To examine the antecedents and consequences of troubled family interaction during the “terrible twos,” 64 of 69 families rearing firstborn sons who were observed in the child's second year of life were observed again in the child's third year. Cluster analysis of parent and child behavior scores was used once more to identify families whose parent-child interactions during parental efforts to control the child looked “troubled” at 27 and/or 33 months so that chronicity of troubled family interaction across the second and third year of life could be appraised. Nine predictor variables suggested by Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting, measured at the end of the first year of life, along with social class, were found to powerfully discriminate families that were troubled never or once from those who were troubled twice from those who were troubled three to four times across the four measurement occasions. Child externalizing problem behavior at 3 years of age was found to be almost monotonically related to chronicity of troubled family interaction, irrespective of whether problem behaviors were reported by mothers, fathers, or daycare providers.

The Cambridge Editorial staff deeply regrets the inadvertent error in the date of Dr. Roland D. Ciaranello's death. He died December 14, 1994 and the memoriam was written on the 1-year anniversary of his passing. We apologize to Dr. Ciaranello's family and to Dr. Cicchetti and to all those who admired and respected Dr. Ciaranello and his monumental work in the field.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between paternal alcohol use and the mother-infant relationship. A related goal was to investigate the role of maternal depression and marital satisfaction in moderating this relationship. Subjects were 55 mother-infant dyads (12–24-month-old infants) who were observed in the Strange Situation paradigm to assess infant attachment and in structured play interactions. There were 23 families with heavy drinking fathers and 32 with light drinking fathers. As predicted, infants of heavy drinking fathers were more likely to be insecurely attached compared to infants of light drinking fathers. Contrary to expectations, neither maternal depression nor marital interaction mediated the relationship between paternal alcohol use and mother-infant interactions. However, maternal depression did interact with paternal alcohol use to predict infant attachment security and maternal sensitivity. There was also an interactive effect of marital satisfaction and paternal alcohol use on maternal sensitivity. The results suggest that paternal alcohol use may influence family functioning and the mother-child relationship as early as infancy and suggest one possible pathway toward maladjustment among infants of heavy drinking fathers. However, in addition to investigating the impact of paternal alcohol use on the father-infant relationship, the influence of various familial factors associated with paternal alcohol use need to be more closely examined from a longitudinal perspective.

We examined the role of a history of sexual abuse as a predictor of child maltreatment by adolescent mothers in a prospective study of 104 mother-child dyads. Mothers were interviewed about any experienced abuse, and the mother-child dyads were observed in a teaching interaction and in the Strange Situation when the children were 1 year old. Three and a half years later, the mothers were interviewed about their Child Protective Service (CPS) contacts since the birth of their children. The percentage of mothers reporting CPS contacts for their own children was 15.4%, 38.5%, and 83.3%, respectively, for those mothers with no history of sexual abuse, a history of a single incident or brief duration of sexual abuse, and those mothers with a history of chronic sexual abuse (median 24 months duration; test of increasing trend significant at p < .000009). Mothers who reported having been chronically sexually abused as children were significantly more likely to have CPS contacts for their own children, after controlling for history of physical abuse, quality of early teaching interactions, and infant attachment security (both of which also predicted CPS contacts), race, IQ, welfare status at 1 year postpartum, and history of foster care.

This article presents an overview of work conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry over the past 30 years on childhood depression. The work began with the basic question of definition and measurement. Epidemiological studies showed that depressive symptoms were quite common in children and were a good, if nonspecific, indicator of psychological disturbance. Further work in both epidemiological and clinical samples provided some evidence for the validity of a depressive syndrome. However, this work also showed that these depressive syndromes represented a heterogeneous group of phenomena. The validity of major depressive disorder in children was therefore tested further in longitudinal and family-genetic studies. These studies supported the validity of the concept but confirmed that there was heterogeneity in respect to both developmental stage at the time of onset and comorbidity with conduct disorder. We concluded that there are probably several different kinds of depressive syndromes in children. Some are strongly linked with depressive disorders in adulthood, but others are probably better conceptualized as part of another psychopathological problem altogether.

In this study, we examine issues related to the development of antisocial behavior, using data from three ongoing Swedish longitudinal projects. A correlational strategy is contrasted with a configurational approach. The correlational analyses reveal quite high temporal rank-order stabilities of behavioral problems, for both sexes, and also long-term statistical connections between childhood problems and adolescent and adult adjustment problems. However, these associations are of a modest size. This is to be expected in view of the operation of processes of a more temporary nature and of the timing of adjustment problems. It is argued here that a configurational approach, simultaneously taking into consideration relevant aspects of the individuals' risk panorama, offers a perspective on developmental pathways that is not provided by common multivariate approaches. Results from this more person-centered approach show the strong impact of adolescent multirisk patterns on future criminality and on drug and alcohol abuse. Findings also reveal that individual personal resources in adolescence may quite strongly reduce the risk of developing future criminality and drug and alcohol abuse for multiproblem individuals.

The association between attachment and behavior problems was examined for a nonclinical, diverse sociocconomic status (SES) French-Canadian sample of 77 children. Attachment classifications were assigned on the basis of reunion behavior with mother when the children were between 5 and 7 years of age. Teachers rated children's problem behavior using the Socioaffective Profile within 3 months of the attachment assessment (Time 2) and 2 years earlier (Time 1). Results indicated that children with a D classification were more likely than secures or other insecure groups (A or C) to be classified in the problem group at both ages. A majority (80%) of the D group showed problem behavior at some point during the 3–7 year period compared with a minority of A, B, or C children. However, only about 30% of controlling children (like other insecures) had stable problems. Analyses of subclinical scores showed that both controlling and avoidant groups were lower than secures in social competence at Time 1. At Time 2, A group children were lower in externalizing behavior, and C group children were higher. These results extend the association between the D classification and maladaptation previously found for clinical and high-risk samples to a nonclinical, mixed SES sample.

Crittenden has proposed a system for classifying attachment during the preschool years. Ninety-six boys and girls were tested in the Strange Situation at 18 months and 30 months of age. Eighteen-month-olds were coded using the Ainsworth coding system, and the 30-month-olds were coded using Crittenden's preschool attachment coding system. When children changed classification categories, it was not random movement but was in accordance with Crittenden's predictions of reorganization of the child's capacities. Mothers and children were also observed in the home at 18 and 30 months of age, and children were observed in playgroups from 18 to 30 months of age. The children were rated by their teachers on problem behaviors and peer relations and given achievement tests at age 7 years. Parenting of the children and child behaviors at 30 months differed by attachment classification and predicted both children's performance on achievement tests and teacher reports of children's behavior at 7 years. The findings are discussed in terms of reorganization of working models of attachment on the basis of changing child competencies.

Throughout early development, a child spends more time asleep than in any waking activity. Yet, the specific role of sleep in brain maturation is a complete mystery. In this article, the developmental psychobiology of sleep regulation is conceptualized within the context of close links to the control of arousal, affect, and attention. The interactions among these systems are considered from an ontogenetic and evolutionary biological perspective. A model is proposed for the development of sleep and arousal regulation with the following major tenets:

1. Sleep and vigilance represent opponent processes in a larger system of arousal regulation.

2. The regulation of sleep, arousal, affect, and attention overlap in physiological, neuroanatomical, clinical, and developmental domains.

3. Complex interactions among these regulatory systems are modulated and integrated in regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

4. Changes at the level of PFC underlie maturational shifts in the relative balance across these regulatory systems (such as decreases in the depth/length of sleep and increased capacity for vigilance and attention), which occur with normal development.

5. The effects of sleep deprivation (including alterations in attention, emotions, and goal-directed behaviors) also involve changes at the level of PFC integration across regulatory systems.

This model is then discussed in the context of developmental pathology in the control of affect and attention, with an emphasis on sleep changes in depression.

Two cohorts of adolescents who were categorized at either 21 or 31 months of age as extremely inhibited or uninhibited completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR), and their parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). In the second year, inhibited children typically cease ongoing behavior and vocalizing, seek comfort from a familiar person, or withdraw in response to unfamiliar situations. By contrast uninhibited children do not become subdued by novelty and are sociable and outgoing, often vocalizing, smiling, and approaching unfamiliar persons or objects. The 13-year-old adolescents who had been categorized as inhibited at 21 months of age scored significantly lower than adolescents originally classified as uninhibited on the Total Externalizing, Delinquent Behavior, and Aggressive Behavior Scales. Parental ratings of Total Externalizing and Aggressive behavior on the CBCL agreed with the Youth Self-Report. The second cohort of adolescents who had been selected at 31 months yielded similar findings, but only for males. These results suggest that important aspects of the original temperamental profile have been preserved over a 12-year period.

The observations of family members as well as the results of past research suggest that a variety of developmental pathways can precede the onset of schizophrenia in early adulthood. In this article, we describe recent findings from our research on the childhood precursors of schizophrenia. Taken together, the results indicate that childhood behavioral, emotional, and motoric dysfunction occur at a higher rate in preschizophrenia subjects when compared to control subjects. Further, there are developmental changes as well as significant variability among schizophrenia patients in the nature and severity of childhood impairment. Drawing on the prevailing diathesis-stress model, we explore the moderating role that stress exposure and reactivity may play in the expression of the organic diathesis for schizophrenia. Specifically, we consider the role of the biological stress response in the production of developmental changes and individual differences in the pathways to schizophrenia. Given extant models of dopamine involvement in the neuropathology of schizophrenia, stress-induced Cortisol release may alter the expression of subcortical abnormalities in dopamine neurotransmission. Thus, we present a neural mechanism for the hypothesized behavioral sensitivity to stress exposure in schizophrenia, and explore the capacity of the model to account for the changing behavioral manifestations of vulnerability.

Previous studies have revealed a “theory of mind” impairment in children with autism. The aim of this study was to assess whether it is possible to intervene by teaching children with autism to understand the mental states of emotion, belief, or pretence. Results showed that it is possible to teach children with autism to pass tasks that assess emotion and belief understanding. Introducing unfamiliar materials in structurally similar tasks did not adversely influence teaching effects, either immediately after teaching, or 2 months later. However, teaching effects did not generalize to tasks in domains where children received no teaching. In addition, no significant progress in spontaneous pretend play resulted from teaching. These results indicate that children may be passing tasks using rules rather than any genuine understanding of the concepts involved.

This study investigated relations between drug exposure, particularly cocaine, and infants' regulation of arousal in response to novelty. Sixty-three infants — 36 cocaine exposed and 27 non-cocaine exposed — participated at 3 months of age in a novel-repeat stimulus presentation procedure. Arousal was operationalized in terms of infant behavioral state, affective expressiveness, and attention to the stimulus. Infants were tested and infant behaviors were scored by experimenters blind to the drug exposure status of the infant. There were no differences between the two groups in baseline behavioral state or affective expression before the presentation of novel stimuli. Compared to the non-cocaine-exposed group, infants exposed prenatally to cocaine and other drugs were more likely to exhibit a crying state and to display negative affect on novel stimulus presentations. There were no group differences in the amount of looking toward the stimulus. Both groups showed less crying and negative affect when stimuli were presented a second time, but decrements were consistently greater for the cocaine-exposed group. These results obtained when group differences were controlled for sociodemographic and perinatal variables. Sources of differences in the regulation of arousal in cocaine-exposed and non-cocainc-exposed infants are discussed, and impairments in the regulation of arousal in cocaine-exposed infants are considered in a framework of predictive implications for children's social and cognitive development.

This series of four studies examined the psychosocial functioning of children, adolescents, and adults with developmental dyslexia. One sample of nonreferred dyslexic and nondyslexic men, and three different samples of dyslexic and normally achieving control children and adolescents were studied. The child samples included both clinic-referred and nonreferred populations, and sibling and nonsibling control designs. Variables assessed included depressive and ADHD symptomatology, self-concept and, in the adult sample, socioeconomic status and other life adjustment variables.

We found that, across three samples, children and adolescents report lower global self-worth and lower perceived competence in scholastic domains, more depressive symptomatology, and (both by self- and parent report) more ADHD symptomatology than normal achievers. In contrast, adult dyslexic men, while also perceiving themselves as less intelligent than their peers, reporting more generalized psychological distress, and showing less social mobility, were nonetheless comparable to their peers in terms of global self-worth, depressive symptomatology, and other indices of adult adjustment and satisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of a developmental “niche-finding” model, in which the shift into adult life may foster more constructive experiences and internal processes.

Biometric analyses of variability in behavioral phenotypes have demonstrated that genotype plays a significant role in all behavioral development, but the developmental significance of the environment has remained obscure. Behavior genetic analyses typically show the effect of shared family environment to be very small, although considerable variability remains to be explained after genetic factors have been accounted for. Behavior geneticists have suggested, contrary to intuition, that almost all of the important effects of the environment serve to make family members more different from each other. Environmentalists of several persuasions have pointed to the crucial importance of the environment in the initiation and regulation of all developmental processes. In this article, we present a series of simulations to suggest that some of the difficulty of identifying environmental effects in biometric models is methodological. Adding simple dynamic parameters to models of development leads to systems in which environment produces substantial variability that can be detected in the context of a particular genotype, but vanishes when genotype is allowed to vary.

Past research on peer victimization has focused on maltreatment through overtly aggressive behaviors. Although a relational form of aggression has been identified in recent research, studies of the victims of relational aggression have not yet been conducted. The present research was designed as a first attempt to address this issue. Four goals were pursued (n = 474; third- through sixth-grade children): (a) development of a self-report measure of victimization through relational and overt aggression; (b) assessment of the relation between overt victimization and relational victimization; (c) assessment of gender, grade, and sociometric status group differences in victimization; and (d) evaluation of the relation between victimization and social-psychological adjustment. Results showed that the newly developed victimization measure had favorable psychometric properties and that most of the identified victims were the targets of cither relational or overt aggression, but not both. Further, rejected children were more relationally and overtly victimized than their better accepted peers, and boys were more overtly victimized than girls. Finally, relational victimization, overt victimization, and the lack of prosocial treatment by peers were all significantly related to social-psychological adjustment difficulties (e.g., depression, loneliness).

The model presented identifies the importance of neural regulation of autonomic state as an antecedent substrate for emotional, cognitive, and behavioral regulation. It is proposed that individual differences in neural regulation of autonomic state are related to normal and abnormal development. Establishing nervous system regulation of autonomic state is the infant's initial task of self-regulation. Survival for the high-risk infant is based primarily on physiological self-regulation. Although the methods described focus on the high-risk neonate, the model provides insight into normal development and may be generalized to the study of older children and adults with behavioral and psychological problems. Moreover, the model may contribute to assessment and intervention strategics for normal and abnormal development.