Gaze behavior was assessed in 20 autistic individuels and in an age- and mental-age-matched mentally retarded control group. A time-sample technique was used to collect frequency of gaze directed at staff, at task, and elsewhere (at other) in familiar educational settings as subjects interacted with familiar staff and engaged in familiar educational activities. Gaze behaviors were sampled in each of three interactional conditions defined by staff-subject ratio. Significant effects of the intensity of the interactional condition were observed for both groups. Overall autistic subjects were more likely to look elsewhere than the matched control cases and looked less at staff during one-to-one interaction. Relationships to age, developmental level, and other measures are discussed.

This study reports observationally based assessments of the responses of physically abused and nonabused boys to interadult anger involving their mothers. Physically abused boys were more behaviorally reactive to interadult anger than comparison subjects, evidencing more problem-focused coping behaviors and greater aggressiveness. Thus, rather than habituating to others' hostility due to their history of exposure to familial violence, abused children appeared more aroused and angered by it and more motivated to intervene. As the matched low-socioeconomic status nonmaltreated sample was also exposed to interparent physical aggression, the results suggest that greater anger and aggression across multiple family subsystems (parent-child, interparental) may have cumulative effects. The study thus advances knowledge toward a more specific process-based understanding of relations between history of family conflict and child outcomes.

Childhood adversity is associated with increased risk for onset of depressive episodes. This review will present evidence that allostatic overload of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPAA) partially mediates this association. The HPAA is the physiological system that regulates levels of the stress hormone cortisol. First, data from animals and humans has shown that early environmental adversity is associated with long-term dysregulation of the HPAA. This may occur due to permanent epigenetic modification of the glucocorticoid receptor. Second, data from humans has demonstrated that HPAA dysregulation is associated with increased risk of future depression onset in healthy individuals, and pharmacological correction of HPAA dysregulation reduces depressive symptoms. HPAA dysregulation may result in corticoid-mediated abnormalities in neurogenesis in early life and/or neurotoxicity on neural systems that subserve emotion and cognition.

The present report used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation to investigate the factor structure and childhood abuse and/or neglect related antecedents of adults’ attachment states of mind in a high-risk sample. Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) were collected when participants were age 26 years (N = 164) and Current Relationship Interviews (CRIs) were collected from participants (N = 116) and their romantic partners when target participants were between ages 20 and 28 years (M = 25.3 years). For both the AAI and the CRI, exploratory factor analyses revealed that (a) attachment state of mind scales loaded on two weakly correlated dimensions reflecting dismissing and preoccupied states of mind and (b) ratings of unresolved discourse loaded on the same factor as indicators of preoccupied states of mind. Experiencing any subtype of abuse and/or neglect, especially during multiple developmental periods, and experiencing multiple subtypes of abuse and/or neglect during childhood were associated with risk for preoccupied (but not dismissing) AAI states of mind regarding childhood relationships with caregivers. Analyses focused on the particular subtypes, and perpetrators indicated that the predictive significance of childhood abuse/neglect for adult's AAI preoccupied states of mind was specific to experiences of abuse (but not neglect) perpetrated by primary caregivers. In addition, experiencing chronic or multiple subtypes of childhood abuse and/or neglect increased risk for dismissing (but not preoccupied) CRI states of mind regarding adult romantic partners.

In the current study, we addressed several issues related to the forms (physical and relational) and functions (reactive and proactive) of aggression in community (n = 307), voluntary residential (n = 1,917), and involuntarily detained (n = 659) adolescents (ages 11–19 years). Across samples, boys self-reported more physical aggression and girls reported more relational aggression, with the exception of higher levels of both forms of aggression in detained girls. Further, few boys showed high rates of relational aggression without also showing high rates of physical aggression. In contrast, it was not uncommon for girls to show high rates of relational aggression alone, and these girls tended to also have high levels of problem behavior (e.g., delinquency) and mental health problems (e.g., emotional dysregulation and callous–unemotional traits). Finally, for physical aggression in both boys and girls, and for relational aggression in girls, there was a clear pattern of aggressive behavior that emerged from cluster analyses across samples. Two aggression clusters emerged, with one group showing moderately high reactive aggression and a second group showing both high reactive and high proactive aggression (combined group). On measures of severity (e.g., self-reported delinquency and arrests) and etiologically important variables (e.g., emotional regulation and callous–unemotional traits), the reactive aggression group was more severe than a nonaggressive cluster but less severe than the combined aggressive cluster.

Early family life adversity has been linked with negative physical and psychological health consequences in adulthood, possibly due to alterations in neuroendocrine activity. Young adults from families characterized by parental loss (N = 45) and control participants (N = 43) completed self-report measures of prior abuse and family conflict, and performed a stressful speech task designed to elicit neuroendocrine responses. Higher reported abuse and conflict were associated with increased cortisol for the loss group, but were unrelated to cortisol in the control group. Results indicate alterations in neuroendocrine functioning associated with early parental loss, which are moderated by the quality of the family environment.This research was supported by Grant 0130024N (to P.I.L.) from the American Heart Association. We are grateful for the research assistance of Jessica Tartaro and Anna Rodriguez.

This study involved observations of children's behaviors in interactive situations with both familiar and unfamiliar partners. The greatest differences between the autistic and nonautistic children were in an unstructured situation where caregivers did not initiate interactions. In this situation, autistic children rarely looked to the partner or initiated social bids to the partner. They also were less focused on the toys available for play compared to nonautistic children. However, the autistic children were similar in their interactive responses to the partner in an adult-initiated social situation. Individual differences confirmed that more able autistic children in terms of cognitive and language abilities also engaged in greater social and communicative behavior with the partner. These findings suggest that the ways in which social deficits are manifested by autistic children are variable with respect to the context in which they are measured.

The aim of the research was to test hypotheses concerning the associations between maternal depressive symptoms and child sleep using longitudinal data to examine possible predictive pathways. Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care with 1222 children studied from 1 to 36 months of age were analyzed to examine: effects on trajectories over time, and phase-specific effects over three defined age periods (6 to 15, 15 to 24, and 24 to 36 months). Child sleep was found to influence maternal depressive symptoms only for the 15- to 24-month age period, where, contrary to expectation, longer duration of child awakenings predicted decreased maternal depressive symptoms. Maternal depressive symptoms were found to predict an increased frequency of child awakenings across the 15- to 24-month age period only. In contrast, maternal depressive symptoms were found to significantly predict increased duration of child awakenings both for the 3-year trajectory and across the 15- to 24- and 24- to 36-month age periods. Additional research is needed to clarify the mechanisms by which maternal depressive symptoms predict increased duration of child awakenings.This study was conducted by the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network supported by NICHD through a cooperative agreement that calls for scientific collaboration between the grantees and the NICHD staff. This research was also supported by NIMH Scientist Award for Clinicians MH01532, NIMH R01 MH065938, and National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression grants to the first author (S.L.W.).

This study examined multiple paths that can explain the co-occurrence of behaviors comprising a problem behavior syndrome in adolescence. Two hundred sixteen 15–18-year-olds in service programs for at-risk adolescents were assessed twice over a 6–12-month period to examine predictors of changes in levels of their delinquency, unprotected sexual intercourse, and use of soft and of hard drugs. This study considered (a) potential common predictors of multiple behaviors, (b) predictive links among behaviors over time, and (c) whether or not important unique aspects of individual behaviors remain in spite of their co-occurrence. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that the co-occurrence of problem behaviors results from multiple pathways of influence. The future occurrence of several problem behaviors was predicted by adolescents' initial negative expectations in social interactions. In addition, alcohol and marijuana use predicted increases in several other problem behaviors over time. Finally, individual problem behaviors retained important unique characteristics, suggesting the need for further research examining both their syndromal and unique aspects.

The population-based Seattle Longitudinal Prospective Study on Alcohol and Pregnancy unites the fields of developmental psychopathology and behavioral teratology. Examining prenatal biological influences on childhood learning problems, this report is the first to extend earlier findings of alcohol-related deficits into late childhood. This follow-up study of 458 singletons assesses the degree to which children's classroom behavior and achievement difficulties at age 11 are predicted by prenatal alcohol exposure across the full spectrum of maternal use. Partial least squares statistical techniques are used to summarize complex multiple measures of exposure and outcome as latent variables. Accounting for many factors potentially important in development, analyses reveal a significant and subtle dose-response relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure and children's school performance a decade later. Maternal binge drinking (five or more drinks per occasion) and drinking during very early pregnancy are particularly salient for children's poorer school performance. A wide variety of problematic classroom behaviors, including attentional, activity, information-processing, and academic difficulties, are salient for prenatal alcohol exposure. Considered within the body of data on alcohol teratogenesis, these findings suggest that prenatal alcohol exposure has an enduring and predictable relationship with developmental difficulties through late childhood. Clinical, research, and public health implications are discussed.

In this study, we assessed behavioral responses to social separation at 8 months of age and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of biogenic amines and metabolites at 8 and 18 months of age in 12 rhesus monkeys derived from either stressed or undisturbed pregnancies. Compared to controls from undisturbed pregnancies, prenatal stress-derived monkeys had higher concentrations of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in CSF than controls. Norepinephrine and MHPG response to stress were both correlated between 8 and 18 months of age. There were few group differences in behavior during social separation; however, several behavioral differences between groups were found when monkeys were reunited with cage mates. Prenatally stressed monkeys spent more time clinging to their surrogates and exploring (including eating and drinking), while controls showed more locomotion and social play with their cage mates. Collectively, our findings suggest that chronic unpredictable psychological stress during pregnancy has long-lasting effects on noradrenergic and dopaminergic activity and behavior in the offspring of gestationally stressed primate mothers.

This longitudinal study of 137 female high school seniors investigated the relationship of attachment cognitions, current psychological functioning, and psychological functioning 12 months later. Attachment cognitions, assessed with the Revised Adult Attachment Scale and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, were significantly associated with current symptomatology. The Revised Adult Attachment Scale, in interaction with initial symptomatology, predicted depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and personality disorders 12 months later. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment parent subscales predicted eating disorder and personality disorder symptomatology, whereas the peer subscales predicted substance abuse, eating disorder, and personality disorder symptomatology.

Externalizing behavior problems of 124 adolescents were assessed across Grades 7–11. In Grade 9, participants were also assessed across social-cognitive domains after imagining themselves as the object of provocations portrayed in six videotaped vignettes. Participants responded to vignette-based questions representing multiple processes of the response decision step of social information processing. Phase 1 of our investigation supported a two-factor model of the response evaluation process of response decision (response valuation and outcome expectancy). Phase 2 showed significant relations between the set of these response decision processes, as well as response selection, measured in Grade 9 and (a) externalizing behavior in Grade 9 and (b) externalizing behavior in Grades 10–11, even after controlling externalizing behavior in Grades 7–8. These findings suggest that on-line behavioral judgments about aggression play a crucial role in the maintenance and growth of aggressive response tendencies in adolescence.

The purpose of the study was to examine the zero-order and unique relations of effortful attentional and behavioral regulation, reactive impulsivity, and anger/frustration to Chinese first and second graders' internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as well as the prediction of adjustment from the interaction of anger/frustration and effortful control or impulsivity. A parent and teacher reported on children's anger/frustration, effortful control, and impulsivity. Parents reported on children's internalizing symptoms, and teachers and peers reported on children's externalizing symptoms. Children were classified as relatively high on externalizing (or comorbid), internalizing, or nondisordered. High impulsivity and teacher-reported anger/frustration, and low effortful control, were associated with externalizing problems, whereas low effortful control and high parent-reported anger were predictive of internalizing problems. Unique prediction from effortful and reactive control was obtained and these predictors (especially when reported by teachers) often interacted with anger/frustration when predicting problem behavior classification.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (2 R01 MH60838) to Nancy Eisenberg and an Earmarked Research Grant (CUHK4620/05H) of the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, to Lei Chang.

Parental responses to their children are crucially influenced by stress. However, brain-based mechanistic understanding of the adverse effects of parenting stress and benefits of therapeutic interventions is lacking. We studied maternal brain responses to salient child signals as a function of Mom Power (MP), an attachment-based parenting intervention established to decrease maternal distress. Twenty-nine mothers underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans during a baby-cry task designed to solicit maternal responses to child's or self's distress signals. Between scans, mothers were pseudorandomly assigned to either MP (n = 14) or control (n = 15) with groups balanced for depression. Compared to control, MP decreased parenting stress and increased child-focused responses in social brain areas highlighted by the precuneus and its functional connectivity with subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, which are key components of reflective self-awareness and decision-making neurocircuitry. Furthermore, over 13 weeks, reduction in parenting stress was related to increasing child- versus self-focused baby-cry responses in amygdala–temporal pole functional connectivity, which may mediate maternal ability to take her child's perspective. Although replication in larger samples is needed, the results of this first parental-brain intervention study demonstrate robust stress-related brain circuits for maternal care that can be modulated by psychotherapy.

An overview of the literature pertaining to the construct of emotional availability is presented, illustrated by a sampling of relevant studies. Methodological, statistical, and conceptual problems in the existing corpus of research are discussed, and suggestions for improving future investigations of this important construct are offered.

Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment in the United States, and poses a serious public health concern. Children who survive such episodes go on to experience long-lasting psychological and behavioral problems, including higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and cognitive deficits. To date, most research into the causes of these life-long problems has focused on well-established targets such as stress responsive systems, including the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis. Using the maternal separation and early weaning model, we have attempted to provide comprehensive molecular profiling of a model of early-life neglect in an organism amenable to genomic manipulation: the mouse. In this article, we report new findings generated with this model using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing, diffuse tensor magnetic resonance imaging, and behavioral analyses. We also review the validity of the maternal separation and early weaning model, which reflects behavioral deficits observed in neglected humans including hyperactivity, anxiety, and attentional deficits. Finally, we summarize the molecular characterization of these animals, including RNA profiling and label-free proteomics, which highlight protein translation and myelination as novel pathways of interest.

This research examined the impact of child maltreatment and grade level on perceptions of competence and explored relations between perceived competence and school functioning among a sample of 104 low-income school children, half of whom belonged to families in which child maltreatment had been officially documented. Data were collected on 76 first through third graders and 28 fourth through sixth graders, who were interviewed in a laboratory setting, and on a subset of 74 children, who were evaluated by their teachers on measures of school functioning. Results indicated that maltreated children perceive themselves and/or describe themselves differently than do their low-income peers. However, these differences took the expected negative direction only beginning around the middle of the elementary school years. In earlier grades, maltreated children demonstrated a tendency to describe themselves in exaggerated positive terms, over and above the self-enhancement bias documented here and in other research among younger nonmaltreated children. Differences between maltreated and comparison children also appeared in teachers' ratings of school functioning and in use of special educational services. These results are presented and discussed as suggestive evidence for a causal chain from parent-child relationships, to self-perceptions, to school functioning.

Emotional reactivity and expressivity in infants have been previously correlated with vagal tone. This study investigated vagal tone of 3- and 6-month-old infants of depressed mothers. Vagal tone did not differ for infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers at 3 months, but lower vagal tone was noted in infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers at 6 months. The developmental increase in vagal tone that occurred between 3 and 6 months for infants of nondepressed mothers did not occur for infants of depressed mothers. Correlation analyses suggested that higher vagal tone at 6 months was related to more vocalizations and more optimal neurological scores.