One of the central tenets of developmental psychopathology is the belief that we can learn more about normal functioning through the study of psychopathology and arrive at a better understanding of pathological conditions through investigations of normal behavior. Advances in knowledge from one area will inform us regarding mechanisms at work in the other. A similar perspective is the driving force behind recent scientific advances in our understanding of certain developmental disorders. In this paper, molecular findings for four developmental disorders are reviewed: Prader–Willi syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome, and lissencephaly. These disorders were chosen for discussion because putative genes for each of them have been isolated. The ways in which mutations within these genes disrupt normal cognitive and behavioral functioning are discussed. Although considerable progress has been achieved in understanding the genetic mechanisms for these illnesses, much more research is needed to identify the environmental and genetic factors that interact to contribute to the expression of the more complex behavioral disorders.

Research suggests that adults who have developed a coherent perspective on their negative, early attachment relationships (i.e., earned secures) do not reenact poor parenting practices with their own children. However, no studies have addressed whether earned secures maintain positive parenting under the pressures of aversive environmental conditions. This study tested five alternative models that predict how earned secures parent under low and high stress in comparison to adults who had a positive upbringing (i.e., continuous secures) and adults who have an incoherent perspective on a troubled childhood (i.e., insecures). Only if earned secures exhibit effective caregiving under high stress, in comparison to the other security groups, can it be assumed that they have broken the intergenerational cycle of poor parenting. The Adult Attachment Interview was used to classify 97 mothers as earned secure, continuous secure, and insecure. Home observations of parenting and maternal self-reports of daily hassles (our stress measure) were obtained when children were 27 months old. Planned comparisons revealed that the diathesis-stress/incoherent present state of mind model most accurately predicted parenting. Thus, under high stress, the earned secures parented equivalently to the continuous secures and more positively than the insecures; under low stress no group differences were obtained. These findings indicate that in a normative sample earned secures break the intergenerational cycle and exhibit resilient parenting even under high stress conditions.

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.

This study sought to understand how experiences of maltreatment occurring prior to 12 years of age affect adolescent peer and dating relationships. A school-based sample of 15-year-olds was divided into maltreated (n = 132) and nonmaltreated (n = 227) subgroups based on self-reported maltreatment. These two groups were then compared on two theoretically determined dimensions of adjustment (i.e., interpersonal sensitivity/hostility; personal resources) and self- and teacher-report measures of peer and dating relationships. Findings supported the hypothesis that maltreated youths significantly differed from nonmaltreated youths in terms of adjustment problems as well as conflict with dating partners and close friends. Maltreated youths reported significantly more verbal and physical abuse both toward and by their dating partners, and were seen by teachers as engaging in more acts of aggression and harassment toward others. In regression analyses, the significant association between maltreatment and dating conflict for males was strengthened by including adjustment dimensions in the equation; for females, adjustment variables mediated the association between maltreatment and dating conflict. Results are discussed in relation to a maladaptive interpersonal trajectory for maltreated children, wherein a violent interactional dynamic in adolescent close relationships may be setting the stage for violence in intimate partnerships.

This study reports a short-term prospective investigation of the role of peer group victimization in the development of children's behavior problems, at home and in school. Sociometric interviews were utilized to assess aggression, victimization by peers, and peer rejection, for 330 children who were in either the third or fourth grade (approximate mean ages of 8–9 years old). Behavior problems were assessed using standardized behavior checklists completed by mothers and teachers. A follow-up assessment of behavior problems was completed 2 years later, when the children were in either the fifth or sixth grade (approximate mean ages of 10–11 years old). Victimization was both concurrently and prospectively associated with externalizing, attention dysregulation, and immature/dependent behavior. Victimization also predicted increases in these difficulties over time, and incremented the prediction in later behavior problems associated with peer rejection and aggression. The results of this investigation demonstrate that victimization in the peer group is an important predictor of later behavioral maladjustment.

While research has well documented that urban youth are exposed to increasing rates of community violence, little is known about what increases risk for violence exposure, what protects children from exposure to violence, and what factors reduce the most negative outcomes associated with witnessing violence. This study expands on current research by evaluating the relations between exposure to violence, family relationship characteristics and parenting practices, and aggression and depression symptoms. Data were drawn from a sample of 245 African-American and Latino boys and their caregivers from economically disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago. Rates of exposure could not be predicted from family relationship and parenting characteristics, although there was a trend for discipline to be related. Exposure to community violence was related to increases in aggressive behavior and depression over a 1-year period even after controlling for previous status. Future studies should continue to evaluate the role of exposure to violence on the development of youth among different neighborhoods and communities. Implications for intervention and policy are discussed.

Objectives of this study were to ascertain risk and protective factors in the adjustment of 78 school-age and teenage offspring of opioid- and cocaine-abusing mothers. Using a multimethod, multiinformant approach, child outcomes were operationalized via lifetime psychiatric diagnoses and everyday social competence (each based on both mother and child reports), and dimensional assessments of symptoms (mother report). Risk/protective factors examined included the child sociodemographic attributes of gender, age, and ethnicity, aspects of maternal psychopathology, and both mother's and children's cognitive functioning. Results revealed that greater child maladjustment was linked with increasing age, Caucasian (as opposed to African American) ethnicity, severity of maternal psychiatric disturbance, higher maternal cognitive abilities (among African Americans) and lower child cognitive abilities (among Caucasians). Limitations of the study are discussed, as are implications of findings for future research.