Childhood adversity takes a toll on lifelong health. However, investigations of unpredictability as a form of adversity are lacking. Environmental unpredictability across multiple developmental periods and ecological levels was examined using a multiethnic, longitudinal birth cohort (1998-2000) oversampled for unmarried parents. Data were from the…

Using psychological network analysis, this study explored the heterogeneity of the network structure between extracurricular time-use and delinquency using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of at-school students in China (N = 10,279, 47.3% female, average age 13.6, 91.2% Han ethnicity). The results are threefold: First, time…

Drawing on the self-system model, this study conceptualized school engagement as a multidimensional construct, including behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement, and examined whether changes in the three types of school engagement related to changes in problem behaviors from 7th through 11th grades (approximately ages 12-17). In addition,…

Children chronically exposed to stress early in life are at increased risk for maladaptive outcomes, though the physiological mechanisms driving these effects are unknown. Cortisol reactivity was tested as a mediator of the relation between prenatal substance exposure and/or early adversity on adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. Data were drawn…

Spending leisure time with deviant peers may have strong influences on adolescents' delinquency. The current 3-wave multi-informant study examined how parental control and parental prohibition of friendships relate to these undesirable peer influences. To this end, annual questionnaires were administered to 497 Dutch youths (283 boys, mean age =…

The over-time reciprocal links between parenting and adolescent adjustment were examined in a sample of 1,354 serious adolescent offenders followed for 3 years (16 years of age at baseline, SD = 1.14). Parallel processing growth curve models provided independent estimates of the impact of parenting on adolescent functioning as well as the impact…

Two models of vulnerability to socioenvironmental risk were examined in 337 African American children (M = 7.8 years) recruited to overrepresent prenatal alcohol or cocaine exposure: The cumulative risk model predicted synergistic effects from exposure to multiple risk factors, and the fetal patterning of disease model predicted that prenatal…

Examined precursors and correlates of sexual intercourse patterns among 10th- and 11th-graders. The transition to onset of sexual intercourse was associated with increases in delinquency and slower increases in school grades. Earlier onset and a more persistent pattern of sexual intercourse were associated with more childhood problem behaviors,…

Examined whether maternal control protected African American adolescents from the negative influence of problem peers in a sample of 95 seventh- and eighth-graders. Found support for the hypothesis of a curvilinear relation between control and adolescent problem behavior, and suggested that high-quality parenting can play a modest but critical…

Used semi-parametric mixture model with boys assessed repeatedly from 6 to 15 years to approximate a continuous distribution of developmental trajectories for aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity. Found that a chronic oppositional trajectory, with other trajectories held constant, led to covert delinquency only. A chronic physical aggression…

Investigated hypothesized reciprocal influences between stressful life events and adolescent maladjustment using data from 6-year, prospective longitudinal study. Found that from seventh to twelfth grades, stressful life events, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing behaviors were reciprocally interrelated over time. Found that stressful life…

Examined effects of parental psychopathology and maltreatment on behavior of 102 children with mean ages of 9.75 years. Parental psychiatric status and maltreatment interacted significantly, so that offspring of schizophrenic parents from maltreating families showed increases in externalized behavior problems over time. (RJC)

Examined Swedish parents' knowledge of their 14-year-olds' delinquent behavior and the source of that knowledge. Found that parental knowledge came mainly from child disclosure, which was most closely linked to adolescent normbreaking and police contact. Concluded that parental tracking and surveillance is not the best prescription for parental…

The family-management skills of parents of seventh- and tenth-grade boys were related to each of two criterion measures of delinquency: police contacts and self-reported delinquency. The measures of parent monitoring and discipline were shown to correlate significantly with both criterion measures. (Author/RH)

This study used a sample of 551 children surveyed yearly from ages 6 to 13 to examine the longitudinal associations among early behavior, middle-childhood peer rejection and friendedness, and early-adolescent depressive symptoms, loneliness, and delinquency. The study tested a sequential mediation hypothesis in which (a) behavior problems in the…