This longitudinal research examines maternal and child behaviors during joint planning over a 3-year period of middle childhood. 118 mother-child dyads were observed once a year beginning when the children were 8 years of age. Coding focused on mother and child planning behaviors, maternal instructional support, and child task engagement.…

We examined the prediction that the interaction between Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene ("NR3C1") methylation, stress, and experienced maternal support predicts anxious and avoidant attachment development. This was tested in a general population sample of 487 children and adolescents (44% boys, M[subscript age] = 11.84, SD[subscript age] =…

We investigated the role of sociocultural (between-groups) and individual (within-group) factors on the development of preschoolers' resource-allocation preferences. We tested claims of the "joint impact hypothesis" of social values development that social-emotional understanding skills would predict the transition from simpler…

American students typically attend kindergarten at the chronological age (CA) of five and currently with the implementation of Common Core State Standards, there are expectations that children learn how to read in order to meet these academic standards, despite whether or not they are developmentally ready. This mixed methods study examined age…

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,364), the present study supports an agentic perspective; it demonstrates that mothers' depressive symptoms in infancy predict children's poor first-grade cognitive functioning because depressive symptoms…

We evaluated the extent to which the externalizing behavior construct is self-organizing in the first 2 years of life. Based on dynamic systems theory, we hypothesized that changes in physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations would each be predicted by earlier manifestations of one another. These hypotheses were…

The present longitudinal study examined how relationships with teachers and peers jointly shape the development of children's behavioral engagement in late elementary school. A sample of 586 children (46% boys; M[subscript age] = 9.26 years at Wave 1) was followed throughout Grades 4, 5, and 6. A multidimensional approach was adopted,…

Prosocial behavior in early childhood is a precursor to later adaptive social functioning. This investigation leveraged mother-reported, physiological, and observational data to examine children's prosocial development from age 2 to age 4 (N = 125). Maternal emotion socialization (ES) strategies and children's parasympathetic regulation have each…

The current study examined the influence of maternal characteristics on the development of infant smiling and laughter, a marker of early positive emotionality (PE) and how maternal characteristics and the development of infant PE contributed to subsequent maternal parenting. One hundred fifty-nine mothers with 4-month-old infants participated.…

Background: The social-ecological environment of undocumented children of migrant workers includes varying levels of risk factors. Growing up in these conditions compromises children's development on all levels. Many of these children are in need of psychotherapy, however, due to limited resources, only a few of them receive mental health aid.…

This study investigated how early experience with racial discrimination affected the subsequent risky sexual behaviors of a diverse sample of African American youths (N = 745). The analyses focused on 3 risk-promoting factors thought to mediate the hypothesized discrimination--risky sex relation: negative affect, affiliation with deviant peers,…

Prior research has documented associations between hours in child care and children's externalizing behavior. A series of longitudinal analyses were conducted to address 5 propositions, each testing the hypothesis that child care hours causes externalizing behavior. Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child…

This study examined effects of type of and cumulative burden of childhood adversities on bullying and cruelty to animals in the United States. Data were derived from Waves I and II of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Structured psychiatric interviews were…

The present study utilized a short-term longitudinal research design to examine the hypothesis that shyness in preschoolers is differentially related to different aspects of emotion processing. Using teacher reports of shyness and performance measures of emotion processing, including (1) facial emotion recognition, (2) non-facial emotion…

The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scale has been shown to be a significant predictor of later cognitive outcomes in many cultures. Therefore identifying factors associated with HOME could be used to promote child development. Maternal psychological well-being is often overlooked although critical in the creation of…