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.

Although multiple domains of risk are theorized to predict adolescent delinquency, father-specific risk in the context of other risks is under-researched. Using the low-income Future of Families and Child Wellbeing cohort (48% Black, 27% Hispanic, 21% White, 51% boy, N = 4,255), the current study addressed three research questions. (1) are father-, mother-, child-, and family-level cumulative risk during early childhood associated with adolescent delinquent behavior?, (2) does child self-control in middle childhood mediate the associations between fathers’ and mothers’ cumulative risk and adolescent delinquent behavior, and do quality of parent’s relationships with children and parental monitoring in middle childhood mediate the association between child cumulative risk and delinquent behavior?, (3) do parenting, quality of parent-child relationships in middle childhood, and child sex at birth moderate the associations among fathers’, mothers’, children’s, and family risk and adolescent delinquent behavior? Results indicated father, child, and mother risk at ages 3–5 were significantly and positively associated with youth-reported delinquent behavior. Higher levels of family risk were associated with less delinquency when 9-year-olds felt closer to fathers than when they felt less close. Children’s self-control at age 9 mediated the associations between father and child risk and delinquent behavior.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are associated with myriad adverse outcomes, including interpersonal difficulties, but factors that moderate the developmental course and functional impact of ADHD over time are not well understood. The present study evaluated developmental contributions of the triarchic neurobehavioral traits (boldness, meanness, and disinhibition) to ADHD symptomatology and its subdimensions from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were twins and triplets assessed at ages 14, 17, and 19 (initial N = 1,185, 51.2% female). Path analyses using negative binomial regression revealed that boldness at age 14 was associated with more ADHD symptoms cross-sectionally (especially hyperactivity/impulsivity), but fewer symptoms (especially inattention) at age 19 in the prospective analysis. Notably, inclusion of interpersonal problems at ages 14 and 17 as covariates reduced the latter effect to nonsignificant. Disinhibition concurrently and prospectively predicted higher levels of ADHD symptoms, including both subdimensions, and the prospective effects were partially mediated by greater social impairment at age 17. Meanness prospectively (but not concurrently) predicted higher levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms. Sex moderated certain associations of meanness and disinhibition with ADHD symptoms. These findings highlight how fundamental neurobehavioral traits shape both psychopathology and adaptive outcomes in the developmental course of ADHD.

Child maltreatment is a pathogenic relational experience that creates risk for physical and psychological health difficulties throughout the lifespan. The Reminiscing and Emotion Training intervention (RET) was developed to support maltreated children’s healthy development by improving parenting behavior among maltreating mothers. Here, we evaluated whether RET was associated with reductions in child welfare reinvolvement over the course of two years. The sample included 165 maltreating and 83 nonmaltreating mothers and their 3- to 6-year-old children who were enrolled in a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of RET. Maltreating mother–child dyads were randomly assigned to receive RET or an active control condition (community standard [CS]). Nonmaltreating dyads were a separate control group (nonmaltreating control). Comparing CS and RET dyads, there was a significant effect of RET on frequency of child welfare reinvolvement (substantiations and unsubstantiated assessments) during the two years following dyads’ enrollment in the intervention, t(163) = 2.02, p < .05, Cohen’s d = 0.32. There was a significant indirect effect of RET on child welfare reinvolvement through maternal sensitive guidance during reminiscing [95% CI −0.093, −0.007]. Results provide support for the efficacy of RET in preventing child welfare reinvolvement.

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.

This longitudinal study aimed to validate the biosocial theory of borderline personality disorder (BPD) by examining the transactional relationship between individual vulnerabilities and parental invalidation, and their links to BPD symptoms. We recruited a sample of 332 adolescents (mean age = 14.18 years; 58.3% female) residing in Singapore and administered self-report measures across three time-points (six months apart). Results from our path analytic model indicated that parental invalidation, impulsivity, and emotional vulnerability exhibited unique predictive associations with emotion dysregulation six months later. There was also a reciprocal prospective relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and BPD symptoms. Using random-intercepts cross-lagged panel models, we found partial evidence for a within-individual reciprocal relationship between parental invalidation and emotional vulnerability, and a unidirectional relationship of within-individual changes in impulsivity positively predicting changes in parental invalidation six months later. Overall, the study provided partial empirical support for the biosocial model in a Singaporean context.

Research suggests that unsupportive parenting practices are consistent but modest risk factors for children’s behavioral and social problems, emphasizing the importance in identifying sources of variability in children’s vulnerability. To address this research direction, this study examined children’s callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., affective indifference; lack of guilt or empathy), as a moderator of the associations among maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting and their externalizing symptoms. Participants included 240 mothers, partners, and their children (Mage = 4.6 years; 56% girls) from diverse backgrounds (48% Black; 16% Latinx) who took part in a longitudinal multi-method study with two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Findings from structural equation modeling indicated the prospective association between observational assessments of unsupportive maternal (but not paternal) parenting and residualized changes in teacher reports children’s externalizing problems over 2 years was significantly moderated by maternal reports of children’s callous-unemotional traits (β = −.21, p < .05). Follow-up analyses of the interaction provided support for differential susceptibility. These findings highlight that children with elevated CU traits may experience diminished susceptibility to parenting, while children with lower levels of CU traits may exhibit plasticity in response to socialization environments.

Research links life stressors, including acute, chronic, and early life stress, to the development of ruminative brooding. However, singular forms of life stress rarely occur in isolation, as adolescents typically encounter stressors that vary on important dimensions (e.g., types, timings, quantities) across development. The current study employs latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify natural clusters of life stress that, over time, may be differently associated with ruminative brooding. Evaluations of episodic, chronic, and early life stress were conducted with community-recruited mid-adolescents (N = 241, Mage = 15.90 years, 53% female) and their parents using the UCLA Life Stress Interview and lifetime adversity portions of the Youth Life Stress Interview. Analyses identified four distinct patterns: low stress, high peer stress, moderate home / family stress, and multifaceted / high school stress. Adolescents in the high peer stress and moderate home / family stress profiles were at highest risk for developing a brooding style over time. Despite high overall levels of stress, teens in the multifaceted / high school stress profile were at not at elevated risk for developing a brooding style. Findings demonstrate the utility of person-centered approaches to identify patterns of stress exposure that heighten risk for brooding over time.

Little effort has been made to integrate developmental cascades with maternal/paternal parenting in a single investigation. The present study seeks to test cascading effects among academic and internalizing/externalizing symptoms and their associations with maternal/paternal parenting across three time points from 8 to 10 years. Data for this investigation came from a nationally representative prospective cohort study of children born in April through July of 2008 in South Korea who were followed up annually. The sample included 1,598 families (48.5% girls). Parents rated their parenting and teachers rated children’s internalizing/externalizing problems and academic performance. Structural equation modeling showed that externalizing problems were negatively related to academic performance. Academic performance was negatively related to internalizing problems and positively related to maternal/paternal authoritative parenting, which in turn led to children’s higher academic performance. Bidirectional relations were found between academic performance and externalizing problems and between paternal authoritative parenting and children’s internalizing problems. Findings suggested cascading effects and their associations with parenting were not attributable to child gender, intelligence, or socioeconomic differences. These findings lend support to adjustment erosion and academic incompetence models and underscore the need for greater attention to the role that fathering may play in children’s development and mothering.

Developmental models of borderline personality disorder (BPD) emphasize the effects of youths’ biological vulnerabilities and their experiences of parental responses to emotion, as well as the interaction between these two elements. The current study evaluated the independent and interactive effects of two indices of autonomic nervous system response and parental responses to youth negative emotions on severity and exacerbation of youths’ BPD features during the transition to adolescence. The sample consisted of 162 psychiatric youth (10–14 years; 47.2% female) and their parents. At baseline, youth and their parents completed a lab-based conflict discussion during which parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system response were measured and indices of sympathetic-parasympathetic balance and coactivation/coinhibition were calculated. Youth also reported on supportive and non-supportive parental responses. At baseline and after 9 months, youth self-reported on their BPD features. Results demonstrated that shifting toward sympathetic dominance independently predicted exacerbation of BPD across 9 months. Additionally, fewer experiences of supportive parental responses and more non-supportive parental responses were associated with greater severity of BPD features in youth. This study highlights the role of autonomic response to parent-child conflict as well as the significance of parental responses to youth emotion for the development of BPD during this developmental window.

Although there is strong evidence supporting the association between childhood adversity and symptomatology during adolescence, the extent to which adolescents present with distinct patterns of co-occurring post-traumatic stress (PTS) and externalizing symptoms remains unclear. Additionally, prior research suggests that experiencing nonviolent, negative life events may be more salient risk factors for developing some forms of psychopathology than exposure to violence. The current study used latent profile analysis to identify subgroups of early adolescents with distinct patterns of PTS, physical aggression, delinquency, and substance use, and examined subgroup differences in exposure to three forms of violent and nonviolent childhood adversity. Participants were a predominantly low-income, African American sample of 2,722 urban middle school students (M age = 12.9, 51% female). We identified four symptom profiles: low symptoms (83%), some externalizing (8%), high PTS (6%), and co-occurring PTS and externalizing symptoms (3%). A higher frequency of witnessing violence was associated with increased odds of membership in subgroups with externalizing symptoms, whereas a higher frequency of nonviolent, negative life events was associated with increased odds of membership in subgroups with PTS symptoms. Interventions aimed to address childhood adversity may be most effective when modules addressing both PTS and externalizing symptoms are incorporated.

Previous research indicates that parental emotion socialization (ES) practices play important roles in adolescents’ social and emotional development. However, longitudinal studies testing bidirectional effects are relatively scarce. Additionally, most studies have focused on people from Western societies. In the current 3-year, multi-informant, longitudinal study of Chinese adolescents and their parents, we investigated prospective bidirectional effects between parental positive ES practices and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-esteem and depressive symptoms). Adolescents (N = 710 at T1, 50% boys, Mage = 12.41, SD = 0.59) reported on parental positive ES practices and their own depressive symptoms and self-esteem when they were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Mothers and fathers reported on their own use of positive ES practices at all three time points. We utilized a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to examine between- and within-family effects. Overall results showed robust effects of adolescent depressive symptoms on parental positive ES practices and bidirectional effects between parental ES and adolescent self-esteem. Effects differed by informants whether using adolescent-perceived data, or mother- or father-reported data. However, these child effects and bidirectional effects did not differ by adolescent sex. Our findings add to the understanding of parental ES and adolescent psychosocial adjustment.

Informed by the dimensional approach to adversity, this study disaggregated child maltreatment effects to examine how abuse versus neglect influenced cortisol at the baseline assessment and longitudinal changes in diurnal cortisol among a sample of Chinese children and adolescents (N = 312; aged 9–13 years; Mage = 10.80, SD = 0.84; 67% boys). The moderating roles of resilience and sex differences in these associations were also explored. Results revealed distinct effects of abuse versus neglect on diurnal cortisol in girls, but not boys, which varied by the time scale of assessment and type of cortisol measure. Specifically, abuse was associated with girls’ longitudinal changes in awakening cortisol, cortisol awakening response, and diurnal cortisol slope over one year, whereas neglect was associated with girls’ awakening cortisol and cortisol awakening response at the baseline assessment. Further, resilience moderated the effects of abuse on girls’ baseline awakening cortisol and longitudinal changes in diurnal cortisol slope, suggesting both the potential benefits and costs of resilience. Findings support the application of the dimensional approach to research on stress physiology and deepen our understanding of individual differences in the associations between child maltreatment and diurnal cortisol.

Recent theories suggest that for youth highly sensitive to incentives, perceiving more social threat may contribute to social anxiety (SA) symptoms. In 129 girls (ages 11–13) oversampled for shy/fearful temperament, we thus examined how interactions between neural responses to social reward (vs. neutral) cues (measured during anticipation of peer feedback) and perceived social threat in daily peer interactions (measured using ecological momentary assessment) predict SA symptoms two years later. No significant interactions emerged when neural reward function was modeled as a latent factor. Secondary analyses showed that higher perceived social threat was associated with more severe SA symptoms two years later only for girls with higher basolateral amygdala (BLA) activation to social reward cues at baseline. Interaction effects were specific to BLA activation to social reward (not threat) cues, though a main effect of BLA activation to social threat (vs. neutral) cues on SA emerged. Unexpectedly, interactions between social threat and BLA activation to social reward cues also predicted generalized anxiety and depression symptoms two years later, suggesting possible transdiagnostic risk pathways. Perceiving high social threat may be particularly detrimental for youth highly sensitive to reward incentives, potentially due to mediating reward learning processes, though this remains to be tested.

Parental depression is a risk factor for children’s cognitive and psychological development. Literature has found reciprocal relations between parental depression and child psychopathology and effects of parental depression on children’s cognition. The present study is the first to examine reciprocity among parental depression and child cognition, and pathways to child psychopathology. Structural equation models were conducted using data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a nationally representative sample of 3,001 economically marginalized families. Measures were collected in four waves from 14 months to 10–11 years. Reciprocal associations emerged between maternal and paternal depression at from 14 months to 5 years. Reciprocal parental depression was associated with greater psychopathology at age 10–11. Maternal depression predicted poorer child cognition, which indirectly predicted increased depression in mothers of children aged 3–5 through paternal depression, and in fathers at age 3, through earlier paternal depression. This study was unable to parse within- and between-person effects. Additionally, data for paternal depression was limited to ages 2 and 3. Findings emphasize the transactional nature of child cognition and child and parent psychopathology, supporting family focused intervention and prevention efforts that target parent psychopathology and child cognition.

Although new mothers are at risk of heightened vulnerability for depressive symptoms, there is limited understanding regarding changes in maternal depressive symptoms over the course of the postpartum and early childhood of their child’s life among rural, low-income mothers from diverse racial backgrounds. This study examined distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms among rural low-income mothers during the first five years of their child’s life, at 6, 15, 24, and 58 months, using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292). Latent class growth analysis identified four distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, including Low-decreasing (50%; n = 622), Low-increasing (26%; n = 324), Moderate-decreasing (13%; n = 156), and Moderate-increasing (11%; n = 131) trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that higher perceived financial strain and intimate partner violence, and lower social support predicted higher-risk trajectories (Low-increasing, Moderate-decreasing, and Moderate-increasing) relative to the Low-decreasing trajectory. Compared to the Low-decreasing trajectory, lower neighborhood safety/quietness predicted to the Low-increasing trajectory. Moreover, lower social support predicted the Moderate-increasing trajectory, the highest-risk trajectory, compared to those in Moderate-decreasing. The current analyses underscore the heterogeneity on patterns of depressive symptoms among rural, low-income mothers, and that the role of both proximal and broader contexts contributing to distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms over early childhood.

This 19-year prospective study applied a social development lens to the challenge of identifying long-term predictors of adult negative affectivity. A diverse community sample of 169 individuals was repeatedly assessed from age 13 to age 32 using self-, parent-, and peer-reports. As hypothesized, lack of competence establishing and maintaining close friendships in adolescence had a substantial long-term predictive relation to negative affectivity at ages 27–32, even after accounting for prior depressive, anxious, and externalizing symptoms. Predictions also remained robust after accounting for concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, indicating that findings were not simply an artifact of previously established links between relationship quality and depressive symptoms. Predictions also emerged from poor peer relationships within young adulthood to future relative increases in negative affectivity by ages 27–32. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

We investigate how early exposure to parental externalizing behaviors (EB) may contribute to development of alcohol use disorders (AUD) in young adulthood, testing a developmental cascade model focused on competencies in three domains (academic, conduct, and work) in adolescence and emerging adulthood, and examining whether high parental education can buffer negative effects of parental EB and other early risk factors. We use data from 451,054 Swedish-born men included in the national conscript register. Structural equation models showed parental EB was associated with academic and behavioral problems during adolescence, as well as with lower resilience, more criminal behavior, and reduced social integration during emerging adulthood. These pathways led to elevated rates of AUD in emerging and young adulthood. Multiple groups analysis showed most of the indirect pathways from parental EB to AUD were present but buffered by higher parental education, suggesting early life experiences and competencies matter more for young men from lower socioeconomic status (SES) families than from higher SES families. Developmental competencies in school, conduct, and work are important precursors to the development of AUD by young adulthood that are predicted by parental EB. Occupational success may be an overlooked source of resilience for young men from low-SES families.