Adolescence is a significant period for the formation of relationship networks and the development of internalizing problems. With a sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 3,834, 52.01% girls, Mage = 16.68 at Wave 1), the present study aimed to identify the configuration of adolescents’ relationship qualities from four important domains (i.e., relationship quality with mother, father, peers, and teachers) and how distinct profiles were associated with the development of internalizing problems (indicated by depressive and anxiety symptoms) across high school years. Latent profile analysis identified a five-profile configuration with four convergent profiles (i.e., relationship qualities with others were generally good or bad) and one “Father estrangement” profile (i.e., the relationship quality with others were relatively good but that with father was particularly poor). Further conditional latent growth curve analysis indicated the “Father estrangement” profile was especially vulnerable to an increase in the internalizing problems as compared with other relationship profiles. This study contributes to understanding the characteristics of interpersonal relationship qualities and their influences on adolescent internalizing problems in a non-Western context. Results were further discussed from a culturally specific perspective.

Although there is increasing attention for the interrelationship between obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), their shared characteristics in terms of childhood trait antecedents remain understudied. Perfectionism may be a viable candidate trait antecedent, given its role in the clinical manifestation of both OCPD and OCD in adulthood, and the evidence that perfectionism reflects a dispositional tendency observable from childhood onwards. However, little is known about childhood trajectories of perfectionism with prospective links to later OCPD versus OCD. Using latent growth curve modeling, this study explored the baseline and growth of childhood perfectionism in 485 community and referred children (55.5% girls, 7.17–14.78 years old, Mage = 10.74, SD = 1.50) across three waves. Adolescent OCPD traits and OCD symptoms were measured in Wave 4. An overall decreasing trend of perfectionism from childhood through adolescence appeared, without inter-individual differences in growth. Individual differences in baseline levels of childhood perfectionism were significant, and equally predicting adolescent OCPD and OCD outcomes. At a more specific level, childhood perfectionism predicted most strongly the rigid perfectionism component of OCPD, and the orderliness/cleanliness/perfectionism and obsession domain of OCD. This demonstrates the value of childhood perfectionism for understanding differential outcomes of adolescent OCPD traits and OCD symptoms.

This study assesses the impact of South Carolina’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Family Independence (FI), on the longitudinal earnings of three cohorts of new entrants who entered the study before, at the beginning of, and at the height of the 2007-2009 recession. Applicants who began the application process but did not enroll in TANF were propensity-score matched to entrants by background characteristics including pre-intervention earnings history, and served as the comparison group. We constructed a latent growth curve model to test whether earnings histories were similar for the program and comparison groups up until FI intake, to estimate program impact by comparing post-intake earnings of program participants to those of the comparison group, and to determine the statistical significance of cohort differences in program impact. The findings showed FI had a positive impact on the earnings of participants before the recession. The effect became weaker during the state’s period of rising unemployment, and disappeared during the worst economic recession in decades. This study demonstrates the usefulness of longitudinal administrative data, propensity score matching, and latent growth modeling techniques for evaluating the impact of program interventions.