Maternal depressive symptoms are a crucial risk factor for children’s internalizing problems, though positive mother–child relationships may buffer this risk transmission. Mother–child physiological coregulation (e.g., synchrony) has emerged as a potentially important mechanism of developmental psychopathology and may play a role in the transmission of internalizing symptoms. In this two-wave longitudinal study, we examined whether and how mother–infant physiological synchrony (of respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) moderated the association between maternal postnatal depressive symptoms and children’s internalizing problems in a rural, low-SES community sample (N = 166 dyads). At 6 months, mother–infant RSA synchrony and infant negative affect were assessed during free play. Mother reported their depressive symptoms at 6 months and children’s internalizing problems at 24 months. Multilevel structural equation models indicated that mother–infant dyads demonstrated significant and positive RSA synchrony on average and RSA synchrony significantly moderated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s internalizing problems even after controlling for infant negative affect. Greater maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher child internalizing problems when RSA synchrony was lower but not when it was higher. This finding suggests that mother–infant RSA synchrony may operate as a resilience factor for the intergenerational transmission of internalizing symptoms in community samples.

Parenting and child impulsivity are consistent predictors of children’s externalizing symptoms; however, the role of the range of parenting (i.e., variation in parenting across contexts), and its interactions with child impulsivity, are poorly understood. We examined whether characteristic parenting practices and parenting range predicted the course of externalizing symptoms in 409 children (Mage = 3.43 years at baseline, 208 girls) across ages 3, 5, 8, and 11. We assessed parent positive affectivity (PPA), hostility, and parenting structure at child age 3 using three behavioral tasks that varied in context, examining range by modeling a latent difference score for each parenting dimension. Greater PPA range, mean structure, and parenting structure range all predicted fewer symptoms at age 3 for children with higher impulsivity. Lower mean hostility predicted fewer symptoms at age 3 for children with lower impulsivity. Greater PPA, and smaller PPA range, predicted a decrease in symptoms for children higher in impulsivity. Lower hostility range predicted a decrease in symptoms for children with lower impulsivity but predicted maintaining symptoms for children with higher impulsivity. Results demonstrate the differential roles average parenting practices and parenting range play in the development of child externalizing psychopathology, especially in the context of child impulsivity.

Altruism is a prosocial tendency that has developed through long-term evolutionary selection. The present study adopts social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories to examine how benign/malicious envy can affect altruism and how altruism can affect the two types of envy in turn, respectively. In Study 1, 513 adolescents participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey to explore the relationships between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional benign/malicious envy. The cross-lagged analysis showed a long-term and stable negative bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional malicious envy and a short-term positive bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruism and dispositional benign envy. In Study 2, 109 adolescents kept a weekly diary for seven consecutive weeks to record state levels of altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy in their daily lives. The hierarchical linear model demonstrated that weekly altruistic tendency and weekly benign envy could positively predict each other, and weekly altruistic tendency presented a negative bidirectional relationship with weekly malicious envy. These findings offer an effective way to study the relationship between human behavior and emotions from perspectives of social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories. Meanwhile, it also has practical significance for the harmonious development of society.

This longitudinal randomized controlled trial examined the impact of a doula home visiting intervention for young, low-income mothers on parenting and toddler social-emotional development and tested whether intervention effects were moderated by maternal emotional and behavioral health characteristics. 156 mothers were offered home visits from a home visitor starting in mid-pregnancy through several years postpartum, with a community doula also working with the mother during pregnancy and after the birth. 156 received case management. Interviews, video recordings of mother-child interactions, and toddler assessments were conducted at 3 weeks, 3 months, 13 months, and 30 months of age. Intent-to-treat analyses conducted with the full sample showed some intervention effects. Moderation analyses, however, showed that most effects were concentrated among mothers engaged in high levels of risk-taking (delinquent behaviors, school suspensions, smoking, alcohol use, sexual risk-taking). Among higher risk-taking mothers, the intervention was related to less intrusiveness during early infancy, less psychological and physical aggression during toddlerhood, more sensitive parenting attitudes, and greater toddler social relatedness. Maternal depressive symptoms were only a moderator for toddler behavior problems. These findings suggest that doula home visiting may be a particularly effective model for enhancing sensitive, non-aggressive parenting among young mothers with a history of risk-taking behavior.

The stress-vulnerability model has been repeatedly highlighted in relation to the risk, onset and course of psychosis, and has been independently studied in clinical high-risk (CHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) populations. Notable in this literature, however, is that there are few studies directly comparing markers of stress response across progressive stages of illness. Here we examined the psychobiological response to the Trier Social Stress Test in 28 CHR (mean age 19.1) and 61 FEP (age 23.0) patients, in order to understand the stage(s) or trajectories in which differences in subjective stress or physiological response occur. The overall clinical sample had greater perceived stress and blunted cortisol (FEP + CHR, n = 89, age 21.7) compared with healthy controls (n = 45, age 22.9). Additional analyses demonstrated elevated heart rate and systolic blood pressure in FEP compared with CHR, but there were no further differences in physiological parameters (cortisol, heart rate, or blood pressure) between stage- or trajectory-based groups. Together, this suggests that individual stress response markers may differentially emerge at particular stages en route to psychosis – and demonstrates how stage-based analyses can shed light on the emergence and evolution of neurobiological changes in mental illness.

Resilience, the capacity to maintain or regain functionality in the face of adversity, is a dynamic process influenced by individual, familial, and community factors. Despite its variability, distinct resilience trajectories can be identified within populations, yet the predictors defining these distinct groups remains largely unclear. Here, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ages 0-18), we quantify resilience as the remaining variance in psychosocial functioning after taking into account the exposure to adversity. Growth mixture modeling identified seven distinct resilience trajectories, with over half of the study population maintaining resilience throughout early life. Factors increasing the likelihood of resilient trajectory membership included a less emotional temperament, high cognitive abilities, high self-esteem, low levels of autistic social traits, strong sibling relationships, high maternal care, and positive school experiences. Among the socioeconomic factors considered, maternal education – a significant indicator of socioeconomic status – and birth-order were associated with resilient trajectories. Our findings underscore the importance of fostering cognitive abilities, self-esteem, social relationships, positive school experiences, and extracurricular engagement to bolster resilience in adversity-exposed individuals and communities. This research informs resilience-focused interventions in mental health, education, and social policy sectors, and prompts further exploration of socioeconomic influences on resilience trajectories.

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) plays a protective role in the development of children with histories of early adversity, including adopted children. This is the first study to investigate the developmental trajectories of PRF and children’s socio-emotional problems in the first 4 years after international adoption (N = 48 families, mean age (T1) = 20.7 months) and to examine the mediating role of parenting stress in the relation between PRF and child socio-emotional problems. Multilevel modeling indicated that age at adoption and parent gender moderated the development of PRF and child socio-emotional problems. Moreover, decreases in PRF were associated with more socio-emotional problems in the children. These relations were mediated by parenting stress, and particularly feelings of incompetence and marital dissatisfaction.

Parenting stress and child psychopathology are closely linked in parent-child dyads, but how the bidirectional association varies across childhood and adolescence, and shifts depending on maternal affection are not well understood. Guided by the transactional model of development, this longitudinal, prospective study examined the bidirectional relations between parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing problems and investigated the moderating role of maternal affection from childhood to adolescence. Participants were from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a diverse, nationally representative sample of 2,143 caregiving mothers who completed assessments at children ages 5, 9, and 15. Using cross-lagged panel modeling, we found bidirectional effects between parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing problems. However, additional multigroup analyses showed that bidirectional associations depend on the levels of maternal affection. In the high maternal affection group, parenting stress at age 5 predicted higher internalizing and externalizing problems at age 9, and reverse child-to-parent paths were found from age 9 to age 15. In contrast, only one cross-lagged path was found in the low maternal affection group. Findings suggest that maternal affection can heighten the transactional associations between parenting stress and child psychopathology.

The present work sought to confirm the factor structure and examine longitudinal strengths-based and mental health correlates of the dysregulation profile (DP) in children of at-risk fragile families of diverse ethnoracial backgrounds. The data came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2125 families). Mothers (Mage = 25.3) were mostly unmarried (74.6%), and children (51.4% boys) were identified as Black (47.0%), Hispanic (21.4%), White (16.7%), or multiracial or other backgrounds. Childhood DP was constructed using mother reports of the Child Behavior Checklist at age 9. Mothers’ in-home parent–child interactions and depressive symptoms were assessed at child age 5. At age 15, children responded about their own mental health, social skills, and other strengths-focused outcomes. A bifactor DP structure fit well to the data, with the DP factor representing difficulties in self-regulation. Using SEM, we found that mothers who were more depressed and used less warm parenting at child age 5 had children who presented with higher DP at age 9. DP was in turn associated with less social skills, perseverance, optimism, and more anxiety, depression, and impulsivity at adolescence. Childhood DP appears to be relevant and applicable for at-risk, diverse families, and may also impede on children’s future positive functioning.

The current study evaluated risk factors in adolescence on problem drinking and emotional distress in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, and meeting criteria for diagnosed disorders in adulthood. The study included 501 parents and their adolescent who participated from middle adolescence to adulthood. Risk factors in middle adolescence (age 18) included parent alcohol use, adolescent alcohol use, and parent and adolescent emotional distress. In late adolescence (age 18), binge drinking and emotional distress were assessed, and in emerging adulthood (age 25), alcohol problems and emotional distress were examined. Meeting criteria for substance use, behavioral, affective, or anxiety disorders were examined between the ages of 26 and 31. Results showed parent alcohol use predicted substance use disorder through late adolescent binge drinking and emerging adulthood alcohol problems. Behavioral disorders were indirectly predicted by adolescent and emerging adult emotional distress. Affective disorders were indirectly predicted by parent emotional distress through adolescent emotional distress. Finally, anxiety disorders were predicted by parent alcohol use via adolescent drinking; parent emotional distress via adolescent emotional distress, and through adolescent alcohol use and emotional distress. Results provided support for the intergenerational transmission of problem drinking and emotional distress on meeting criteria for diagnosed psychiatric disorders in adulthood.

Early adolescence is characterized by rapid changes in executive function and increased vulnerability to internalizing difficulties. The aim of this study was to explore whether internalizing symptoms are stable across early adolescence and to identify possible links with executive function. Using data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), we identified four dimensions of internalizing symptoms from item-level ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist at ages 10 (n = 10,841) and 12 (n = 5,846), with an invariant factor structure across time. These dimensions corresponded to anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and somatic problems. We then examined associations between these dimensions and three aspects of executive function at age 10 measured by the NIH Toolbox: inhibition, shifting and working memory. Worse shifting and inhibition at age 10 was associated with elevated symptoms of anxiety and withdrawal cross-sectionally, while poor inhibition was also uniquely associated with symptoms of depression. Longitudinal associations were more limited: Worse inhibition at age 10 predicted greater symptoms of withdrawal at age 12, while worse shifting predicted fewer symptoms of anxiety 2 years later. These findings suggest that poor executive function in early adolescence is associated with greater internalizing difficulties and poor inhibition may contribute to later social withdrawal.

Emotional disorders in children are often associated with low self-concept and problems with peers, and in many cases externalizing symptoms. Super Skills for Life (SSL) is a transdiagnostic treatment for emotional problems in children that has also shown benefits in other comorbid symptoms. This study aimed to examine, for the first time, the effect of SSL on a clinical sample of Spanish children aged 8–12 years with a major emotional disorder and comorbid externalizing symptoms and low self-concept. A quasi-experimental design with two groups, pretest and posttest, was carried out. Thirty-eight children received the SSL intervention, and 36 children were assigned to a wait-list control (WLC) group. Children in SSL showed statistically fewer posttest emotional symptoms (p < .001), peer problems (p = .002), and overall internalizing and externalizing difficulties (p = .005) compared to children in WLC, in addition to higher posttest self-concept (p = .002). There were no differences in the postinterventional changes between boys and girls in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, significant differences were found in some facets of self-concept. The results of this study suggest that the SSL protocol may be useful in Spanish clinical contexts. Still, more research is needed to overcome some of the inherent limitations.

This 17-year prospective study applied a social-development lens to the challenge of identifying long-term predictors of adult depressive symptoms. A diverse community sample of 171 individuals was repeatedly assessed from age 13 to age 30 using self-, parent-, and peer-report methods. As hypothesized, competence in establishing close friendships beginning in adolescence had a substantial long-term predictive relation to adult depressive symptoms at ages 27–30, even after accounting for prior depressive, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms. Intervening relationship difficulties at ages 23–26 were identified as part of pathways to depressive symptoms in the late twenties. Somewhat distinct paths by gender were also identified, but in all cases were consistent with an overall role of relationship difficulties in predicting long-term depressive symptoms. Implications both for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

Childhood intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure increases the likelihood of internalizing and externalizing problems. There is substantial variability in children’s outcomes following IPV exposure, but the reasons behind this are unclear, particularly among preschool-age children. The current study aimed to examine the direct and indirect effects of IPV on preschoolers’ mental health through parent factors (parenting and parental depression), exploring child temperament as a potential moderator of the relation between IPV and child outcomes. Participants were 186 children (85 girls) and their parents living in the United States. Data were initially collected when children were age three, with follow-up at ages four and six. Both parents’ baseline IPV perpetration had adverse effects on child outcomes. Mothers’ IPV was associated with greater paternal depression, paternal overractivity, and maternal laxness, whereas fathers’ IPV was associated with more paternal overreactivity. Only paternal depression mediated the effect of mothers’ IPV on child outcomes. Parenting did not mediate nor did child temperament moderate the relation between IPV and child outcomes. Results shed insight into the need to address parental mental health in families experiencing IPV and underline the need for a further exploration of individual- and family-level mechanisms of adjustment following IPV exposure.

Sensory-based subtypes among autistic children have been well documented, but little is known about longitudinal sensory subtypes beyond autistic populations. This prospective study aimed to identify subtypes based on trajectories of parent-reported sensory features measured at 6–19 months, 3–4, and 6–7 years of age among a community-based birth cohort (N = 1,517), and to examine their associations with school-age clinical and adaptive/maladaptive outcomes on a subset sample (N = 389). Latent class growth analysis revealed five trajectory subtypes varying in intensity and change rates across three sensory domains. In contrast to an Adaptive-All Improving subtype (35%) with very low sensory features and overall better school-age outcomes, an Elevated-All Worsening subtype (3%), comprised of more boys and children of parents with less education, was associated with most elevated autistic traits and poorest adaptive/maladaptive outcomes. Three other subtypes (62% in total) were generally characterized by stable or improving patterns of sensory features at mild to moderate levels, and challenges in certain outcome domains. Our findings indicate that characterizing children based on early sensory trajectories may contribute to earlier detection of subgroups of children with sensory challenges who are more likely to experience developmental challenges by school age, followed by early targeted interventions for improved long-term outcomes.

For mother-infant health especially, the pandemic has brought multiple stressors inside a susceptible psychobiological system. We study the longitudinal associations between maternal prenatal and postpartum: (a) COVID-19 stressful events exposure, (b) pandemic psychological stress, and (c) mental health and infants’ negative affect. A sample of 643 Italian pregnant women completed a web-based survey from April 8th to May 4th, 2020 and a follow-up at 6 months after delivery. Maternal assessment covered prenatal and postpartum measures for: COVID-19 stressful events exposure, pandemic psychological stress, mental health symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder) and postpartum, social support and report of infants’ negative affect. Maternal mental health symptoms during pregnancy, at the peak of pandemic, is longitudinally associated with infant negative affect, with postpartum mental health mediating this association. Also, maternal COVID-19 stressful events exposure in postpartum is associated with negative affect at 6 months mediated by postpartum mental health symptoms. Maternal pandemic psychological stress during pregnancy predicted mental health symptoms in postpartum. The study supports the association between pandemic-related maternal health across pregnancy and postpartum and offspring’s development (i.e., negative affect). It also puts the spotlight on mental health risk in women experiencing lockdown during pregnancy, especially when feeling high psychological stress in pregnancy or when directly exposed to COVID-19 stressful events postpartum.

Maternal depression and anxiety are associated with infant and mother self- and interactive difficulties. Although maternal depression and anxiety usually co-occur, studies taking this comorbidity into account are few. Despite some literature, we lack a detailed understanding of how maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms may be associated with patterns of mother–infant interaction. We examined associations of maternal postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms with infant and mother self- and interactive patterns by conducting multi-level time-series models in a sample of 56 Turkish mothers and their 4-month infants. Time-series models assessed the temporal dynamics of interaction via infant and mother self- and interactive contingency. Videotaped face-to-face interaction was coded on a 1s time base for infant and mother gaze and facial affect, infant vocal affect, and mother touch. Results indicated that mothers with high depressive symptoms were vulnerable to infants looking away, reacting with negative touch; their infants remained affectively midrange, metaphorically distancing themselves from mothers’ affect. Mothers with high anxiety symptoms were vulnerable to infants becoming facially dampened and mothers reacted with negative facial affect. Altered infant and mother self-contingency patterns were largely opposite for maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms. These patterns describe foundational processes by which maternal postpartum mood is transmitted to the infant and which may affect infant development.