research has been extended developmentally downward to examine alpha asymmetry and its behavioral correlates among toddlers in foster care; this was the purpose of the present study. Differences in EEG asymmetry were examined between a sample of foster toddlers (mean age = 3.21 years, n = 38) and a community comparison, low-income sample without a history of foster care (mean age = 3.04 years, n = 16). The toddlers in the foster care group exhibited greater right alpha asymmetry, primarily driven by differences in parietal asymmetry. Neither frontal nor parietal asymmetry were clearly related to internalizing or externalizing behaviors, measured concurrently or at previous time points. These findings reveal differences in alpha EEG asymmetry among toddlers in foster care, and highlight the need to better understand associations between neurobiological and behavioral functioning following early adversity.

Attachment disorganization in early childhood is an influential yet modifiable risk factor for later mental health problems. Beyond established transmission through parents’ unresolved attachment representations and caregiving sensitivity, little replicated evidence exists for wider determinants of offspring attachment disorganization. This study examined the replicated evidence for psychosocial risk factors in the preconception, prenatal, and postnatal periods. We identified all relevant longitudinal studies, and examined all risk relationships for which evidence existed in two or more cohorts (48 effects, 17 studies, N = 6,099). Study-specific and pooled risk associations were estimated and a range of moderators evaluated. Mothers’ low socioeconomic status (r = .28, k = 2), perinatal loss of a child (r = .26, k = 2), caregiving intrusiveness (r = .31, k = 2), and infant male sex (r = .26, k = 4) predicted offspring attachment disorganization. Maternal sensitivity (r = –.25, k = 6) and higher metacognition during pregnancy (r = –.23, k = 3) predicted lower risk of offspring attachment disorganization. Findings suggest the origins of offspring disorganized attachment include but extend beyond maternal unresolved attachment representations and caregiving. We discuss implications for theory and for identification of modifiable risk pathways in the perinatal window.

Studies support a link between adolescent romantic involvement and depression. Adolescent romantic relationships may increase depression risk by introducing chronic stress, and genetic vulnerability to stress reactivity/emotion dysregulation may moderate these associations. We tested genetic moderation of longitudinal associations between adolescent romantic involvement and later depressive symptoms by a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region gene (5-HTTLPR) and examined contributory roles of chronic stress and family discord. Three hundred eighty-one youth participated at ages 15 and 20. The results indicated that 5-HTTLPR moderated the association between age 15 romantic involvement and age 20 depressive symptoms, with strongest effects for short homozygotes. Conditional process analysis revealed that chronic stress functioned as a moderated mediator of this association, fully accounting for the romantic involvement–depression link among short/short genotypes. Also, romantic involvement predicted later depressive symptoms most strongly among short-allele carriers with high family discord. The results have important implications for understanding the romantic involvement–depression link and the behavioral and emotional correlates of the 5-HTTLPR genotype.

While many studies have identified risk and protective factors of substance use (SU), few have assessed the reciprocal associations of child conduct problems (CP) and parenting practices and behaviors in the prediction of SU across development. A greater understanding of how these factors relate over time is needed to improve the timing of targeted prevention efforts. This study examined how child CP, parenting behaviors, and parents’ own antisocial behavior relate from preschool to adolescence and eventuate in SU. Participants included 706 youth (70.6% male; 89.7% white) enrolled in the Michigan Longitudinal Study. Data from waves 1 (ages 3–5), 2 (ages 6–8), 3 (ages 9–11), 4 (ages 12–14), and 5 (ages 15–17) were included. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) examined reciprocal associations between parenting practices, parents’ antisocial behavior, and child CP over time (waves 1–4) and how these factors contribute to adolescent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use (wave 5). At the within-person level, negative parenting and parents’ own antisocial behavior had a strong influence in late childhood/early adolescence. Only child CP emerged as a significant predictor of SU. Results highlight the importance of early intervention and the potential influence of parenting and child factors throughout development in the prevention of SU.

There has been growing evidence that autistic traits are more represented in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this study was to investigate autistic traits associated with responding joint attention (RJA) abilities and face scanning patterns using eye-tracking in children with ADHD, and to compare with typically developing peers (TDs). All child participants viewed a series of videos related to male and female children under congruent and incongruent conditions during eye-tracking evaluation. The object and face regions of the models within the videos were determined as areas of interest (AOIs). Children with ADHD had significantly elevated ratings of autistic traits than TDs. Time course analysis of the proportion of fixations (PoF) on object region determined that children with ADHD tended to show more interest in the objects and had higher PoF on face interest area, including eyes and mouth compared to TD children in the videos when the male/female model shifts his/her gaze to the corner. Higher SRS scores were associated with higher PoF on the Face AOI in both groups. Given these findings, social skill interventions directly targeting the core deficits of RJA and problems in facial scanning appears to be beneficial in children with ADHD.

Difficulty recognizing negative emotions is linked to aggression in children. However, it remains unclear how certain types of emotion recognition (insensitivities vs. biases) are associated with functions of aggression and whether these relations change across childhood. We addressed these gaps in two diverse community samples (study 1: aged 4 and 8; N = 300; study 2: aged 5 to 13, N = 374). Across studies, children performed a behavioral task to assess emotion recognition (sad, fear, angry, and happy facial expressions) while caregivers reported children’s overt proactive and reactive aggression. Difficulty recognizing fear (especially in early childhood) and sadness was associated with greater proactive aggression. Insensitivity to anger – perceiving angry faces as showing no emotion – was associated with increased proactive aggression, especially in middle-to-late childhood. Additionally, greater happiness bias – mistaking negative emotions as being happy – was consistently related to higher reactive aggression only in early childhood. Together, difficulty recognizing negative emotions was related to proactive aggression, however, the strength of these relations varied based on the type of emotion and developmental period assessed. Alternately, difficulty determining emotion valence was related to reactive aggression in early childhood. These findings demonstrate that distinct forms of emotion recognition are important for understanding functions of aggression across development.

Adverse developmental outcomes for some children following institutional care are well established. Removal from institutional care and placement into families can promote recovery. However, little is known about how positive outcomes are sustained across adolescence among children with histories of severe deprivation. The present study examined the caregiving conditions that are associated with attaining and maintaining competent functioning (i.e., outcomes within typical levels) from middle childhood to adolescence following exposure to early institutional care. The participants included children with and without a history of institutional care who had competence assessed at ages 8, 12, and 16 years across seven domains: family relationships, peer relationships, academic performance, physical health, mental health, substance use (ages 12 and 16 years only), and risk-taking behavior. The participants were grouped based on whether they were always versus not always competent and never versus ever competent at ages 8 through 16 years. Adolescents with a history of institutional care were less likely to be consistently competent than those who were family reared. Among those who were exposed to early institutional rearing, maintaining competent functioning from 8 to 16 years was associated with spending less time in institutions and receiving higher-quality caregiving early in life. Ensuring high quality early caregiving may promote competent functioning following early deprivation.

Discrimination experiences are a salient contributor to the health disparities facing Latina/x/o youth. The biopsychosocial model of minority health posits that discrimination influences health through wear and tear on the biological stress responses, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is a primary stress response system in the body. Emerging evidence suggests that discrimination alters the secretion of cortisol, the end product of the HPA axis, yet, whether the daily processes between discrimination and diurnal cortisol response influence mental and sleep health remains unanswered. This study integrated daily diary and post-diary survey data to examine whether daily diurnal cortisol responses to discrimination influence adolescents’ mental (depressive symptoms, anxiety) and sleep (sleep quality, duration) health in a sample of Mexican-origin youth (N = 282; Mage = 17.10; 55% female). Results showed that adolescents who experienced more discrimination across the four-day diary period exhibited steeper diurnal cortisol slopes and lower evening cortisol; however, such physiological responses tended to be associated with poorer adolescents’ mental and sleep health. The current study underscores the potential adaptation cost associated with short-term cortisol adaptation in the face of discrimination.

The current study investigated 304 children from a longitudinal project (the Stress in Pregnancy (SIP) Study) who were exposed and unexposed to Superstorm Sandy (“Sandy”) in utero. They were prospectively followed from 2 to 6 years of age and their clinical and adaptive behaviors were assessed annually. Using a hierarchical linear model, the study found that in utero Sandy exposure was associated with greater clinical (anxiety, depression, and somatization) and lower adaptive behaviors (social skills and functional communication) at age 2 years. However, the trajectories were notably different between the two groups. Anxiety increased more rapidly among the exposed than unexposed group at ages 2–4, and depression increased only among the exposed. In contrast, social skills and functional communication were lower in exposed compared to unexposed children at age 2, but quickly increased and exceeded the capacities of unexposed children by age 3. The findings confirm that prenatal Sandy exposure is not only associated with an increase in anxiety, depression, and somatization in offspring, but also with greater adaptive skills as the children got older. Our study demonstrates that while children who have experienced stress in utero demonstrate elevated suboptimal clinical behaviors related to affective disorders, they nevertheless have the potential to learn adaptive skills.

This study examined the abilities of 40 Latina mothers and their 6- to 11-year-old children (20 girls, 20 boys) to recognize and produce emotion expressions and how these abilities differed as a function of maternal depressive symptoms. The results indicated that depressively symptomatic mothers were less accurate at recognizing basic emotions (e.g., happy, sad, etc.) and some mixed emotions (e.g., scared/ok combinations) than nonsymptomatic mothers, but there were no group differences for emotion production. In contrast, children of symptomatic mothers posed fewer recognizable sad expressions than their peers. Error pattern analyses also revealed that children of symptomatic mothers were more likely to mistakenly recognize happiness and to avoid posing sadness (across all basic emotions). Children's ability to pose emotions was related to their mothers' emotion production, and this was not moderated by maternal depressive symptoms. The discussion focuses on the possible interpersonal consequences of these biases and deficits in the emotion-related abilities of symptomatic mothers and their children and on the need to conduct research on the familial and cultural processes that might underlie these findings.Portions of this article are based on a dissertation by Maria Sesin submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University. We would like to thank the mothers and children who made this research possible, as well as Marjorie Melendez and Craig Indellicati for their help in preparing the emotion recognition stimuli.

Infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit greater heterogeneity in behavioral presentation and outcomes relative to infants at low familial risk (LR), yet there is limited understanding of the diverse developmental profiles that characterize these infants. We applied a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis approach to parse developmental heterogeneity in 420 toddlers with heightened (HR) and low (LR) familial risk for ASD using measures of four dimensions of development: language, social, play, and restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRB). Results revealed a two-cluster solution. Comparisons of clusters revealed significantly lower language, social, and play performance, and higher levels of restricted and repetitive behaviors in Cluster 1 relative to Cluster 2. In Cluster 1, 25% of children were later diagnosed with ASD compared to 8% in Cluster 2. Comparisons within Cluster 1 between subgroups of toddlers having ASD+ versus ASD− 36-month outcomes revealed significantly lower functioning in the ASD+ subgroup across cognitive, motor, social, language, symbolic, and speech dimensions. Findings suggest profiles of early development associated with resiliency and vulnerability to later ASD diagnosis, with multidimensional developmental lags signaling vulnerability to ASD diagnosis.

Mind-mindedness (MM) is a caregiver’s tendency to appreciate their infant’s internal mental states. This longitudinal study investigated whether maternal MM (10 months) was linked with children’s later behavioral problems (51 months) and the moderating role of maternal parenting distress (PD; 36 months) in a sample of 91 mother–infant dyads. Appropriate MM comments were coded from video-recorded, semi-structured play interactions between mothers and their infants; PD was obtained from maternal completion of the PD subscale of the Parenting Stress Index – Short Form (PSI-SF); and child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were gathered from maternal report on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Moderated regression analyses revealed higher early appropriate MM was associated with significantly fewer internalizing emotional problems at 51 months among mothers with lower PD at 36 months, and higher early appropriate MM was associated with lower conduct problems at 51 months in mothers with higher PD at 36 months. Findings demonstrated the importance of considering nuanced contexts such as at-risk mothers and differential presentations of child difficulties in the analysis of the relationship between MM and child behavioral difficulties and the development of MM interventions.

The current study examined heterogeneous trajectories of suicidal ideation among homeless youth experiencing suicidal ideation over 9 months in a randomized controlled intervention study. Suicidal homeless youth (N = 150) were randomly assigned to Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CTSP) + Treatment as Usual (TAU) or TAU alone. Youth reported their suicidal ideation four times during a 9-month period. We also assessed pretreatment mental health, demographic information and session attendance as predictors of the subgroups, as well as suicide-related factors as outcomes at the 9-month follow-up. Growth mixture models suggested three distinct trajectory groups among youth: Fast Declining (74.7%), Chronic (19.3%), and Steadily Declining (6.0%). Youth in the Chronic group used more substances at baseline than the Steadily Declining group, were more likely to be White, non-Hispanic than the Fast Declining group, and attended more CTSP sessions than other groups. Contrastingly, youth in the Steadily Declining group all experienced childhood abuse. Finally, youth in the Chronic group showed significant higher risk for future suicide compared to those in the Fast Declining group at 9 months. Findings support the heterogeneity of treatment responses in suicide intervention among homeless youth, with implications to improve treatment efforts in this very high-risk population.

This study aimed to articulate the roles of social support and coping strategies in the relation between childhood maltreatment (CM) and subsequent major depressive disorder (MDD) with a comprehensive exploration of potential factors in a longitudinal community-based cohort. Parallel and serial mediation analyses were applied to estimate the direct effect (DE) (from CM to MDD) and indirect effects (from CM to MDD through social support and coping strategies, simultaneously and sequentially). Sociodemographic characteristics and genetic predispositions of MDD were considered in the modeling process. A total of 902 participants were included in the analyses. CM was significantly associated with MDD (DE coefficient (β) = 0.015, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.002∼0.028). This relation was partially mediated by social support (indirect β = 0.004, 95% CI = 0.0001∼0.008) and negative coping (indirect β = 0.013, 95% CI = 0.008∼0.020), respectively. Social support, positive coping, and negative coping also influenced each other and collectively mediated the association between CM and MDD. This study provides robust evidence that although CM has a detrimental effect on later-on MDD, social support and coping strategies could be viable solutions to minimize the risk of MDD. Intervention and prevention programs should primarily focus on weakening negative coping strategies, then strengthening social support and positive coping strategies.