Parental reflective functioning – parents’ capacity to envision the mental states underlying their child’s behavior – plays an important role in parenting behavior, parental well-being, and children’s psychosocial outcomes. Most studies have examined parental reflective functioning in terms of relatively stable interindividual differences between parents. This is unfortunate because theoretical accounts suggest that this capacity is susceptible to intraindividual fluctuations. Parenting stress, in particular that associated with difficult child behavior, has been described as a factor that can put parental reflective functioning under pressure. Using a multilevel approach, this 7-day diary study investigated day-to-day fluctuations in parental reflective functioning and its associations with daily parenting stress and perceived internalizing and externalizing adolescent difficulties. Parents of community adolescents (N = 128) and adopted adolescents (N = 28) were sampled because adoptive parents face unique stressors that may challenge their reflective capacities. Results indicated that daily parenting stress was associated with more daily prementalizing (i.e., severely biased mentalizing), less daily certainty about mental states, and less interest and curiosity in the adolescent’s mental states. Whereas externalizing difficulties were similarly related to more daily prementalizing and less certainty about mental states, findings for internalizing difficulties were mixed. Most associations were consistent across biological and adoptive parents.

Frameworks are widespread in developmental psychology. They provide general ideas about what to study in human development: which concepts to focus on (e.g., systems, timescales), which processes to test (e.g., micro–macro, bidirectional), and which methods to use (e.g., interview, dynamical equations). However, despite their prominence, there exists very little consensus or guidance on how to use frameworks in research. As such, they have an obscure role, influencing our research questions, methods, and theory, but often in ways we cannot articulate for ourselves, let alone for others. This Views paper presents our perspective on how different frameworks can inform the assumptions, targets, goals, context, timing, and methods of a research project. As an illustrative example, we use Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework to inform research investigating how parent–child relationships shape the development of executive self-regulation. We also show how different frameworks relevant to developmental psychopathology can inform a research project in distinct ways. Thus, this Views paper provides a practical guide for developmental researchers to more explicitly use and benefit from frameworks in their research.

This study examines continuity and changes across contextual insecurities (intimate partner violence, material hardship) and relational adversities (parenting stress, maternal depression) from infancy to preschool years and explores their long-term influence on young adults’ mental health at age 22. The sample was drawn from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,677; 52.3% male, 21.2% White, 47.77% Black, 27.15% Latinx, 3.88% Other). The multidimensional growth mixture model identified five trajectory classes: Low Adversity, High-Stable Parenting Stress, High-Increasing Material Hardship, High-Decreasing IPV, and Multidimensional Persistent Adversity. Young adults in the Multidimensional Persistent Adversity and High-Decreasing IPV classes reported higher depression and anxiety than those in the Low Adversity or High-Stable Parenting Stress classes. Findings highlight the need for tailored early intervention to alleviate chronic and multidimensional adversities within family systems. It also emphasizes implementing trauma-informed intervention programs to support emerging adults’ mental health and thriving.

This study examined longitudinal associations between maternal mindful parenting and child social–emotional, behavioral, and language development. Maternal mindful parenting at 18 months was tested for associations with concurrent observed maternal responsivity and lack of punishment toward the child and as a predictor of child internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, social competence and productive language 6 months later, independent of maternal depressive symptoms (a known predictor of both parenting and child outcomes). We also tested whether child negative emotionality (NE) moderated associations between mindful parenting and child outcomes. Participants (N = 316 mothers) were low-income (mean annual income = $19,024), racially and ethnically diverse mothers (48.4% Black; 43.0% Latinx) recruited from Pittsburgh, PA and New York City, NY. Higher mindful parenting was concurrently associated with higher observed maternal responsiveness toward the child and longitudinally associated with all four child outcomes in expected directions; maternal depression was a significant predictor of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Contrary to hypotheses, at moderately high levels of child NE, the positive effects of mindful parenting on child outcomes were attenuated. Results provide preliminary evidence that mindful parenting is meaningfully associated with parenting behaviors and early childhood developmental outcomes above and beyond symptoms of maternal depression.

Guided by steeling and hormesis models, this paper examined parenting adversity as a quadratic predictor of children’s emotion knowledge and effortful control and, in turn, their internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Participants were 238 mothers, partners, and their preschool children (Mage = 4.38 years; 52% female). Multiple methods (i.e., observations, interviews, surveys, q-sorts) and informants (i.e., trained observers, experimenters, mothers, children, teachers) were used in a longitudinal design with three annual measurement occasions. Supporting the first link in the mediational cascade, lagged, autoregressive analyses indicated that a quadratic composite of parenting adversity derived from trained observer ratings of parenting at Wave 1 was a significant predictor of children’s emotion knowledge and effortful control at Wave 2. In the second part of the proposed cascade, children’s Wave 2 emotion knowledge predicted lower levels of their Wave 3 internalizing symptoms, while their Wave 2 effortful control predicted lower levels of their Wave 3 externalizing symptoms. Consistent with steeling effects, curvilinear findings in the first part of the cascade indicated that moderate levels of exposure to parenting adversity predicted the highest levels of children’s subsequent emotion knowledge and effortful control. Children also exhibited substantially diminished emotion knowledge and effortful control as their exposure to family adversity increased from moderate to high levels.

Research suggests considerable developmental catch-up among adopted children who experienced early adversity across various domains, yet a substantial subgroup continues to exhibit elevated socio-emotional difficulties. Longitudinal studies can provide critical insights into the mechanisms underlying this ongoing vulnerability, yet no systematic review has been conducted to synthesize these findings. This systematic review identified 16 longitudinal studies (N = 3,073 adoptees) through searches in PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, all of which followed children adopted before the age of six into adolescence or adulthood, with an average follow-up period of 10 years. Due to significant heterogeneity across study designs, samples, and measures, a meta-analysis was not feasible; therefore, adoptees’ outcomes and developmental pathways are synthesized narratively. Early adversity and developmental difficulties most frequently predicted later socio-emotional and behavioral outcomes, with some evidence pointing to genetic, epigenetic, and gene–environment interaction effects. Early difficulties may have cascading consequences across multiple developmental domains. Yet, the small number of longitudinal studies and their heterogeneity limits conclusive understanding of developmental pathways. Recommendations are made to inform and strengthen future research efforts.

This study examined whether mothers with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SZSD) or mothers with bipolar disorder express less warmth, and more criticism compared to controls and whether mothers’ expressed warmth and criticism are associated with child self-esteem and mental health outcomes. Sixty mothers with SZSD, 60 mothers with bipolar disorder, and 60 control mothers, and their 7-year-old children were included from The Danish High Risk and Resilience Study VIA 7. Expressed warmth and criticism were evaluated by coding Five Minute Speech Samples using the Family Affective Attitudes Rating Scale. Child self-esteem was assessed with the “I Think I Am.” Child global functioning was assessed with the Children’s Global Assessment Scale, mental health with the Child Behavior Checklist School-age version, and KIDSCREEN-10 captured quality of life. Results showed that mothers with SZSD and mothers with bipolar disorder did not differ from controls on expressed warmth or criticism. Across groups, expressed criticism showed robust associations with poorer child mental health outcomes also when controlling for child sex and maternal functioning. Diagnostic status did not affect maternal expressed warmth or criticism toward their child. However, because more expressed criticism can be associated with adverse child outcomes, interventions promoting more positive interpretations may aid child mental health.

Alterations in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function may underlie the relation between childhood maltreatment and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviors. This study examined how co-occurring patterns of maltreatment types influenced adolescent NSSI behaviors and the mediating role of diurnal cortisol, using a longitudinal design. The sample included 295 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 10.79 years, SD = 0.84 years; 67.1% boys). The study employed latent profile analysis to identify childhood maltreatment patterns and conducted path analysis to examine the mediating mechanism. Four maltreatment patterns were identified: Low Maltreatment (67.8%), High Neglect (15.6%), Moderate Maltreatment (10.2%), and High Abuse with Moderate Neglect (6.4%). Furthermore, compared to the Low Maltreatment profile, adolescents in the High Neglect profile were at increased risk for later NSSI behaviors through higher waking cortisol levels, while those in the High Abuse with Moderate Neglect profile were at increased risk through a steeper diurnal slope. Disturbances in diurnal cortisol rhythm serve as a pathway through which childhood maltreatment “gets under the skin” to lead to adolescent NSSI behaviors. These findings offer promise for identifying maltreated youth at risk for NSSI behaviors and informing targeted prevention strategies.

Contingent responses in which caregiver and child build on each other’s positive behavior may attenuate the deleterious effects of early adversity on youth mental health and neuroendocrine functioning. 159 caregiver–child dyads (child age: 6–16 years; 50.9% male; 44.6% adversity-exposed in stable arrangements with adoptive caregivers) participated in a 6-min conflict resolution task, which was coded for second-by-second changes in caregivers’ and children’s behavior (κ’s >0.78). Caregivers reported on their child’s mental health problems; youth hair cortisol concentration was obtained. Caregiver contingent responses to their children (i.e., responding to their partner’s positive social communication with active efforts to facilitate emotion regulation and/or problem-solving) attenuated the effects of adversity on child anxiety and conduct disorder symptoms. Stronger positive child contingent responses to their caregivers attenuated the effects of adversity on child depressive, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, and oppositional defiant symptoms. Positive contingent transactions are health-promotive interaction sequences that could be targeted in transdiagnostic intervention programs.

Maternal affect contributes to children’s psychosocial adjustment. How maternal daily affect intensity and dynamics (i.e., inertia and variability) are associated with adolescents’ psychopathological symptoms, however, remains unclear. This preregistered study examined (1) associations of maternal day-to-day positive and negative affect intensity, inertia, and variability with psychopathological symptoms in adolescence and young adulthood, and (2) how mother–adolescent affect congruency moderates these associations. Mother–adolescent dyads (N = 488) reported positive and negative affect in 75 daily assessments across ages 13 – 17 years. Adolescents rated their psychopathological symptoms at ages 14 – 18, 20, and 27 years. Maternal affect intensity was associated with adolescent psychopathological symptoms, while maternal affect dynamics were inconsistently associated with symptoms in young adulthood. Mother–adolescent affect congruency only moderated the effects of positive affect intensity and variability, in that high-congruent adolescents reported lower internalizing symptoms at age 20 than low-congruent adolescents. No other interaction effects were found. While maternal affect intensity and dynamics seem to contribute to youth psychopathology, evidence for the role of mother–adolescent affect congruency remained limited.

Infant self-regulation is shaped by early physiological systems and caregiver-infant co-regulatory interactions. Maternal perinatal (pre- and/or postnatal) depression may affect these processes and infants’ development of this critical construct. However, literature addressing the association between maternal perinatal depression and infant self-regulation has been mixed. We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of the association between maternal perinatal depression and several self-regulation constructs (e.g., effortful control, executive function) measured during the first 2 years of life. We included 68 reports comprising 193 effect sizes and 16,722 mother-infant dyads. On average, studies included an equal number of male and female infants, and, for most (68%) studies, most participants were White. Average infant age ranged from 0 – 16 months. Three-level random effects meta-analytic models indicated a small, significant overall association, with higher levels of depression associated with lower self-regulation (r = −.10, 95% CI = −.14, −.06, p < .001). There was substantial heterogeneity in this pooled effect. Subsequent analyses indicated moderation by methodological and conceptual variables. Evidence that maternal perinatal depression is associated with lower infant self-regulation underscores the importance of supporting dyads experiencing perinatal depression. Clarifying this association highlights a critical next step of examining potential causal processes linking maternal and infant well-being.

Research has robustly demonstrated that children exposed to early ecological adversity are at risk for developing antisocial, externalizing behavior problems (rule breaking, aggression, disregard for others). Yet, studies have also demonstrated multifinality in developmental pathways unfolding in adversity’s aftermath, with many children showing remarkable resilience. Understanding sources of such resilience is critical, especially across different populations (Luthar et al., 2006, 2015). In Family Study (FS, 102 low-risk mothers, fathers, and infants) and Play Study (PS, 186 high-risk mother-toddler dyads), we test a model of parent–child attachment security, observed at 15 months in FS and 2.5 years in PS, as a moderator of effects of early family ecological adversity, assessed as a cumulative score of sociodemographic risks (graded for severity) at 7 months in FS and 2.5 years in PS, on children’s antisocial, externalizing problems, observed and parent-reported at 5.5 years in FS and 7 years in PS. We supported moderation for mother–child relationships in both studies: Higher early family adversity was associated with more antisocial outcomes five years later, but only for children with less secure attachments. We highlight the key role of early security as a protective factor and a source of resilience for children in families experiencing adversity.

This study examined whether childhood adversity, specifically threat-related adversity, was associated with within-person changes in the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal cortisol slope (DCS), and whether these changes predicted increased depressive symptoms during adolescence. We also explored sex differences. In total, 283 first-year secondary school students in Belgium (M = 12.48 years; SD = 0.39; 42.8% female) participated in six assessments over 2.5 years. Childhood adversity (psychological, physical, and sexual victimization) reported at the first three waves was averaged. CAR and DCS latent residual change scores were derived from salivary cortisol samples collected during waves 1 and 3. Depressive symptom changes were assessed in linear growth curve models using self-reports from waves 3 to 6. The childhood adversity × sex interaction significantly predicted CAR and DCS changes, indicating a blunted CAR across waves for victimized boys, and a blunted DCS for victimized girls. Childhood adversity predicted the depressive symptoms intercept. No other predictors were associated with the depressive symptoms intercept, and none were linked to the depressive symptoms slope. Thus, childhood adversity may be linked to changes in diurnal cortisol patterns that differ by sex. Evidence for diurnal cortisol changes as a pathway to increased depressive symptoms remains inconclusive.

Delayed reward discounting (DRD), the tendency to prefer smaller rewards available immediately relative to larger rewards available after a delay, is associated with numerous health outcomes across the lifespan. Emerging literature points to the central role of early environments, specifically factors reflecting harshness (including lack of resources) and unpredictability (exposure to instability and stressful events) in the development of DRD. Yet, existing research uses disparate indicators of environmental risk and often draws on small samples resulting in conflicting findings, making comparisons across studies challenging. The current systematic review examined environmental factors that may place youth at greatest risk for heightened DRD and subsequent negative health outcomes. Search results identified 28 articles reflecting 20 unique samples. Additionally, meta-analyses were conducted to examine overall effects for the two most commonly examined environmental predictors (family income and family history of substance use disorder). Results suggest small-to-medium associations of environmental risk with DRD, with smaller associations observed for more distal predictors of harshness (e.g., family income) and larger associations among more proximal indicators of environmental instability (e.g., harsh parenting and parental pathology). Findings highlight the role of environmental factors on DRD development and may inform future interventions.

Early identification of risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms can enable more timely interventions and improve long-term outcomes. While previous research has linked various maternal and perinatal factors to ADHD, few studies have examined these predictors collectively in a single comprehensive analysis. This study aimed to assess whether later ADHD symptoms can be predicted from information available at birth, specifically ethnicity, maternal metabolic markers, mental health, and socioeconomic status. It additionally aimed to identify the most influential predictors. Using data from the Born in Bradford (BiB) study, we applied multiple linear regression (LR) and machine learning techniques to predict ADHD symptoms as measured by the Hyperactivity/Inattention subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). A 10-fold cross-validated LR model explained 6.97% of the variance in SDQ scores. In the random forest model, infant male sex and maternal smoking during pregnancy emerged as the top predictors. These findings provide proof of principle for early identification of children at risk of ADHD. Future models may benefit from incorporating additional perinatal data to improve predictive accuracy.

Parental mentalizing, or the parent’s capacity to think about the child as having an inner psychological world, has been shown to play an important role in sensitive parenting and child socioemotional development. Studies suggest that high levels of stress impair (parental) mentalizing, yet surprisingly few studies have experimentally investigated this. The present study aimed to address this gap by investigating the impact of child-focused stress on parental mentalizing measured using a newly developed self-report questionnaire, following an experimental design with a computer-controlled baby simulator in a sample of 29 community mothers. Both subjective arousal, measured by a self-report item, and biological arousal, assessed through galvanic skin response, were measured throughout the experiment. Attachment dimensions, childhood trauma, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) features were assessed at baseline. Results demonstrated that the induction of child-focused stress was associated with an increase in parental mentalizing difficulties. Increases in mentalizing difficulties were, in turn, associated with increases in subjective and biological arousal following the simulator task. Finally, attachment anxiety and childhood trauma were positively correlated with both arousal and parental mentalizing difficulties in the simulator task, whereas attachment avoidance and BPD features were not. The implications of these findings for early intervention are discussed.

Methylation alterations of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) may help explain why not all individuals experiencing insensitive parenting develop behavior problems, yet evidence from human cohorts remains limited. This longitudinal study examined associations among NR3C1 methylation, caregiver parenting, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. A total of 224 Han Chinese preschoolers (Mage = 47.33 ± 9.60 months; 42.5% girls) were recruited from Jinan, China, in 2021 (T1). Parenting quality and child behavior problems were reported by both parents, and NR3C1 methylation across 46 cytosine–phosphate–guanine sites in the exon 1F promoter region was sequenced from buccal cells. Follow-up assessments were conducted 1.5 years later among 113 children who stayed in the same kindergarten (Mage = 63.60 ± 7.68 months; 45.7% girls). NR3C1 methylation at baseline moderated the association between parenting and baseline, but not follow-up, behavior problems, consistent with differential susceptibility. Children with lower methylation exhibited more behavior problems under low-quality parenting but fewer under high-quality parenting. This interaction did not vary between parental and child sex, or NR3C1 BclI (rs41423247) and Tth111I (rs10052957) polymorphisms. Findings highlight the dynamic nature of Epigenome × Environment interactions and suggest that lower NR3C1 methylation may act as a plasticity factor in preschool children.