Individuals with autism have difficulty integrating information and generalizing previously learned concepts to new situations. It was hypothesized that these problems result from an underlying impairment in category formation. Persons with autism may not abstract a summary representation (a prototype) during category learning and, instead, may form categories by memorizing a list of rules. Children with autism, Down syndrome, and normal development participated in one set of category learning tasks that could be solved using a rule-based approach and a second set of tasks in which there was no rule that defined category membership (prototype tasks). In the rule-based tasks, all groups were successful at using a rule to learn a new category. In the prototype tasks, only the typically developing children were able to learn a new category. Neither the persons with autism nor the persons with Down syndrome appeared to develop a prototype during category learning. These data suggest that persons with autism and Down syndrome have difficulty categorizing new information by forming prototypes and, instead, tend to rely on a rule-based approach to learning.

Behavioral and emotional self-regulation are important aspects of competence in school-age children. Despite the apparent interrelatedness of behavioral and affective processes, empirical approaches to the development of self-regulation typically have investigated these systems separately. As a result, their relative effects upon social competence remain, for the most part, an open question. This study, working from an organizational and developmental psychopathology perspective, attempted to investigate developmental processes that place maltreated children at risk for impaired peer relationships by assessing the independent and relative influences of behavioral and emotional regulation on social competence in school-age children. Subjects were maltreated children, who are at risk for both attenuated self-regulation and impaired peer relationships, and economically disadvantaged nonmaltreated comparison children. Observations were conducted during a summer day camp, an ecologically valid context in which to study children's social interactions. As predicted, maltreated children were found to be deficient in behavioral and affective regulation, relative to nonmaltreated children.

Furthermore, attenuated self-regulation mediated the effects of maltreatment on children's social competence. Results highlighted the unique contributions of both behavior and affect in predicting peer competence, suggesting that a more comprehensive approach to the study of self-regulation is warranted.

Clinical studies indicate that depression and conduct disorder frequently co-occur in children. Research on the correlates of depression in children has frequently failed to control for this co-occurrence, and little is known about the family background and characteristics of children displaying both problem behaviors. An at-risk community sample of 203 early adolescent boys in the Oregon Youth Study was divided into the following groups: (a) those showing elevated conduct problems and depressed mood, (b) those showing elevated conduct problems only, (c) those showing elevated depressed mood only, and (d) those with neither problem. Multimethod, multiagent assessments were conducted at Grade 6. The four groups were compared using multivariate analyses of variance. Demographic variables, parental characteristics, family-management practices, and boys' adjustment show some deficits in all three risk groups, and the patterns of deficits vary between groups. As hypothesized, the boys with conduct problems and depressed mood show the poorest adjustment. Results are consistent with a failure model, which hypothesizes that boys with conduct problems are at risk for failing to develop competence in areas such as academic skill and peer relations. In addition, their noxious behavior leads to poor relationships with parents and peers. These problems result in failures and rejection, which make them vulnerable to depressed mood.

Child abuse is associated with markedly elevated rates of major depression (MDD) in child, adolescent, and adult cohorts. This article reviews preclinical (e.g., animal) studies of the effects of early stress and studies of the neurobiological correlates of MDD in adults and children, and it highlights differences in the neurobiological correlates of MDD and stress at various developmental stages. The preclinical studies demonstrate that stress early in life can alter the development multiple neurotransmitter systems and promote structural and functional alterations in brain regions similar to those seen in adults with depression. Preclinical and clinical studies suggest, however, that long-term neurobiological changes associated with early stress can be modified by familial/genetic factors, the quality of the subsequent caregiving environment, and pharmacological interventions. Little is known about how developmental factors interact with experiences of early stress and these other modifying factors. Moreover, in cases of child maltreatment, the effects of early abuse are often exacerbated by failures in the child protection system and repeat out-of-home placements. Given the number of factors that impact on the long-term outcome of maltreated children, multidisciplinary research efforts are recommended to address this problem—with foci that span from neurobiology to social policy.

This study investigated the socialization of children's emotion regulation in 25 physically maltreating and 25 nonmaltreating mother–child dyads. Maltreating mothers and their 6- to 12-year-old children were recruited from two parenting programs affiliated with Children's Protective Services with a control group matched on race, SES, child gender, and child age. Children and their mothers were interviewed individually about their (a) management of emotional expression, (b) strategies for coping with emotional arousal, and (c) anticipated consequences following emotional displays. Compared to controls, maltreated children expected less maternal support in response to their emotional displays, reported being less likely to display emotions to their mothers, and generated fewer effective coping strategies for anger. Maltreating mothers indicated less understanding of children's emotional displays and fewer effective strategies for helping children to cope with emotionally arousing situations than nonmaltreating mothers. Further, findings indicated that maternal socialization practices (e.g., providing support in response to children's emotional display, generating effective coping strategies for their child) mediate the relation between child maltreatment and children's regulation of emotional expression and emotional arousal. These findings suggest that children's emotion regulation strategies are influenced by their relationship with their social environment (e.g., physically maltreating, nonmaltreating) and that the experience of a physically maltreating relationship may interfere with children's emotional development.

Substance use trajectories were examined from early adolescence to young adulthood among a diverse sample of 998 youths. Analysis of longitudinal data from ages 12 to 24 identified distinct trajectories for alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use. Modeling revealed 8 alcohol, 7 marijuana, and 6 tobacco use trajectories. Analyses assessed risk for substance use problems in early adulthood within each trajectory, as well as overlap among alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use trajectories. Findings confirmed that adolescents with early- and rapid-onset trajectories are particularly vulnerable to the development of problematic substance use in early adulthood. However, analyses also identified an escalating high school onset trajectory for alcohol and for marijuana use that was equally prognostic of problem use in adulthood. Moreover, tobacco use in early adolescence was associated with developing high-risk marijuana and alcohol use patterns. Random assignment to the Family Check-Up intervention was found to reduce risk for membership in the high-risk marijuana use trajectories, suggesting that family-based approaches delivered during adolescence can prevent escalations to problematic substance use. These findings suggest the importance of developmental heterogeneity and equifinality in considering prevention for alcohol and drug use.

Being part of a delinquent group has been shown to facilitate the expression of an individual's own delinquent propensities. However, this facilitation effect has not been investigated from a developmental perspective within a population heterogeneity model. Using a semiparametric mixture model with data from the Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study, this article addresses important issues in the developmental trends of membership to delinquent groups. We explore how the rate of violent behaviors follows delinquent peer group trajectories and investigate a differential facilitation effect of delinquent peers on violence across multiple developmental pathways. Results suggest that 25% of males followed a childhood or an adolescence delinquent group affiliation trajectory. These two groups account for most of the violent acts assessed during adolescence. In addition, the rate of violent behaviors follows these developmental trajectories. Controlling for these delinquent group trajectories, we also found that being involved in a delinquent group at any specific time during adolescence is associated with an increased rate of violent behaviors, and that leaving these groups results in a decrease in violent behaviors. This facilitation effect appears homogeneous over time and across developmental trajectories. Results are discussed from a social interactional perspective.

The present paper charts the course for future research on the treatment of conduct disorder. The course builds on current advances both in understanding conduct disorder and its treatment and in the clinical care provided to youth and their families. The paper highlights substantive and methodological advances in contemporary research on both treatment and developmental psychopathology more generally. In light of the current status of treatment research, several priorities are identified, which include expanding the criteria used to evaluate outcome, expanding the range of research questions asked about treatment, testing a broader range of treatments and treatment combinations, evaluating long-term treatment effects, and expanding the models to develop and to evaluate treatment. A plan is presented to guide the progression of research to identify and to develop effective interventions. The special opportunities that a developmental perspective provides for designing treatments for youth of different ages and stages of development are also discussed.

Although spanking of children is almost universal in U.S. society, its effects are not well understood. We examined the longitudinal relation between parental spanking and other physical punishment of preschool children and children's aggressive behavior toward peers later in kindergarten. A total of 273 boys and girls from diverse backgrounds served as subjects. The findings were consistent with a socialization model in which higher levels of severity in parental punishment practices are associated with higher levels of children's subsequent aggression toward peers. Findings indicated that children who had been spanked evidenced levels of aggression that were higher than those who had not been spanked, and children who had been the objects of violent discipline became the most aggressive of all groups. Patterns were qualified by the sexes of the parent and child and subtypes of child aggression (reactive, bullying, and instrumental). The findings suggest that in spite of parents' goals, spanking fails to promote prosocial development and, instead, is associated with higher rates of aggression toward peers.

Children in foster care are at heightened risk for poor psychosocial outcomes. This study examined differences in two areas that may be associated with many of these outcomes, emotion understanding and theory of mind, using a sample of 3- to 5-year-old maltreated foster children (n = 60) and a comparison group of same-aged, low-income, nonmaltreated children living with their biological families (n = 31). Being in foster care was significantly associated with worse emotion understanding and theory of mind capabilities, even when accounting for age, intelligence, and executive function. There were no significant associations between length of time in foster care, number of transitions, and emotion understanding and theory of mind. Results help to expand knowledge about the cognitive and affective deficits of children in foster care and suggest that interventions targeted at these deficits include an emphasis on emotion understanding and theory of mind.Support for this research was provided by grants from NIMH (R01 MH59780 and R01 MH65046), NIMH and Office of Research on Minority Health (P30 MH46690), and NICHD (R01 HD34511). The authors express appreciation to Lou Moses and Seth Pollak for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper, to the staff and families of the Early Intervention Foster Care project, and to Matthew Rabel for editorial assistance.

Aggression observed in 2-year-old children of well and depressed mothers was examined in relation to problem behaviors at ages 5–6. Both normative (e.g., object struggles, rough play) and maladaptive (e.g., dysregulated, out-of-control behavior) forms of toddler aggression were identified. Dysregulated aggression predicted (a) externalizing problems reported by mothers when children were 5 years old, and (b) children's reports of difficulties during a structured psychiatric interview at age 6. Problems were more frequent and continuity patterns more evident in children of depressed, than well, mothers. Early maladaptive aggression was a better predictor of later externalizing, than internalizing problems. Childrearing practices of mothers of toddlers also appeared to contribute to later outcomes: negative influences were evident but protective patterns were present as well. Depressed mothers who used proactive childrearing approaches (e.g., anticipating the child's point of view; exerting modulated, respectful control; providing structure and organization during play environment) had children who showed fewer externalizing problems 3 years later.

Adversity in childhood has effects on mental and physical health, not only in childhood but across the lifespan. A chief task of our research has been to define the pathways by which childhood experience has these surprising health outcomes, often decades later. The concept of allostatic load, which refers to dysregulations across major biological regulatory systems that have cumulative interacting adverse effects over time, provides a mechanism for understanding these relations and defining specific pathways. To chart these pathways, we examine early childhood socioeconomic status, family environment, and genetic predispositions as antecedents to socioemotional functioning/psychological distress; and neural responses to threat that have downstream effects on major stress regulatory systems, ultimately culminating in risks to mental and physical health outcomes. This integrative approach to investigating the impact of childhood experience on adult health outcomes illustrates the significance of multilevel integrative approaches to understanding developmental psychopathology more generally.

The concepts of self-organization, state changes, and energy flow are central to dynamic systems theory. In this work I suggest that to apply these general principles to the study of normal and abnormal development, these constructs must be specifically defined in reference to current knowledge of brain development. Toward that end, I present an overview of the properties of self-organizing developmental systems, and then propose a model of attachment dynamics as synchronized energy exchanges that cocreate nonlinear changes of state, discuss the roles of bioamines and energy-generating brain mitochondria in state regulation, and describe the energy-dependent imprinting of synaptic connectivity and neural circuitry in the infant brain. In this application of nonlinear concepts to developmental models of both resistance against and vulnerability to mental disorders, particular emphasis is placed upon the experience-dependent maturation of a system in the orbital prefrontal cortex that regulates psychobiological state and organismic energy balance. This frontolimbic system is expanded in the nonlinear right hemisphere that generates stress-regulating coping strategies, and it serves as the hierarchical apex of the limbic and autonomic nervous systems. Early forming microstructural alterations and energetic limitations of this regulatory system are suggested to be associated with a predisposition to psychiatric disorders.

Research on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) axis has emerged as a vital area within the field of developmental psychopathology in the past 25 years. Extensive animal research has provided knowledge of the substrates and physiological mechanisms that guide development of stress reactivity and regulation using methods that are not feasible in humans. Recent advances in understanding the anatomy and physiology of the HPA axis in humans and its interactions with other stress-mediating systems, including accurate assessment of salivary cortisol, more sophisticated neuroimaging methods, and a variety of genetic analyses, have led to greater knowledge of how psychological and biological processes impact functioning. A growing body of research on HPA axis regulation and reactivity in relation to psychopathology has drawn increased focus on the prenatal period, infancy, and the pubertal transition as potentially sensitive periods of stress system development in children. Theories such as the allostatic load model have guided research by integrating multiple physiological systems and mechanisms by which stress can affect mental and physical health. However, almost none of the prominent theoretical models in stress physiology are truly developmental, and future work must incorporate how systems interact with the environment across the life span in normal and atypical development. Our theoretical advancement will depend on our ability to integrate biological and psychological models. Researchers are increasingly realizing the importance of communication across disciplinary boundaries in order to understand how experiences influence neurobehavioral development. It is important that knowledge gained over the past 25 years has been translated to prevention and treatment interventions, and we look forward to the dissemination of interventions that promote recovery from adversity.

Longitudinal growth trajectories of reading and math achievement were studied in four primary school grade cohorts (GCs) of a large urban district to examine academic risk and resilience in homeless and highly mobile (H/HM) students. Initial achievement was assessed when student cohorts were in the second, third, fourth, and fifth grades, and again 12 and 18 months later. Achievement trajectories of H/HM students were compared to low-income but nonmobile students and all other tested students in the district, controlling for four well-established covariates of achievement: sex, ethnicity, attendance, and English language skills. Both disadvantaged groups showed markedly lower initial achievement than their more advantaged peers, and H/HM students manifested the greatest risk, consistent with an expected risk gradient. Moreover, in some GCs, both disadvantaged groups showed slower growth than their relatively advantaged peers. Closer examination of H/HM student trajectories in relation to national test norms revealed striking variability, including cases of academic resilience as well as problems. H/HM students may represent a major component of “achievement gaps” in urban districts, but these students also constitute a heterogeneous group of children likely to have markedly diverse educational needs. Efforts to close gaps or enhance achievement in H/HM children require more differentiated knowledge of vulnerability and protective processes that may shape individual development and achievement.

Qualitative studies suggest that children react to parental imprisonment by developing internalizing as well as externalizing behaviors. However, no previous study has examined the effects of parental imprisonment on children's internalizing problems using standardized instruments, appropriate comparison groups, and long-term follow-up. Using prospective longitudinal data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, we compared boys separated because of parental imprisonment during their first 10 years of life with four control groups: boys who did not experience separation, boys separated because of hospitalization or death, boys separated for other reasons (usually parental disharmony), and boys whose parents were only imprisoned before the boys' births. Individual, parenting, and family risk factors for internalizing problems were measured when boys were ages 8–11 years. Separation because of parental imprisonment predicted boys' internalizing problems from age 14 to 48, even after controlling for childhood risk factors including parental criminality. Separation because of parental imprisonment also predicted the co-occurrence of internalizing and antisocial problems. These results suggest that parental imprisonment might cause long-lasting internalizing and antisocial problems for children.

The organization of the adolescent self-portrait is discussed within a framework that focuses on the construction of multiple self-representations across different relational contexts. Contradictions between self-attributes in different contexts create conflict, beginning in midadolescence when cognitive-developmental structures allow one to detect but not resolve opposing attributes. Conflict is greater across roles than within roles. Moreover, for certain roles (e.g., self with mother vs. self with father) conflict is higher. Females, particularly those with a feminine gender orientation, report greater conflict involving attributes in more public contexts. Opposing self-attributes also raise concerns for adolescents about which attributes reflect true versus false self-behaviors. Conflict is more frequent for opposing attributes that pit true against false self-characteristics. False self-behavior is associated with liabilities including devaluation of false self-attributes, low self-esteem, and depressive reactions. Perceived support across relational contexts is highly predictive of favorable evaluations of attributes, high self-esteem, and true self-behavior within corresponding contexts. Strategies for resolving potential contradictions in self-attributes would appear to emerge as one moves into late adolescence and adulthood, when multiple self-representations are perceived as both appropriate and desirable, and the individual can achieve some degree of integration through higher level abstractions and the narrative construction of his or her life story.

Growing evidence supports the biological sensitivity to context theory, which posits that physiologically reactive children, as indexed by autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity to laboratory stressors, are more susceptible to both negative and positive environmental influences than their low reactive peers. High biological sensitivity is a risk factor for behavioral and health problems in the context of high adversity, whereas in contexts of low adversity it has been found to promote positive adaptation. However, several studies have shown the opposite effect, finding that children who exhibited high ANS reactivity in response to interpersonal stressors were buffered from the deleterious effects of marital conflict, whereas children who showed low ANS reactivity were more vulnerable to high levels of marital conflict. Using an ethnically diverse sample of 260 kindergartners (130 girls, 130 boys), the current study investigated whether the interaction effect of marital conflict and the two branches of ANS reactivity on children's externalizing and internalizing symptoms differs with the nature of the laboratory challenge task used to measure children's stress response. As hypothesized, results indicate that the interaction between ANS reactivity and marital conflict significantly predicted children's behavior problems, but the direction of the effect varied with the nature of the challenge task (i.e., interpersonal or cognitive). This study illustrates the importance of considering the effect of laboratory stimuli when assessing whether children's ANS reactivity moderates the effects of adversity exposure on adaptation.

This randomized controlled trial examined (a) the efficacy of a brief intervention designed to increase the rate of secure infant attachment, (b) the differential susceptibility hypothesis, and (c) whether maternal attachment styles moderated the expected Treatment × Irritability interaction in predicting infant attachment outcomes. Although there was no main effect of treatment, a significant Treatment × Irritability interaction revealed intervention effects for the highly irritable infants only, thus supporting one of two predictions of the differential susceptibility hypothesis: highly irritable infants would have disproportionately better outcomes than moderately irritable infants in better conditions (i.e., with intervention). When separate analyses were conducted with maternal attachment styles, we found significant three-way interactions among treatment, irritability, and each of the examined maternal attachment style dimensions (i.e., secure–fearful and dismissing–preoccupied). Specifically, with more secure mothers, beneficial effects of intervention emerged for highly irritable infants. For more dismissing mothers, the results revealed support for both predictions of the differential susceptibility hypothesis: highly irritable infants, compared to moderately irritable infants, were both more likely to be secure with intervention and less likely to be secure when in the control group. It is interesting that, for more preoccupied mothers, a treatment effect emerged only for moderately irritable infants. We discuss the implications of these findings for the differential susceptibility hypothesis as well as for early intervention.

Normal and abnormal personality development can be quantified in terms of 15 specific steps in the self-organization of character as a complex adaptive system. Character is measured as three dimensions of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence, each with five components corresponding to steps in personality development. Each of these steps is differentially influenced by heritable temperament dimensions, antecedent steps in character development, and life experiences. Predictions about the nonlinear dynamics of personality development, such as equifinality and multifinality, are confirmed in longitudinal data about individuals representative of the general population. The stepwise development of character determines large differences between individuals in their risk of psychopathology, as well as varying degrees of maturity and health.