Early life stress (ELS) is a risk factor for the development of depression in adolescence; the mediating neurobiological mechanisms, however, are unknown. In this study, we examined in early pubertal youth the associations among ELS, cortisol stress responsivity, and white matter microstructure of the uncinate fasciculus and the fornix, two key frontolimbic tracts; we also tested whether and how these variables predicted depressive symptoms in later puberty. A total of 208 participants (117 females; M age = 11.37 years; M Tanner stage = 2.03) provided data across two or more assessment modalities: ELS; salivary cortisol levels during a psychosocial stress task; diffusion magnetic resonance imaging; and depressive symptoms. In early puberty there were significant associations between higher ELS and decreased cortisol production, and between decreased cortisol production and increased fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus. Further, increased fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus predicted higher depressive symptoms in later puberty, above and beyond earlier symptoms. In post hoc analyses, we found that sex moderated several additional associations. We discuss these findings within a broader conceptual model linking ELS, emotion dysregulation, and depression across the transition through puberty, and contend that brain circuits implicated in the control of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function should be a focus of continued research.

Young sexual minority men (YSMM) experience more victimization and are at higher risk for mental health and substance use problems compared with heterosexual youth. We attempt to understand change over time in the experience of these constructs among YSMM. Data were taken from a diverse community-based sample of YSMM (N = 450, baseline mean age 18.93) surveyed every 6 months for 2.5 years. Multilevel modeling was used to model within-person change in victimization, internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, alcohol frequency, marijuana use, and illicit drug use. We tested the indirect effect of concurrent and time-lagged victimization on the association between age and mental health and substance use. Victimization, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms decreased over time. Concurrent victimization was associated with higher internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, alcohol use, marijuana use, and illicit drug use. Analysis of indirect effects suggested that the association between victimization and mental health and substance use outcomes decreased as participants transitioned from adolescence into adulthood. This study found that the reduction in victimization that YSMM experience as they grow older is associated with a reduction in negative mental health and substance use outcomes. Prevention efforts to limit victimization exposure may reduce health disparities for YSMM.

Research has clearly established the important role of parents in preventing substance use among early adolescents. Much of this work has focused on deviance (e.g., antisocial behavior, delinquency, and oppositional behavior) as a central pathway linking parenting behaviors and early adolescent substance use. This study proposed an alternative pathway; using a four-wave longitudinal design, we examined whether nurturant-involved parenting (Fall sixth grade) was inversely associated with adolescent drunkenness, marijuana use, and cigarette use (eighth grade) through social anxiety symptoms (Spring sixth grade) and subsequent decreases in substance refusal efficacy (seventh grade). Nurturant-involved parenting is characterized by warmth, supportiveness, low hostility, and low rejection. Analyses were conducted with a sample of 687 two-parent families. Results indicated that adolescents who were in families where fathers exhibited lower levels of nurturant-involved parenting experienced subsequent increases in social anxiety symptoms and decreased efficacy to refuse substances, which in turn was related to more frequent drunkenness, cigarette use, and marijuana use. Indirect effects are discussed. Findings were not substantiated for mothers’ parenting. Adolescent gender did not moderate associations. The results highlight an additional pathway through which parenting influences youth substance use and links social anxiety symptoms to reduced substance refusal efficacy.

A need to identify early infant markers of later occurring inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behaviors has come to the fore in the current attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder literature. The purpose of such studies is to identify driving mechanisms that could enable early detection of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder liability and thus facilitate early intervention. Here we study independent and interactive effects of cognitive regulation (inhibition and sustained attention), temperament (reactive and regulatory aspects), and maternal sensitivity (as external regulation) in a sample of 112 typically developing 10-month-old infants (59 boys, 52.7%), in relation to inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behavior at 3 years. The results showed that infant temperamental regulation and maternal sensitivity made independent contributions to both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, in that higher levels of temperamental regulation and maternal sensitivity were related to less inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behavior. In addition, the temperamental factor positive affectivity/surgency made a significant contribution to later hyperactivity/impulsivity, in that higher levels of positive affectivity/surgency were related to more hyperactive/impulsive behavior. No interaction effects were found. Our findings suggest temperament and parental regulation as potential and independent markers of later inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behavior.

Building on prior work regarding the potential for peer contagion or deviance training in group delivered interventions (Dishion & Dodge, 2005, 2006; Dodge, Dishion, & Lansford, 2006), we leveraged data from a randomized trial, testing the integration of two preventive interventions (Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies and PAX Good Behavior Game), to explore the extent to which classroom contextual factors served as either a barrier to or a motivator for teachers to implement the evidence-based PAX Good Behavior Game with high frequency or dosage. We included students’ baseline levels of behavior, measured with regard to both positive (i.e., engagement and social emotional skills) and negative (i.e., hyperactive and aggressive-disruptive) behaviors. Data were collected from 204 teachers in 18 urban elementary schools. A series of multilevel structural equation models were fit to the data. The analyses indicated that classrooms with higher classroom levels of aggressive behavior, on average, at baseline had teachers with lower implementation dosage (i.e., played fewer games) across the school year. In addition, teachers who reported higher baseline levels of emotional exhaustion, regardless of student behavior, also reported lower implementation dosage. Taken together, the results indicated that negative, but not positive, contextual factors at baseline were related to lower implementation dosage; this, in turn, suggests that negative contextual factors may serve as a barrier, rather than a motivator, of teachers’ implementation dosage of classroom-based preventive interventions.

The Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE; Bronfman, Madigan, & Lyons-Ruth, 2009–2014; Bronfman, Parsons, & Lyons-Ruth, 1992–2004) is a widely used and well-validated measure for assessing disrupted forms of caregiver responsiveness within parent–child interactions. However, it requires evaluating approximately 150 behavioral items from videotape and extensive training to code, thus making its use impractical in most clinical contexts. Accordingly, the primary aim of the current study was to identify a reduced set of behavioral indicators most central to the AMBIANCE coding system using latent-trait item response theory (IRT) models. Observed mother–infant interaction data previously coded with the AMBIANCE was pooled from laboratories in both North America and Europe (N = 343). Using 2-parameter logistic IRT models, a reduced set of 45 AMBIANCE items was identified. Preliminary convergent and discriminant validity was evaluated in relation to classifications of maternal disrupted communication assigned using the full set of AMBIANCE indicators, to infant attachment disorganization, and to maternal sensitivity. The results supported the construct validity of the refined item set, opening the way for development of a brief screening measure for disrupted maternal communication. IRT models in clinical scale refinement and their potential for bridging clinical and research objectives in developmental psychopathology are discussed.

Maternal elaborative reminiscing supports preschool children's autobiographical memory, self-concept, and emotion understanding. What are the factors contributing to mothers' elaborative style of reminiscing? In a longitudinal community sample (n = 170 at the final data point), this study explored the role of maternal depression (8–44 months), maternal sensitivity and maternal mind-mindedness (8 months), as well as child factors of joint attention (15 months), attachment security (15 months), and language (26 months) for mother–child reminiscing about a positive (happy) and a negative (scared) event at 44 months. Mothers could be classed into two groups of low versus increasing depression from 8 to 44 months, yet maternal depression did not uniquely predict mother–child reminiscing after accounting for maternal sensitivity and other factors. Instead, maternal sensitivity, children's joint attention, and language uniquely predicted children's elaborations about the scared event at 44 months, and maternal sensitivity uniquely predicted mothers' elaborations about the scared event at 44 months. Mothers who are more sensitive in early interactions may later be better at engaging their children when reminiscing about negative emotions. These findings have implications for the design of interventions targeted at supporting mothers to engage in elaborative reminiscing with their preschool children.

Although numerous studies reveal altered respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) among children, adolescents, and adults who exhibit emotion dysregulation, effects of temperamental vulnerability and parental mental health on RSA remain unclear. We evaluated the relationship among emotion regulation, RSA, and RSA reactivity in a pooled sample of 24 vulnerable and 31 resilient adolescents (mean age = 13.69 years; 60% girls), including associations with temperamental vulnerability and parental depressive symptoms. Participants watched a neutral film clip while their resting RSA was recorded, and then completed a reward and frustration task, using an affective Posner paradigm. Temperament and emotion regulation were assessed via self-report and parent report, and parents reported on their own depressive symptoms. Low resting RSA was associated with temperamental negative emotionality, whereas greater RSA reactivity to frustration was associated with maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. No significant relations were found between RSA and parental depressive symptoms. This study elucidates the role of RSA as a biomarker of individual differences in emotion dysregulation and temperamental vulnerability and stresses the importance of considering multiple units of analyses, as well as functional domains, when studying emotional responding and regulation in adolescents.

Childhood adversity can negatively impact development across various domains, including physical and mental health. Adverse childhood experiences have been linked to aggression and substance use; however, developmental pathways to explain these associations are not well characterized. Understanding early precursors to later problem behavior and substance use can inform preventive interventions. The aim of the current study was to examine neurobiological pathways through which childhood adversity may lead to early adolescent problem behavior and substance use in late adolescence by testing two prospective models. Our first model found that early adolescent externalizing behavior mediates the association between childhood adversity and alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use in late adolescence. Our second model found that activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during an inhibitory control task mediates the association between childhood adversity and early adolescent externalizing behavior, with lower ACC activation associated with higher levels of adversity and more externalizing behavior. Together these findings indicate that the path to substance use in late adolescence from childhood adversity may operate through lower functioning in the ACC related to inhibitory control and externalizing behavior. Early life stressors should be considered an integral component in the etiology and prevention of early and problematic substance use.

Deployment to war is associated with disruptions to emotion regulation and parenting. Using data from a randomized controlled trial, we examined whether fathers with poorer emotion regulation would differentially benefit from the After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools program, a 14-session group-based parenting intervention. Prior analyses of the intervention demonstrated benefits to observed couple parenting and children's adjustment, but not to fathers’ observed parenting. In this study we examined whether intervention effects on fathers’ observed distress avoidance were moderated by baseline emotion regulation, and whether reduced distress avoidance was associated with improved observed parenting and reduced children's internalizing symptoms. A subset of the full randomized controlled trial sample (181 families with a father who had returned from deployment to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, a nondeployed mother, and a target child aged 4–13) completed measures at baseline, 12-months, and 24-months postbaseline. Results indicated that fathers high in baseline emotion regulation difficulties assigned to the intervention group showed reductions in observed distress avoidance at 12 months compared to controls, which were subsequently associated with improvements in observed parenting practices and reductions in children's internalizing symptoms at 24 months. The results suggest a role for personalizing parenting programs for fathers high in emotion dysregulation.

This study aims to test whether adolescent negative social interactions mediate the relation between early adolescent self-regulatory capacities and young adult psychopathology, using a fully prospective mediation model. Data were derived from the Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey, a large population cohort of Dutch adolescents (n = 962). At age 11, three indicators of self-regulation were assessed: low frustration, high effortful control, and high response inhibition. Negative social interactions between ages 11 and 22 were captured twice using the Event History Calendar. Psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems) was assessed at ages 11 and 22. Findings indicate that adolescents’ frustration and effortful control but not response inhibition assessed at age 11 are related to both internalizing and externalizing problems at age 22, after controlling for psychopathology at age 11, sex, and socioeconomic status. These associations were partly (about 22%) mediated by the negative social interactions adolescents experienced. Effect sizes were all modest. This study shows that self-regulation is related to subsequent psychopathology in part through its effect on negative social interactions, providing evidence for sequences of self-regulatory capacities, life experiences, and developmental outcomes.

Children vary in the extent to which they benefit from parenting programs for conduct problems. How does parental mental health change if children benefit less or more? We assessed whether changes in conduct problems and maternal depressive symptoms co-occur following participation in the Incredible Years parenting program. We integrated individual participant data from 10 randomized trials (N = 1280; children aged 2–10 years) and distinguished latent classes based on families' baseline and post-test conduct problems and maternal depressive symptoms, using repeated measures latent class analysis (RMLCA) and latent transition analysis (LTA). Classes differed mainly in severity of conduct problems and depression (RMLCA; 4 classes). Conduct problems reduced in all classes. Depressive symptoms did not change in most classes, except in a class of families where conduct problems and depression were particularly severe. Incredible Years led to a greater likelihood of families with particularly severe conduct problems and depression moving to a class with mild problems (LTA; 3 classes). Our findings suggest that for the majority of families, children's conduct problems reduce, but maternal depressive symptoms do not, suggesting relative independence, with the exception of families with severe depression and severe conduct problems where changes for the better do co-occur.

Previous research has shown that problematic parent–child, peer, and romantic partner relationships are associated with an increased likelihood for major depressive disorder (MDD). Less research has evaluated the developmental unfolding of how these interpersonal relationship features are both an antecedent versus a consequence of MDD symptoms from adolescence through young adulthood. These gaps were evaluated using a large community sample (N = 1,127; 54% female, 96% white) via a developmental cascade model. Results showed support for significant antecedent effects, as greater parent–child relationship problems at ages 11 and 17 predicted rank-order increases in MDD symptoms at ages 14 and 20. Supporting a developmental cascade of problematic social relationships, greater parent–child relationship problems at ages 11 and 14 also predicted greater subsequent rank-order increases in antisocial peer affiliation at ages 14 and 17. Greater affiliation to antisocial peers at age 20 predicted greater rank-order increases in romantic relationship problems at age 24, which in turn predicted greater MDD symptoms at age 29. Cross-effects were generally small (βs ≤ .16), illustrating other factors may be relevant to the development or consequences of MDD. Nonetheless, findings support the importance of efforts to strengthen social support networks to offset risk as well as potentially treat depression.

Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in linking specific forms of early life stress (ELS) to specific neurobiological markers, including alterations in the morphology of stress-sensitive brain regions. We used a person-centered, multi-informant approach to investigate the associations of specific constellations of ELS with hippocampal and amygdala volume in a community sample of 211 9- to 13-year-old early adolescents. Further, we compared this approach to a cumulative risk model of ELS, in which ELS was quantified by the total number of stressors reported. Using latent class analysis, we identified three classes of ELS (labeled typical/low, family instability, and direct victimization) that were distinguished by experiences of family instability and victimization. Adolescents in the direct victimization class had significantly smaller hippocampal volume than did adolescents in the typical/low class; ELS classes were not significantly associated with amygdala volume. The cumulative risk model of ELS had a poorer fit than did the person-centered model; moreover, cumulative ELS was not significantly associated with hippocampal or amygdala volume. Our results underscore the utility of taking a person-centered approach to identify alterations in stress-sensitive brain regions based on constellations of ELS, and suggest victimization is specifically associated with hippocampal hypotrophy observed in early adolescence.

Aberrant face emotion processing has been demonstrated in youth with and at a familial risk for bipolar and major depressive disorders. However, the neurobiological factors related to emotion processing that underlie resilience from youth-onset mood disorders are not well understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data during an implicit emotion processing task were collected at baseline from a sample of 50 youth, ages 8–17, who were healthy but also familially at high risk for either bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder, and 24 healthy controls with no family history of psychopathology (HCL). Participants were reevaluated 3 years later and classified into three groups for analysis: high-risk youth who converted to a psychiatric diagnosis (CVT; N = 23), high-risk youth who were resilient from developing any psychopathology (RES; N = 27), and HCL youth (N = 24) who remained healthy at follow-up. For happy > calm faces, the CVT and RES groups had significantly lower activation in the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL), while the RES group had lower activation in the right supramarginal gyrus. For fear > calm faces, the RES group had lower activation in the right precuneus and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) compared to the CVT group. Connectivity analyses revealed the RES group exhibited higher left IPL connectivity with visual cortical regions for happy > calm faces, and higher IFG connectivity with frontal, temporal, and limbic regions for fear > calm faces. These connectivities were correlated with improvements in prosocial behaviors and global functioning. Our findings suggest that differential activation and connectivity in the IPL, IFG, and precuneus in response to emotional stimuli may represent distinct resilience and risk markers for youth-onset mood disorders.

Bullying has been understudied among preschool children, especially those from Chinese American families. Previous research has also neglected the dimensional effects of psychological control on child bullying development. This study examined two psychological control dimensions, love withdrawal and guilt induction, and their effects on children's bullying aggressive behavior using a longitudinal design. Participants were first-generation Chinese American mothers (N = 133; mean age [Mage] = 37.82) and their preschool children (Mage = 4.48). Chinese immigrant mothers reported their psychologically controlling parenting and teachers rated children's bullying aggressive behaviors in the school setting. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to establish the psychometric properties and cross-wave measurement equivalence of the study constructs. Cross-lagged structural equation modeling analysis indicated that maternal love withdrawal prospectively predicted more bullying aggressive behavior, whereas guilt induction predicted less bullying aggressive behavior in children 6 months later. These results held after controlling for the initial level of children's problem behaviors and demographic variables (child age, gender, and maternal education). For child effects, child bullying aggressive behavior predicted more maternal guilt induction over time but not love withdrawal. Our findings highlight the importance of construct specificity and cultural context in understanding associations between parenting and child development.

Recent proposals suggest early adversity sets in motion particularly chronic and neurobiologically distinct trajectories of internalizing symptoms. However, few prospective studies in high-risk samples delineate distinct trajectories of internalizing symptoms from preschool age onward. We examined trajectories in a high-risk cohort, oversampled for internalizing symptoms, several preschool risk/maintenance factors, and school-age outcomes. Parents of 325 children completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire on up to four waves of data collection from preschool (3–5 years) to school age (8–9 years) and Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment interviews at both ages. Multi-informant data were collected on risk factors and symptoms. Growth mixture modelling identified four trajectory classes of internalizing symptoms with stable low, rising low-to-moderate, stable moderate, and stable high symptoms. Children in the stable high symptom trajectory manifested clinically relevant internalizing symptoms, mainly diagnosed with anxiety disorders/depression at preschool and school age. Trajectories differed regarding loss/separation experience, maltreatment, maternal psychopathology, temperament, and stress-hormone regulation with loss/separation, temperament, maternal psychopathology, and stress-hormone regulation (trend) significantly contributing to explained variance. At school age, trajectories continued to differ on symptoms, disorders, and impairment. Our study is among the first to show that severe early adversity may trigger a chronic and neurobiologically distinct internalizing trajectory from preschool age onward.

Dysregulated physiological stress reactivity has been suggested to impact the development of children and adolescents with important health consequences throughout the life span. Both environmental adversity and genetic predispositions can lead to physiological imbalances in stress systems, which in turn lead to developmental differences. We investigated genetic and environmental contributions to autonomic nervous system reactivity to a psychosocial stressor. Furthermore, we tested whether these effects were consistent with the differential susceptibility framework. Composite measures of adverse life events combined with socioeconomic status were constructed. Effects of these adversity scores in interaction with a polygenic score summarizing six genetic variants, which were hypothesized to work as susceptibility factors, were tested on autonomic nervous system measures as indexed by heart rate and heart rate variability. Results showed that carriers of more genetic variants and exposed to high adversity manifested enhanced heart rate variability reactivity to a psychosocial stressor compared to carriers of fewer genetic variants. Conversely, the stress procedure elicited a more moderate response in these individuals compared to carriers of fewer variants when adversity was low.

One of Tom Dishion's most significant contributions to prevention science was the development of affordable, ecologically valid interventions, such as the Family Check-Up, that screen for child and family risk factors broadly, but concentrate family-specific interventions on those with greatest potential for population impact. In the spirit of this approach, investigators examined effects of a brief, universal postnatal home visiting program on child emergency medical care and billing costs from birth to age 24 months. Family Connects is a community-wide public health intervention that combines identification and alignment of community services and resources with brief, postpartum nurse home visits designed to assess risk, provide supportive guidance, and connect families with identified risk to community resources. Over 18 months, families of all 4,777 resident Durham County, North Carolina, births were randomly assigned based on even or odd birth date to receive a postnatal nurse home visiting intervention or services as usual (control). Independently, 549 of these families were randomly selected and participated in an impact evaluation study. Families, blind to study goals, provided written consent to access hospital administrative records. Results indicate that children randomly assigned to Family Connects had significantly less total emergency medical care (by 37%) through age 24 months, with results observed across almost all subgroups. Examination of billing records indicate a $3.17 decrease in total billing costs for each $1 in program costs. Overall, results suggest that community-wide postpartum support program can significantly reduce population rates of child emergency medical care through age 24 months while being cost-beneficial to communities.

While child poverty is a significant risk factor for poor mental health, the developmental pathways involved with these associations are poorly understood. To advance knowledge about these important linkages, the present study examined the developmental sequelae of childhood exposure to poverty in a multiyear longitudinal study. Here, we focused on exposure to poverty, neurobiological circuitry connected to emotion dysregulation, later exposure to stressful life events, and symptoms of psychopathology. We grounded our work in a biopsychosocial perspective, with a specific interest in “stress sensitization” and emotion dysregulation. Motivated by past work, we first tested whether exposure to poverty was related to changes in the resting-state coupling between two brain structures centrally involved with emotion processing and regulation (the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex; vmPFC). As predicted, we found lower household income at age 10 was related to lower resting-state coupling between these areas at age 15. We then tested if variations in amygdala–vmPFC connectivity interacted with more contemporaneous stressors to predict challenges with mental health at age 16. In line with past reports showing risk for poor mental health is greatest in those exposed to early and then later, more contemporaneous stress, we predicted and found that lower vmPFC–amygdala coupling in the context of greater contemporaneous stress was related to higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. We believe these important interactions between neurobiology and life history are an additional vantage point for understanding risk and resiliency, and suggest avenues for prediction of psychopathology related to early life challenge.