The consequences of childhood maltreatment are profound and long lasting. Not only does the victim of abuse suffer as a child, but there is mounting evidence that a history of maltreatment places the next generation at risk for significant psychopathology. Research identifies postnatal factors as affecting this intergenerational transmission of trauma. However, emerging evidence suggests that part of this risk may be transmitted before birth, passed on via abuse-related alterations in the in utero environment that are as yet largely unidentified. To date, no study has directly assessed the influence of pregnant women's abuse history on fetal neurobehavioral development, nor considered trauma-associated poor sleep quality as a mediator reflecting established physiological dysregulation. Using data from 262 pregnant adolescents (ages 14–19), a population at elevated risk for childhood maltreatment, the current study examined maternal emotional abuse history and sleep quality in relation to third-trimester fetal resting heart rate variability, an index of parasympathetic nervous system functioning. The results indicate that maternal emotional abuse history is indirectly associated with lower fetal heart rate variability via abuse-related sleep disturbances. These data demonstrate an association between maternal abuse histories and fetal development, showing that at least part of the intergenerational transmission of risk occurs during pregnancy.

The first aim of the current study was to examine the latent structure of attachment states of mind as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) among three groups of parents of children at risk for insecure attachments: parents who adopted internationally (N = 147), foster parents (N = 300), and parents living in poverty and involved with Child Protective Services (CPS; N = 284). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the state of mind rating scales loaded on two factors reflecting adults’ preoccupied and dismissing states of mind. Taxometric analyses indicated the variation in adults’ preoccupied states of mind was more consistent with a dimensional than a categorical model, whereas results for dismissing states of mind were indeterminate. The second aim was to examine the degree to which the attachment states of mind of internationally adoptive and foster parents differ from those of poverty/CPS-referred parents and low-risk parents. After controlling for parental age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, (a) internationally adoptive parents had lower scores on the dismissing dimension than the sample of community parents described by Haltigan, Leerkes, Supple, and Calkins (2014); (b) foster parents did not differ from community parents on either the dismissing or the preoccupied AAI dimension; and (c) both internationally adoptive and foster parents had lower scores on the preoccupied dimension than poverty/CPS-referred parents. Analyses using the traditional AAI categories provided convergent evidence that (a) internationally adoptive parents were more likely to be classified as having an autonomous state of mind than low-risk North American mothers based on Bakermans-Kranenburg and van IJzendoorn's (2009) meta-analytic estimates, (b) the rates of autonomous states of mind did not differ between foster and low-risk parents, and (c) both internationally adoptive and foster parents were less likely to be classified as having a preoccupied state of mind than poverty/CPS-referred parents.

A study was conducted to determine predictors of high risk/delinquent behavior and psychoemotional maladjustment in 1,478 sixth and eighth graders who took part in a survey of high-risk and adaptive behaviors. The first goal was to determine the extent to which two distinct dimensions of alienation, normlessness, and isolation/self-estrangement mediated the emergence of maladjustment in youth exposed to community violence. The second goal was to distinguish between violence witnessing and violence victimization, and determine whether these subtypes of violence exposure may differentially affect the proposed mediational factors. The results indicated that normlessness partially mediated the relationship between violence exposure and high-risk/delinquent behavior and between violence exposure and psychoemotional maladjustment. Isolation/self-estrangement partially mediated the relation between violence exposure and psychoemotional maladjustment. Although witnessing of, and victimization by, violence were both significant predictors of normlessness, only violent victimization was significantly linked to isolation/self-estrangement. These results elucidate the mechanisms by which community violence exposure may exert negative influences on youth and suggest that there are distinct patterns of risk associated with different forms of exposure.This research was facilitated by the support of the William T. Grant Foundation and the Harris Program on Social Policy. The authors gratefully acknowledge the New Haven Public Schools, especially Superintendent Dr. Reginald Mayo and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Verdell Roberts. The authors thank Drs. Alan Kazdin, Joseph Mahoney, and Edward Zigler for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.

This study examined the relationship of psychiatric diagnoses to gender, IQ, and ego development level in an inpatient sample of 269 adolescents. It was found that adolescents with an affective disorder diagnosis, in contrast to those with a diagnosis of conduct or mixed affective-conduct disorder, were more likely to (a) be female, (b) have higher IQ scores, and (c) have higher ego development levels. No significant age differences were found between groups. Comparisons between the single diagnosis and mixed disorder groups indicated that the mixed disorder group is characterized by the most severe symptoms found in each of the pure affective and conduct disordered groups. A relationship between type of DSM-III diagnosis and ego development level in adolescence was demonstrated after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and IQ. These results are offered as an explication of the developmental dimensions inherent in DSM-III psychiatric diagnoses.

Research in developmental psychopathology is used to examine and propose questions, concepts, and methods in the investigation of child development in the contexts of dysfunctional and well families. The adequacy of the data base for investigating the course of development, representing the socialization process, and identifying individualities and universals in development is discussed. A number of research issues that have been studied primarily in developmental psychopathology are recommended as relevant to normal child development. Multidomain and multisource longitudinal data are proposed as the means for better delineating development and for testing alternative models of developmental processes. Examples of data and experience are drawn from longitudinal studies of affectively ill parents and their children. Differences in the perspectives and approaches of normal child development research and developmental child psychopathology are discussed. The usefulness of thinking of two disciplines, normal child development and child development psychopathology, is questioned.

Family interaction patterns were compared for children with depressive disorders and children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Results indicated that compared to SSD children, depressed children were less positive and more negative when interacting with their mothers. Additionally, depressed children did not significantly reciprocate positive or negative statements initiated by their mothers, whereas reciprocity of both positiveness and negativeness was a significant characteristic of the SSD children. While no between group differences were found in the base rates of mothers' positive and negative responses, mothers of SSD children were more likely than mothers of depressed children to reciprocate child negativeness. Maternal reciprocity of positive statements, while not discriminating diagnostic groups, was a significant characteristic only of mothers of depressed children. The implications of these results for theories of developmental psychopathology are discussed.

This study examined the association between prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) and developmental trajectories of externalizing behavior problems from 18 to 54 months of child age. A hypothesized indirect association between PCE and externalizing trajectories via maternal negative affect was also examined. Caregiving environmental risk and child sex were evaluated as moderators. This study consisted of 196 mother–child dyads recruited at delivery from local area hospitals (107 PCE, 89 non-PCE) and assessed at seven time points across the toddler to preschool periods. Results revealed no direct associations between PCE and externalizing behavior problem trajectories. However, results did indicate that PCE shared a significant indirect relationship with externalizing behavior problem trajectories via higher levels of maternal negative affect. The association between PCE and externalizing problem trajectories was also moderated by caregiving environmental risk such that PCE children in high-risk caregiving environments did not experience the well-documented normative decline in externalizing behavior problems beginning at around 3 years of age. This study suggests potential pathways to externalizing behavior problems among high-risk children.

Recent dimensional models of adversity informed by a neurobiological deficit framework highlights threat and deprivation as core dimensions, whereas models informed by an evolutionary, adaptational and functional framework calls attention to harshness and unpredictability. This report seeks to evaluate an integrative model of threat, deprivation, and unpredictability, drawing on the Fragile Families Study. Confirmatory factor analysis of presumed multiple indicators of each construct reveals an adequate three-factor structure of adversity. Theory-based targeted predictions of the developmental sequelae of each dimension also received empirical support, with deprivation linked to health problems and cognitive ability; threat linked to aggression; and unpredictability to substance use and sexual risk-taking. These findings lend credibility to utility of the three-dimensional integrative framework of adversity. It could thus inform development of dimensional measures of risk assessment and exploration of multidimensional adversity profiles, sensitive to individual differences in lived experiences, supporting patient-centered, strength-based approaches to services.

It is argued that memory for traumatic events is similar to that for other distinctive, personally significant events regardless of whether they are affectively positive or negative. Examined in this light, the focus now shifts to the role of individual differences in neurobiological, social, cognitive, and constitutional factors that conspire to determine long-term retention of significant autobiographical experiences. What is known about these factors in determining memorability is reviewed, issues of measurement inadequacies discussed, and recommendations for further research outlined.

Maternal elaborative reminiscing supports preschool children's autobiographical memory, self-concept, and emotion understanding. What are the factors contributing to mothers' elaborative style of reminiscing? In a longitudinal community sample (n = 170 at the final data point), this study explored the role of maternal depression (8–44 months), maternal sensitivity and maternal mind-mindedness (8 months), as well as child factors of joint attention (15 months), attachment security (15 months), and language (26 months) for mother–child reminiscing about a positive (happy) and a negative (scared) event at 44 months. Mothers could be classed into two groups of low versus increasing depression from 8 to 44 months, yet maternal depression did not uniquely predict mother–child reminiscing after accounting for maternal sensitivity and other factors. Instead, maternal sensitivity, children's joint attention, and language uniquely predicted children's elaborations about the scared event at 44 months, and maternal sensitivity uniquely predicted mothers' elaborations about the scared event at 44 months. Mothers who are more sensitive in early interactions may later be better at engaging their children when reminiscing about negative emotions. These findings have implications for the design of interventions targeted at supporting mothers to engage in elaborative reminiscing with their preschool children.

This report uses 6-year outcomes of the Oregon Divorce Study to examine the processes by which parenting practices affect deviant peer association during two developmental stages: early to middle childhood and late childhood to early adolescence. The participants were 238 newly divorced mothers and their 5- to 8-year-old sons who were randomly assigned to Parent Management Training—Oregon Model (PMTO®) or to a no-treatment control group. Parenting practices, child delinquent behavior, and deviant peer association were repeatedly assessed from baseline to 6 years after baseline using multiple methods and informants. PMTO had a beneficial effect on parenting practices relative to the control group. Two stage models linking changes in parenting generated by PMTO to children's growth in deviant peer association were supported. During the early to middle childhood stage, the relationship of improved parenting practices on deviant peer association was moderated by family socioeconomic status (SES); effective parenting was particularly important in mitigating deviant peer association for lower SES families whose children experience higher densities of deviant peers in schools and neighborhoods. During late childhood and early adolescence, the relationship of improved parenting to youths' growth in deviant peer association was mediated by reductions in the growth of delinquency during childhood; higher levels of early delinquency are likely to promote deviant peer association through processes of selective affiliation and reciprocal deviancy training. The results are discussed in terms of multilevel developmental progressions of diminished parenting, child involvement in deviancy producing processes in peer groups, and increased variety and severity of antisocial behavior, all exacerbated by ecological risks associated with low family SES.

Irritability and anxiety are two common clinical phenotypes that involve high-arousal negative affect states (anger and fear), and that frequently co-occur. Elucidating how these two forms of emotion dysregulation relate to perturbed neurodevelopment may benefit from alternate phenotyping strategies. One such strategy applies a bifactor latent variable approach that can parse shared versus unique mechanisms of these two phenotypes. Here, we aim to replicate and extend this approach and examine associations with neural structure in a large transdiagnostic sample of youth (N = 331; M = 13.57, SD = 2.69 years old; 45.92% male). FreeSurfer was used to extract cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and subcortical volume. The current findings replicated the bifactor model and demonstrate measurement invariance as a function of youth age and sex. There were no associations of youth's factor scores with cortical thickness, surface area, or subcortical volume. However, we found strong convergent and divergent validity between parent-reported irritability and anxiety factors with clinician-rated symptoms and impairment. A general negative affectivity factor was robustly associated with overall functional impairment across symptom domains. Together, these results support the utility of the bifactor model as an alternative phenotyping strategy for irritability and anxiety, which may aid in the development of targeted treatments.

Alterations of the glucocorticoid system and of hippocampal volumes have consistently been reported in patients with major depressive disorders (MDD). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of glucocorticoid inducible genes is associated with changes in the cornu ammonis (CA) and dentate gyrus subfields. Forty-three patients with MDD and 43 healthy controls were recruited and investigated with high resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Hippocampal subfields were measured using freesurfer. Measurement of whole blood mRNA expression of glucocorticoid inducible genes serum and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1), FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5), and glucocorticoid induced leucine zipper (GILZ) was performed. Patients with MDD had significantly smaller volumes of CA1, CA2/3, CA4/DG, and subiculum compared to healthy controls. In the regression analysis, the factor diagnosis had a significant moderating effect on the association of SGK1 and hippocampal volumes. Patients with low expression of SGK1 had significantly smaller CA2/3 and CA4/DG volumes compared to patients with high expression of SGK1 mRNA and to healthy controls with low/high expression of SGK1, respectively. Therefore, a lack of mRNA expression of glucocorticoid inducible genes in patients with MDD that seems to correspond to a blunted cortisol response is associated with smaller hippocampal CA and dentate gyrus volumes. SGK1 seems to be particularly relevant for stress-related mental disorders.

Based on attachment theory and a social-cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study examined the roles of parent–child communication, perceived parental depression, and intrusive rumination in the association between insecure attachment to parents and PTSD among adolescents following the Jiuzhaigou earthquake. In this study, 620 adolescents were recruited to complete self-report questionnaires. The results showed that the direct association between anxious attachment and PTSD was significant, but that between avoidant attachment and PTSD was non-significant. In addition, both anxious and avoidant attachment had indirect associations with PTSD via the mediating effects of parent–child communication openness and problems, perceived parental depression, and intrusive rumination. However, the specific paths between anxious and avoidant attachment and PTSD were different. The findings indicated that insecure attachment among adolescents following the earthquake was predictive for their PTSD, and the mechanisms underlying the association between anxious attachment and PTSD and the association between avoidant attachment and PTSD were distinct. To alleviate PTSD, more attention should be paid to improving the quality of parent–child communication for adolescents with avoidant attachment to parents, and to reducing negative cognition in adolescents with anxious attachment.

Building on Roisman, Fraley, and Belsky, who produced evidence for two modestly correlated dimensions (i.e., dismissing and preoccupied states of mind) underlying individual differences in attachment as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview using the Main and Goldwyn classification system, this report replicates and extends relevant evidence in a large sample of adults (N = 842) who completed the Adult Attachment Interview coded using Kobak's Adult Attachment Interview Q-Sort. Principal components analysis of item-level Q-Sort data yielded two state of mind (dismissing vs. free to evaluate and preoccupied vs. not) and two inferred experience (maternal and paternal) components that were associated with two domains of theoretical significance to attachment theory: interpersonal functioning in a romantic context and symptoms of psychopathology. Results revealed distinctive behavioral correlates of dismissing versus preoccupied states of mind and emphasize the differential predictive significance for developmental adaptation of attachment states of mind versus adults' recollections of their early experiences. Implications for adult attachment methodology and theory are discussed.

Struggles managing conflict and hostility in adolescent social relationships were examined as long-term predictors of immune-mediated inflammation in adulthood that has been linked to long-term health outcomes. Circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a marker of immune system dysfunction when chronically elevated, were assessed at age 28 in a community sample of 127 individuals followed via multiple methods and reporters from ages 13 to 28. Adult serum IL-6 levels were predicted across periods as long as 15 years by adolescents’ inability to defuse peer aggression and poor peer-rated conflict resolution skills, and by independently observed romantic partner hostility in late adolescence. Adult relationship difficulties also predicted higher IL-6 levels but did not mediate predictions from adolescent-era conflict struggles. Predictions were also not mediated by adult trait hostility or aggressive behavior, suggesting the unique role of struggles with conflict and hostility from others during adolescence. The implications for understanding the import of adolescent peer relationships for life span physical health outcomes are considered.

In this article we address several issues regarding problem or antisocial behavior in adolescents. First, we discuss conceptualizations of adolescent problem behavior to answer the question “What do we think we know so far?” Then, we briefly characterize current interventions designed to reduce these behaviors, and their relative success in doing so. Next, we examine earlier attempts to prevent and ameliorate problem behavior (including juvenile delinquency), situating them in the historical context of America from the turn of the century to World War II. Here, we attempt to answer the questions “How did we get to where we are?” and “How can we learn from the past?” Following this, we try to answer the question “Where do we go from here?” and articulate some research and policy implications relevant to developmental psychopathology that arise from these considerations. We argue that problem behavior is viewed most productively in its double aspect, which John Hughlings Jackson called a “double symptom,” with the positive aspect of the symptom reflecting adolescents' attempts to satisfy their developmental needs.

The commentary opens by highlighting the contribution of the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS) in providing developmental researchers with a clinically sensitive and reliable assessment of the emotional quality of caregiver–child interactions that takes into consideration their coregulated nature. The numerous studies that have used the EAS attest to their usefulness and to the way they balance complexity and attention to emotional nuances with clarity. Several issues with regard to the EAS are discussed subsequently. First, I propose that looking at patterns of the EA scales might be a way to capture the quality of each dyad's emotional dialogue. Second, I suggest that the description of attachment research as concerned almost exclusively with the regulation of distress is inaccurate, in light of Ainsworth's broad assessment of naturalistic home observations. Third, I raise the possibility that additional specialized coding systems beyond the EAS may be needed for predicting certain specific psychopathological outcomes (e.g., disorganized attachment). Fourth, I propose that it is important to explore cross-culturally the meaning of the behaviors on which the EAS focus, rather than assume cross-cultural equivalence. Fifth and finally, I point out the importance of placing the EAS in the context of the existing literature on early intervention and treatment.

Adolescent psychotic experiences increase risk for schizophrenia and other severe psychopathology in adulthood. Converging evidence implicates urban and adverse neighborhood conditions in the etiology of adolescent psychotic experiences, but the role of young people's personal perceptions of disorder (i.e., physical and social signs of threat) in their neighborhood is unknown. This was examined using data from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 2,232 British twins. Participants were interviewed at age 18 about psychotic phenomena and perceptions of disorder in the neighborhood. Multilevel, longitudinal, and genetically sensitive analyses investigated the association between perceptions of neighborhood disorder and adolescent psychotic experiences. Adolescents who perceived higher levels of neighborhood disorder were significantly more likely to have psychotic experiences, even after accounting for objectively/independently measured levels of crime and disorder, neighborhood- and family-level socioeconomic status, family psychiatric history, adolescent substance and mood problems, and childhood psychotic symptoms: odds ratio = 1.62, 95% confidence interval [1.27, 2.05], p < .001. The phenotypic overlap between adolescent psychotic experiences and perceptions of neighborhood disorder was explained by overlapping common environmental influences, rC = .88, 95% confidence interval [0.26, 1.00]. Findings suggest that early psychological interventions to prevent adolescent psychotic experiences should explore the role of young people's (potentially modifiable) perceptions of threatening neighborhood conditions.

The incomplete interface between remediation-oriented research and basic science research has hampered progress toward gaining insight into the etiologies of autism, despite the availability of abundant research data. Investigators of these two research domains differ in their background training and primary goals, which necessarily affect their missions, perspectives, research questions posed, methodologies selected, and interpretation of data from the research. Miscommunication between the two types of researchers has brought about disagreement on nearly every aspect of the research process. We discuss both sides of the impasse: a traditional clinical practice perspective based on the requirement for finding immediate answers to the remediation question and the basic science perspective with the goal of delineating the sequence of biological changes from the initial cause(s) of abnormal development to behavioral outcome. Although remediation-oriented research aims at alleviation of symptoms for today's patients, we propose that a basic science perspective seeks insight into the triggering causes and pathogenesis of the disorder from which better diagnosis and remediation may be devised for patients in the future. We suggest that research in autism can progress beyond the impasse of disagreement and competition toward information integration and insight by means of dialogue, data exchange, discussion, collaboration, and cooperation.