The aim of this study was to explore the associations between temperamental reactivity and regulation and the emergence of anxiety traits in a longitudinal sample of infants enriched for later ASD. Parents of 143 infants who were at high- and low-risk for ASD rated their child's temperament traits when they were 9, 15 and 24 months old; they rated…

Research concerning temperament in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has suggested a consistent profile of low positive affect, high negative affect, and low regulation (Visser et al., 2016). One area receiving less attention is individual differences among children diagnosed with ASD. The primary objective of this study was…

Women are at greater risk of exposure to interpersonal violence during pregnancy. The influence prenatal violence has on children's behavioral adjustment is generally understood to stem from its impact on mothers, but there is a dearth of prospective research to test these models. The current study evaluated the influence of interpersonal violence…

Prior work suggests that substance-dependent mothers insensitively respond to their child's emotional needs, which can increase children's risk for psychopathology. However, the mechanisms and processes underlying these associations remain unclarified. Mothers' insensitivity to children's distress is an especially unique predictor of child…

Psychosocial risk conditions can predict postpartum depression (PPD) which can reduce maternal investment into child. We examined, in high-risk Brazilian mothers, PPD predictors measured during pregnancy, and PPD effects on maternal behaviors measured at 4-5 months. 35 depressed (D) and 38 nondepressed (ND) mothers had four behaviors (gaze, smile,…

Parental involvement (PI) in their children's schools has been shown to have a positive influence on the children's behaviours and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of PI and relations of PI in schools to child externalizing and internalizing behaviours. Data were from the fifth-grade wave of the Early Head…

The current study examined the heterogeneity in the development of school-based prosocial behavior from Grades 1 to 12 and the role of multiple early childhood antecedents in predicting heterogeneous developmental trajectories of prosocial behavior in a sample of 784 children facing early risks and vulnerabilities (predominantly from low-income…

Infants at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may have difficulty integrating smiles into initiating joint attention (IJA) bids. A specific IJA pattern, anticipatory smiling, may communicate preexisting positive affect when an infant smiles at an object and then turns the smile toward the social partner. We compared the development of…

Guided by family risk and allostasis theoretical frameworks, the present study utilized a prospective longitudinal design to examine associations among family risk experiences, basal cortisol patterns, and cognitive functioning in children. The sample included 201 low-income children living within a midsize city in the Northeastern United States.…

Children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) face high risk for anxiety disorders, yet no studies have explored FXS as a high-risk sample for investigating early manifestations of anxiety outcomes. Negative affect is one of the most salient predictors of problem behaviors and has been associated with both anxiety and autistic outcomes in clinical and…

Suicide remains the third leading cause of death among young people in the United States. Considering that youth who contemplate suicide generally exhibit warning signs before engaging in lethal self-harm, school-based mental health professionals can play a vital role in identifying students who are at risk for suicidal behavior. Nevertheless, the…

This study tested the 5-HTTLPR gene as a moderator in the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and child externalizing symptoms in a disadvantaged, predominantly Black sample of two hundred and one 2-year-old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, prospective design, structural equation model analyses indicated that maternal…

This study examines whether maternal warmth moderates the association between maternal use of spanking and increased child aggression between ages 1 and 5. Participants were 3,279 pairs of mothers and their children from a cohort study of urban families from 20 U.S. cities. Maternal spanking was assessed when the child was 1 year, 3 years, and 5…

Studies on factors affecting susceptibility to peer pressure are not plentiful although this susceptibility has been found to be associated with youth problems such as substance use and risky sexual behavior. The present study examined how adolescents' susceptibility to peer pressure is related to their relationships with mothers and emotional…

Given the ramifications of difficulties related to externalizing behavior problems, the present study examined the relationships among adolescents' externalizing behavior problems, characteristics of adolescents' families, their perceived neighborhood support, and their acculturation. As part of this study, a culturally diverse sample of…