Bowlby's attachment theory is a theory of psychopathology as well as a theory of normal development. It contains clear and specific propositions regarding the role of early experience in developmental psychopathology, the importance of ongoing context, and the nature of the developmental process underlying pathology. In particular, Bowlby argued that adaptation is always the joint product of developmental history and current circumstances (never either alone). Early experience does not cause later pathology in a linear way; yet, it has special significance due to the complex, systemic, transactional nature of development. Prior history is part of current context, playing a role in selection, engagement, and interpretation of subsequent experience and in the use of available environmental supports. Finally, except in very extreme cases, early anxious attachment is not viewed as psychopathology itself or as a direct cause of psychopathology but as an initiator of pathways probabilistically associated with later pathology.

A model of the effects of children's temperament (negative and positive emotionality, impulsivity and attention focusing) on post-divorce threat appraisals, coping (active and avoidant), and psychological symptoms (depression and conduct problems) was investigated. The study utilized a sample of 223 mothers and children (ages 9 to 12 years) who had experienced divorce within the last two years. Evidence was found of direct effects of child-report negative emotionality on children's threat perceptions and of child-report positive emotionality and impulsivity on children's coping. Indirect effects of negative emotionality on active and avoidant coping through threat appraisal were found. Direct effects of the temperament variables on symptoms were also found. Cross group analyses indicated that the models were robust to age differences, but gender differences were found in the relation between negative emotionality and depression. The results of this study indicate that temperament and threat appraisals are important predictors of children's post-divorce symptoms, and that temperament is a predictor of children's appraisal and coping process.

The hypothesis was tested that weak theory of mind (ToM) and/or emotion recognition (ER) abilities are specific to subjects with autism. Differences in ToM and ER performance were examined between autistic (n = 20), pervasive developmental disorder—not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (n = 20), psychiatric control (n = 20), and normal children (n = 20). The clinical groups were matched person-to-person on age and verbal IQ. We used tasks for the matching and the context recognition of emotional expressions, and a set of first- and second-order ToM tasks. Autistic and PDD-NOS children could not be significantly differentiated from each other, nor could they be differentiated from the psychiatric controls with a diagnosis of ADHD (n = 9). The psychiatric controls with conduct disorder or dysthymia performed about as well as normal children. The variance in second-order ToM performance contributed most to differences between diagnostic groups.

The prediction of young-adult adjustment from early adolescent conduct problems and depressive symptoms was examined for an at-risk sample of approximately 200 males. Conduct problems and depressive symptoms were expected to show stability to young adulthood. It was predicted that early adolescent conduct problems would be associated with a broad range of adjustment problems in young adulthood due to cumulative adjustment failures. Early adolescent depressive symptoms were expected particularly to predict poor relationships with parents and peers. Additive and interactive effects of the two predictors were examined. Conduct problems and depressive symptoms showed significant stability to young adulthood. Conduct problems were associated with a broad range of adjustment problems including continuing problems in peer associations, substance use, self-esteem, relationships with parents, and new problems in noncompletion of education, unemployment, driver's license suspensions, and causing pregnancies. Depressive symptoms predicted particularly to problems in social relationships. Higher levels of both conduct problems and depressive symptoms in early adolescence did not predict to increased difficulties for any one outcome over either problem alone, either due to main or interaction effects. Such co-occurrence, however, did result in problem outcomes in multiple areas, thus, the poorest adjustment overall.

The role of peer relations in childhood and behavioral and family characteristics in early adolescence as risk factors for adolescent childbearing was investigated. Sociometric surveys across third, fourth, and fifth grade and parent and child measures of behavioral and family functioning at sixth and eighth grade were collected in a lower income, urban sample of 308 African American females. Results replicated earlier findings on the role of childhood aggression as a predictor of teen motherhood. In addition, girls who displayed stable patterns of childhood aggression were at significantly higher risk not only to have children as teenagers but to have more children and to have children at younger ages. Results also indicated that females who were depressed in midadolescence were at greater risk to become parents between age 15 and 19 years. These findings demonstrate the need to take a differentiated approach to understanding teen childbearing and varying developmental pathways in the prediction of teen motherhood.

Recent research has suggested that there are two distinct trajectories for the development of antisocial behavior in boys: a childhood-onset pathway and an adolescent-onset pathway. After reviewing the limited available research on antisocial girls, we propose that this influential method of conceptualizing the development of severe antisocial behavior may not apply to girls without some important modifications. Antisocial girls appear to show many of the correlates that have been associated with the childhood-onset pathway in boys, and they tend to show impaired adult adjustment, which is also similar to boys in the childhood-onset pathway. However, antisocial girls typically show an adolescent-onset to their antisocial behavior. We have proposed that these girls show a third developmental pathway which we have labeled the “delayed-onset” pathway. This model rests on the assumption that many of the putative pathogenic mechanisms that contribute to the development of antisocial behavior in girls, such as cognitive and neuropsychological deficits, a dysfunctional family environment, and/or the presence of a callous and unemotional interpersonal style, may be present in childhood, but they do not lead to severe and overt antisocial behavior until adolescence. Therefore, we propose that the delayed-onset pathway for girls is analogous to the childhood-onset pathway in boys and that there is no analogous pathway in girls to the adolescent-onset pathway in boys. Although this model clearly needs to be tested in future research, it highlights the need to test the applicability of current theoretical models for explaining the development of antisocial behavior in girls.

The relationship between conduct problems at age 8 years and teenage pregnancy by the age of 18 years was analyzed in a birth cohort of 491 girls. A statistically significant association was found between early conduct problems and later risk of teenage pregnancy, with girls in the most disturbed 10% of the cohort having a pregnancy rate that was 5.3 times higher (p < .001) than the rate found in the least disturbed 50% of the cohort. The elevated risk of teenage pregnancy amongst girls with early conduct problems was in part, explained by social and family factors that were correlated with early conduct problems, and in part, by a causal chain process in which early conduct problems were associated with increased rates of risk taking behaviors in adolescence, which in turn led to an increased risk of teenage pregnancy. These results suggest that the higher rate of teenage pregnancy among girls with early conduct problems reflected both their relatively disadvantaged family backgrounds and their tendencies to risk taking behavior in adolescence.

Competent outcomes in late adolescence were examined in relation to adversity over time, antecedent competence and psychosocial resources, in order to investigate the phenomenon of resilience. An urban community sample of 205 (114 females, 90 males; 27% minority) children were recruited in elementary school and followed over 10 years. Multiple methods and informants were utilized to assess three major domains of competence from childhood through adolescence (academic achievement, conduct, and peer social competence), multiple aspects of adversity, and major psychosocial resources. Both variable-centered and person-centered analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized significance of resources for resilience. Better intellectual functioning and parenting resources were associated with good outcomes across competence domains, even in the context of severe, chronic adversity. IQ and parenting appeared to have a specific protective role with respect to antisocial behavior. Resilient adolescents (high adversity, adequate competence across three domains) had much in common with their low-adversity competent peers, including average or better IQ, parenting, and psychological well-being. Resilient individuals differed markedly from their high adversity, maladaptive peers who had few resources and high negative emotionality. Results suggest that IQ and parenting scores are markers of fundamental adaptational systems that protect child development in the context of severe adversity.

The reliability and validity of a comprehensive, integrative strategy for assessing adversity exposure in childhood and adolescence was examined in a community-based longitudinal study of 205 children. Extensive data from multiple measures completed by adolescents and their parents regarding chronic and acute life experiences were aggregated into a Life Chart record of lifetime adversity exposure. Severity of adversity in three nonoverlapping time spans was rated by trained judges with excellent interrater reliability. As hypothesized, Family adversity predominated over all other types of adversity in childhood, remained salient into midadolescence, and showed considerable stability over time. Adversity related to an individual's own behavior and psychological functioning rose to equal prominence by late adolescence. Adversity arising from physical ailments that were independent of the individual's psychological functioning declined over time, while adversity arising from the community rose; physical and community events were uncommon for most individuals but substantial for some. Results suggest that coherent developmental trends in adversity exposure may be identified effectively through judges' ratings of severity of adversity over multiple-year time spans.