Empirical investigations of resilience over the past 30 years have examined a wide range of psychosocial correlates of, and contributors to, this phenomenon. Thus far, theoretical treatments of resilience have focused almost exclusively on psychosocial levels of analysis to derive explanatory models. However, there have been no formal discussions of either theory or research that have examined the biological contributors to, or correlates of, competent functioning despite the experience of adversity. This paper seeks to fill this gap and sets forth a preliminary theoretical framework and outline of empirical strategies for studying the biological underpinnings of resilience. The initial sections of the paper discuss the particular suitability of a transactional organizational theoretical perspective as a conceptual foundation for including a biological level of analysis within the extant theoretical framework of resilience. Subsequently, other important theoretical considerations for the inclusion of a biological perspective on resilience are discussed, including the avoidance of an approach that would reduce resilience to merely a biological process, the application of the constructs of multifinality and equifinality to a biological perspective on resilience, as well as a general discussion of the potential for utilization of brain imaging and other technologies in the study of resilience. The possible relation between the mechanisms of neural plasticity and resilience are examined in some detail, with specific suggestions concerning research questions needed to examine this association. Sections of the paper discuss the likely relation of several areas of brain and biological functioning with resilience, including emotion, cognition, neuroendocrine and immune functioning, and genetics. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of a biological perspective on resilience for preventive interventions.

A trajectory defined by three time-ordered events was offered as a useful adjunct to building a development theory about antisocial behaviors. A sequence was defined with significant linkages between antisocial childhood behavior and early arrest and between early arrest and chronic offending. The majority of chronic offenders traveled through all three events in the sequence. Each event in the sequence shared a common process of disrupted family process plus frequent family transitions and marked social disadvantage. The findings support the hypothesis that the process that leads to antisocial behaviors at grade four may also maintain the entire sequence. The level of disrupted process at initiation and a time-based measure of involvement with deviant peers predicted which individuals moved forward in the sequence and which did not. The findings are consistent with the idea that the majority of chronic offending juveniles follow a trajectory that can be explained by a single theory.

It was proposed that the interaction between the constructs of emotion regulation and social interaction would predict social adaptation in preschoolers. Ninety-six 4-year-olds were observed in quartets of unfamiliar same-sex peers. Based on parent temperament ratings and observed free play behaviors, 68 children from the original sample were classified as: low social interaction, good emotion regulators; low social interaction, poor emotion regulators; high social interaction, good emotion regulators; high social interaction, poor emotion regulators; or average. The results indicated that the low social interaction children who were poor regulators displayed more wary and anxious behaviors during free play and other episodes, and were rated as having more internalizing problems than both the low social interaction children who were good regulators and the average group. The high social interaction children who were poor regulators were rated as having more externalizing problems than either the high social interaction children who were good regulators or the average group. Thus, it seems as if emotion dysregulation is associated with psychological maladaptation, but that this association is tempered by the degree to which children engage in social interaction.

The significance of childhood peer rejection and aggression as predictors of adolescent disorder was tested on 1147 children who were followed longitudinally from Grade 3 through Grade 10. Growth curve analyses of parent- and self-reported problems suggested that boys who were both aggressive and rejected in third grade had profiles of increasingly severe internalizing and externalizing problems across three assessment points in adolescence. Other groups showed either decreasing symptom patterns from Grade 6 to 10 or had consistently lower problem profiles. The longitudinal patterns were more complex for the girls. Childhood peer rejection was the only predictor of stable disorder as reported by parents, whereas self-reported externalizing problems were best predicted by childhood aggression.

This study examines longitudinal correlates of coparental and family group-level dynamics during infancy. Thirty-seven couples observed at play with their 8–11-month-old infants (15 boys, 22 girls) rated their child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and their own coparenting behavior 3 years later. Teachers also rated child behavior at the 3-year follow-up. Several significant relationships emerged between observed family process (high hostility–competitiveness, low family harmony, and high parenting discrepancies in the triad) at Time 1, and subsequent reports of child and coparenting behavior at Time 2. Larger parenting discrepancies at Time 1 predicted greater child anxiety as rated by teachers; greater hostility–competitiveness and lower harmony forecast higher child aggression. Time 1 family process continued to predict Time 2 aggression even after controlling for individual and marital functioning. Several links were also found between distressed family process and later parental reports of negative coparenting behavior. These parental reports of coparenting also explained unique variance in concurrent child behavior ratings. The significance of coparenting as a distinct family construct is discussed.

Functional imaging studies have reported with remarkable consistency hyperactivity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and caudate nucleus of patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). These findings have often been interpreted as evidence that abnormalities in cortico–basal ganglia–thalamo–cortical loops involving the OFC and ACC are causally related to OCD. This interpretation remains controversial, however, because such hyperactivity may represent either a cause or a consequence of the symptoms. This article analyzes the evidence for a causal role of these loops in producing OCD in children and adults. The article first reviews the strong evidence for anatomical abnormalities in these loops in patients with OCD. These findings are not sufficient to establish causality, however, because anatomical alterations may themselves be a consequence rather than a cause of the symptoms. The article then reviews three lines of evidence that, despite their own limitations, permit stronger causal inferences: the development of OCD following brain injury, pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection, and neurosurgical lesions that attenuate OCD. Converging evidence from these various lines of research supports a causal role for the cortico–basal ganglia–thalamo–cortical loops that involve the OFC and ACC in the pathogenesis of OCD in children and adults.

Several research groups have identified a network of regions of the adult cortex that are activated during social perception and cognition tasks. In this paper we focus on the development of components of this social brain network during early childhood and test aspects of a particular viewpoint on human functional brain development: “interactive specialization.” Specifically, we apply new data analysis techniques to a previously published data set of event-related potential (ERP) studies involving 3-, 4-, and 12-month-old infants viewing faces of different orientation and direction of eye gaze. Using source separation and localization methods, several likely generators of scalp recorded ERP are identified, and we describe how they are modulated by stimulus characteristics. We then review the results of a series of experiments concerned with perceiving and acting on eye gaze, before reporting on a new experiment involving young children with autism. Finally, we discuss predictions based on the atypical emergence of the social brain network.This work was funded by UK Medical Research Council Programme Grants (G9901005 and G9715587) to M.H.J. and S.B.C. T.F. was supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship (073985/Z/03/Z).

Using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the rate and type of behavior problems associated with being reared in an institution prior to adoption were examined in 1,948, 4- through 18-year-old internationally adopted children, 899 of whom had experienced prolonged institutional care prior to adoption. The children's adoptions were decreed between 1990 and 1998 in Minnesota. Binomial logistic regression analyses revealed that early institutional rearing was associated with increased rates of attention and social problems, but not problems in either the internalizing or externalizing domains. Independent of institutional history, children who were adopted ≥24 months had higher rates of behavior problems across many CBCL scales, including internalizing and externalizing problems. In general, time in the adoptive home, which also reflected age at testing, was positively associated with rates of problem behavior. Thus, there was little evidence that the likelihood of behavior problems wane with time postadoption. Finally, children adopted from Russia/Eastern Europe appeared at greater risk of developing behavior problems in several domains compared to children adopted from other areas of the world.Members of the International Adoption Project (IAP) Team, all of whom are from the University of Minnesota, are H. Grotevant (Family Social Science); R. Lee (Psychology); W. Hellerstedt (Epidemiology); N. Madsen and M. Bale (Institute of Child Development); and D. Johnson, K. Dole, and S. Iverson (Pediatrics). This research was supported by an NIMH grant (MH59848) and K05 award (MH66208) to M. R. Gunnar. The authors thank the IAP parent board, the Minnesota Adoption Unit and its director, Robert DeNardo, and the adoption agencies that encouraged this work: Children's Home Society, Lutheran Social Services, Crossroads, Hope International, Bethany International, Child Link International, European Children Adoption Services, International Adoption Services, Great Wall China Adoption, and New Horizons. Special thanks are due to the many parents who completed the IAP survey.

This study investigates how temperament factors are linked to internalizing and externalizing problems in a Dutch population sample of preadolescents (N = 2230). Internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist and the Youth Self-Report and temperament was evaluated by the parent-version of the Revised Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire. Temperament profiles were examined in children with (a) neither internalizing nor externalizing problems, (b) only internalizing problems, (c) only externalizing problems, and (d) both internalizing and externalizing problems. The results suggest clearly diverging temperament profiles for these groups of children, with High-Intensity Pleasure and Shyness (representing the broad dimension of Surgency) steering the conditional probability of internalizing and externalizing problems (direction markers), Frustration mainly being related to maladaptation in general (severity marker), and Fear and Effortful Control being associated with both the severity and the direction of internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively. Girls and boys differed in the distribution across the problem groups, but the associations between temperament and psychopathology were comparable for both genders.This research is part of the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Participating centers of TRAILS include various Departments of the University of Groningen, the Erasmus Medical Center of Rotterdam, the Vrije University of Amsterdam, the University of Nijmegen, and the Trimbos Institute, The Netherlands. TRAILS is financially supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (GB-MW 940-38-011, GB-MAG 480-01-006, ZonMw 100-001-001) and the Ministry of Justice (to F.C.V.) and by the participating centers.

This study examined how restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBs) developed over time in a sample of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). One hundred ninety-two children referred for a diagnosis of autism at age 2, and 22 children with nonspectrum development disorders were evaluated with a battery of cognitive and diagnostic measures at age 2 and subsequently at ages 3, 5, and 9. Factor analysis of the RRB items on the Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised revealed two RRB factors at each wave of data collection, one comprising “repetitive sensorimotor” (RSM) behaviors and the other “insistence on sameness” (IS) behaviors. For children with ASD, RSM scores remained relatively high over time, indicating consistent severity, whereas IS scores started low and increased over time, indicating worsening. Having a higher nonverbal intelligence (NVIQ) at age 2 was associated with milder concurrent RSM behaviors and with improvement in these behaviors over time. There was no relationship between NVIQ at age 2 and IS behaviors. However, milder social/communicative impairment, at age 2 was associated with more severe concurrent IS behaviors. Trajectory analysis revealed considerable heterogeneity in patterns of change over time for both kinds of behaviors. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of RRBs in ASD and other disorders, making prognoses about how RRBs will develop in children with ASD as they get older, and using RRBs to identify ASD phenotypes in genetic studies.

Moffitt's theory regarding two types of adolescent antisocial behavior was investigated using a prospective, longitudinal study of normal and abnormal development in a primarily low socioeconomic status, ethnically diverse sample. Results supported the presence of an early-onset/persistent (EOP) group and an adolescence-onset (AO) group. Groups were most reliably and significantly distinguished by indices of socioemotional history within the first 3 years, but no significant differences were found on early measures of temperament or neuropsychological functioning. EOPs scored significantly lower than other groups on measures of neuropsychological functioning only during late childhood and adolescence, suggesting that the declines in verbal functioning that have been so reliably found in this and other samples of early-starting antisocial adolescents are progressive and consequent to adverse experience. In adolescence, AOs were significantly more likely to report high levels of internalizing symptoms and life stress, suggesting that AO antisocial behavior is not a benign phenomenon. Implications of these findings for etiologic theories of adolescent antisocial behavior are discussed.

This commentary reviews and reflects on the studies of this special section: studies that collectively provide compelling evidence for meaningful changes in stress- and emotionally reactive psychophysiological systems with the transition from middle childhood into adolescence. The observed changes were complex and often overlaid upon ontogenetic differences in basal levels of activation of these systems. Maturational increases in responsiveness to stressors were stressor dependent and differentially expressed across autonomic and hormonal measures. Pubertal status increased the impact of some affective valence manipulations, although not significantly influencing others, including negative affect-related potentiation of startle/reflexes. Such ontogenetic increases in stressor and affect sensitivity may have implications for developmental psychopathology. Developmental increases in stressor reactivity may normally aid youth in responding adaptively to the challenges of adolescence, but may result in stress dysregulation among at-risk adolescents, increasing further their vulnerability for psychopathology. Pubertal-related increases in sensitivity to emotionally laden stimuli may exacerbate individual predispositions for exaggerated affective processing, perhaps contributing to the emergence of psychological disorders in these youth. Together, these studies, with their innovative use of autonomic, reflexive, and hormonal measures to index age- and pubertal-related changes in reactivity to stressors and affective stimuli, provide promising directions for future research. Some of these, along with a few cautionary notes, are outlined.

In two studies comprising 249 children and their families, the authors utilized secondary, exploratory data analyses to examine Boyce and Ellis' (this issue) evolutionary–developmental theory of biological sensitivity to context. The theory proposes that individual differences in stress reactivity constitute variation in susceptibility to environmental influence, both positive and negative, and that early childhood exposures to either highly protective or acutely stressful environments result in heightened reactivity. In Study 1, 127 3- to 5-year old children were concurrently assessed on levels of support/adversity in home and preschool environments and on cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory challenges. In Study 2, 122 children were prospectively assessed on familial stress in both infancy and preschool and on autonomic and adrenocortical reactivity to laboratory challenges at age 7. In both studies, a disproportionate number of children in supportive, low stress environments displayed high autonomic reactivity. Conversely, in Study 2, a relatively high proportion of children in very stressful environments showed evidence of heightened sympathetic and adrenocortical reactivity. Consistent with the evolutionary–developmental theory, the exploratory analyses also generated the testable hypothesis that relations between levels of childhood support/adversity and the magnitude of stress reactivity are curvilinear, with children from moderately stressful environments displaying the lowest reactivity levels in both studies.The research on which this paper was based was supported by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Psychopathology and Development, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1RO1 HD 24718), and the National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH44340 and P50-MH53524). We thank Jay Belsky and David Bjorklund for comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Contributions of the Project Competence Longitudinal Study (PCLS) to resilience science and developmental psychopathology are highlighted in this article. Initiated by Norman Garmezy, the PCLS contributed models, measures, and methods, as well as working definitions of concepts like competence, developmental tasks, protective factors, and resilience. Findings from the study corroborated the feasibility of studying adaptation in a normative group of school children, identifying patterns of resilience, competence without major adversity, and maladaptive paths through life. Competence was multidimensional, showing continuity and change over time. Cascading effects across domains indicated that competence and problems spread over time. Thus, adult achievements in developmental tasks were rooted in childhood and adolescence. Young people who showed resilience had much in common with similarly successful peers who experienced less adversity over time, including high-quality relationships with parents and other adults, and good cognitive, as well as social–emotional, skills. Maladaptive youth in the study often faced high adversity with little adaptive capacity (internal or external) and tended to generate stressful experiences. Resilience often emerged in childhood and endured, but there also were late bloomers whose lives turned around in the transition to adulthood. The role of collaboration and mentorship in the PCLS is also discussed.

Undersocialized aggressive conduct disorder is conceptualized within the framework for personality and motivation of Jeffrey Gray. The disorder is seen as reflecting a dominance of the reward system over the behavioral inhibition system. Evidence for this conceptualizing coming from behavioral, psychophysiological, biochemical, and pharmacological studies is reviewed. Relevant findings from these studies include perseverative responding for reward, indices of inefficient noradrenergic and serotonergic functioning, and electrodermal underresponding. Additional research to test the proposed hypothesis is suggested.

Maltreatment places children at risk for psychiatric morbidity, especially conduct problems. However, not all maltreated children develop conduct problems. We tested whether the effect of physical maltreatment on risk for conduct problems was strongest among those who were at high genetic risk for these problems using data from the E-risk Study, a representative cohort of 1,116 5-year-old British twin pairs and their families. Children's conduct problems were ascertained via parent and teacher interviews. Physical maltreatment was ascertained via parent report. Children's genetic risk for conduct problems was estimated as a function of their co-twin's conduct disorder status and the pair's zygosity. The effect of maltreatment on risk for conduct problems was strongest among those at high genetic risk. The experience of maltreatment was associated with an increase of 2% in the probability of a conduct disorder diagnosis among children at low genetic risk for conduct disorder but an increase of 24% among children at high genetic risk. Prediction of behavioral pathology can attain greater accuracy if both pathogenic environments and genetic risk are ascertained. Certain genotypes may promote resistance to trauma. Physically maltreated children whose first-degree relatives engage in antisocial behavior warrant priority for therapeutic intervention.We are grateful to the Study mothers and fathers, the twins, and the twins' teachers for their participation. Our thanks to Robert Plomin for his contributions; to Thomas Achenbach for generous permission to adapt the CBCL; to Tom Price for comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript; to Hallmark Cards for their support; and to members of the E-Risk team for their dedication, hard work, and insights. The E-Risk Study is funded by Medical Research Council Grant G9806489. Terrie Moffitt is a Royal Society–Wolfson Research Merit Award holder.

Evidence for resilience, competent functioning despite severe adversity, was investigated in school-age, disadvantaged maltreated (N = 127) and nonmaltreated (N = 79) children attending a summer camp program. Multiple areas of adaptation (social adjustment, risk for school difficulty, psychopathology) were assessed from self, peer, and camp counselor perspectives and school records. A composite index of adaptive functioning was developed, and levels of competence were delineated. Personality dimensions and personal resources, including cognitive maturity, self-esteem, ego-resiliency, and ego-control, were evaluated as mechanisms promoting individual differences in successful adaptation. Maltreated children as a group evidenced lower overall competence when compared to nonmaltreated children. An equal proportion of maltreated and nonmaltreated children, however, demonstrated high levels of competence, whereas more maltreated children than nonmaltreated children evidenced low levels of competence. Ego-resiliency, ego-control, and self-esteem were each found to predict individual differences in competent functioning. Evidence for the differential role of ego-control in promoting competence for maltreated versus nonmaltreated children was found. The results are discussed in terms of mechanisms contributing to resilient outcomes in maltreated children and the implications of the study of resilience for the field of developmental psychopathology.

From an affective neuroscience perspective, the goal of achieving a deeper, more mechanistic understanding of the development of depression will require rigorous models that address the core underlying affective changes. Such an understanding will necessitate developing and testing hypotheses focusing on specific components of the complex neural systems involved in the regulation of emotion and motivation. In this paper, we illustrate these principles by describing one example of this type of approach: examining the role of disruptions in neural systems of positive affect in major depressive disorder in school-age children and adolescents. We begin by defining positive affect, proposing that positive affect can be distinguished from negative affect by its neurobehavioral features. We provide an overview of neural systems related to reward and positive affect, with a discussion of their potential involvement in depression. We describe a developmental psychopathology framework, addressing developmental issues that could play a role in the etiology and maintenance of early-onset depression. We review the literature on altered positive affect in depression, suggesting directions for future research. Finally, we discuss the treatment implications of this framework.This research was supported by a Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, NIMH Training Grant T32 MH018269, and NIMH Research Network R24 MH67346. We thank David J. Kupfer for his compelling suggestions about clinical course and development across the life span, and we thank Anna Lotze for help with references.

In this paper, both longitudinal and treatment studies relevant to conduct disorder (CD) are reviewed, and a developmental approach to its prevention is presented. Outcome studies for the treatment of CD and antisocial behavior are first reviewed to demonstrate that, although none have been entirely successful, many interventions have powerful effects on various symptoms that comprise the disorder, highly predictive antecedents, and risk factors. Second, the development of CD and the potency and interrelationship among antecedent and mediating variables is traced through the preschool and early elementary school years. Third, an attempt is made to synthesize the developmental and treatment research findings to suggest possible integrations of interventions that are promising for future preventive trials in the preschool and elementary school periods. It is concluded that, whereas before the entry to school preventive interventions targeted entirely in the family setting may prove successful, after the transition to school multisetting interventions will be essential. Finally, three examples of new and multisetting prevention trials are briefly described.