Early childhood trauma has been linked to neurocognitive and emotional processing deficits in older children, yet much less is known about these associations in young children. Early childhood is an important developmental period in which to examine relations between trauma and executive functioning/emotion reactivity, given that these capacities are rapidly developing and are potential transdiagnostic factors implicated in the development of psychopathology. This cross-sectional study examined associations between cumulative trauma, interpersonal trauma, and components of executive functioning, episodic memory, and emotion reactivity, conceptualized using the RDoC framework and assessed with observational and performance-based measures, in a sample of 90 children (ages 4–7) admitted to a partial hospital program. Children who had experienced two or more categories of trauma had lower scores in episodic memory, global cognition, and inhibitory control as measured in a relational (but not computerized) task, when compared to children with less or no trauma. Interpersonal trauma was similarly associated with global cognition and relational inhibitory control. Family contextual factors did not moderate associations. Findings support examining inhibitory control in both relationally significant and decontextualized paradigms in early childhood, and underscore the importance of investigating multiple neurocognitive and emotional processes simultaneously to identify potential targets for early intervention.

Prenatal stress has a significant, but small, negative effect on children’s executive function (EF) in middle and high socioeconomic status (SES) households. Importantly, rates and severity of prenatal stress are higher and protective factors are reduced in lower SES households, suggesting prenatal stress may be particularly detrimental for children’s EF in this population. This study examined whether prenatal stress was linked to 5-year-old’s EF in a predominantly low SES sample and child sex moderated this association, as males may be more vulnerable to adverse prenatal experiences. Participants were 132 mother-child dyads drawn from a prospective prenatal cohort. Mothers reported on their depression symptoms, trait anxiety, perceived stress, everyday discrimination, and sleep quality at enrollment and once each trimester, to form a composite prenatal stress measure. Children’s EF was assessed at age 5 years using the parent-report Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Preschool (BRIEF-P) Global Executive Composite subscale and neuropsychological tasks completed by the children. Mixed models revealed higher prenatal stress was associated with lower BRIEF-P scores, indicating better EF, for females only. Higher prenatal stress was associated with lower performance on neuropsychological EF measures for both males and females. Results add to the limited evidence about prenatal stress effects on children’s EF in low SES households.

Challenges with childhood emotion regulation may have origins in infancy and forecast later social and cognitive developmental delays, academic difficulties, and psychopathology. This study tested whether markers of emotion dysregulation in infancy predict emotion dysregulation in toddlerhood, and whether those associations depended on maternal sensitivity. When children (N = 111) were 7 months, baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), RSA withdrawal, and distress were collected during the Still Face Paradigm (SFP). Mothers’ reports of infant regulation and orientation and maternal sensitivity were also collected at that time. Mothers’ reports of toddlers’ dysregulation were collected at 18 months. A set of hierarchical regressions indicated that low baseline RSA and less change in RSA from baseline to stressor predicted greater dysregulation at 18 months, but only for infants who experienced low maternal sensitivity. Baseline RSA and RSA withdrawal were not significantly associated with later dysregulation for infants with highly sensitive mothers. Infants who exhibited low distress during the SFP and who had lower regulatory and orienting abilities at 7 months had higher dysregulation at 18 months regardless of maternal sensitivity. Altogether, these results suggest that risk for dysregulation in toddlerhood has biobehavioral origins in infancy but may be buffered by sensitive caregiving.

Early-life adversity as neglect or low socioeconomic status is associated with negative physical/mental health outcomes and plays an important role in health trajectories through life. The early-life environment has been shown to be encoded as changes in epigenetic markers that are retained for many years.

We investigated the effect of maternal major financial problems (MFP) and material deprivation (MD) on their children’s epigenome in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort. Epigenetic aging, measured with epigenetic clocks, was weakly accelerated with increased MFP. In subsequent EWAS, MFP, and MD showed strong, independent programing effects on children’s genomes. MFP in the period from birth to age seven was associated with genome-wide epigenetic modifications on children’s genome visible at age 7 and partially remaining at age 15.

These results support the hypothesis that physiological processes at least partially explain associations between early-life adversity and health problems later in life. Both maternal stressors (MFP/MD) had similar effects on biological pathways, providing preliminary evidence for the mechanisms underlying the effects of low socioeconomic status in early life and disease outcomes later in life. Understanding these associations is essential to explain disease susceptibility, overall life trajectories and the transition from health to disease.

Inhibitory control plays an important role in children’s cognitive and socioemotional development, including their psychopathology. It has been established that contextual factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) and parents’ psychopathology are associated with children’s inhibitory control. However, the relations between the neural correlates of inhibitory control and contextual factors have been rarely examined in longitudinal studies. In the present study, we used both event-related potential (ERP) components and time-frequency measures of inhibitory control to evaluate the neural pathways between contextual factors, including prenatal SES and maternal psychopathology, and children’s behavioral and emotional problems in a large sample of children (N = 560; 51.75% females; Mage = 7.13 years; Rangeage = 4–11 years). Results showed that theta power, which was positively predicted by prenatal SES and was negatively related to children’s externalizing problems, mediated the longitudinal and negative relation between them. ERP amplitudes and latencies did not mediate the longitudinal association between prenatal risk factors (i.e., prenatal SES and maternal psychopathology) and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. Our findings increase our understanding of the neural pathways linking early risk factors to children’s psychopathology.

This study aimed to parse between-person heterogeneity in growth of impulsivity across childhood and adolescence among participants enrolled in five childhood preventive intervention trials targeting conduct problems. In addition, we aimed to test profile membership in relation to adult psychopathologies. Measurement items representing impulsive behavior across grades 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 10, and aggression, substance use, suicidal ideation/attempts, and anxiety/depression in adulthood were integrated from the five trials (N = 4,975). We applied latent class growth analysis to this sample, as well as samples separated into nonintervention (n = 2,492) and intervention (n = 2,483) participants. Across all samples, profiles were characterized by high, moderate, low, and low-increasing impulsive levels. Regarding adult outcomes, in all samples, the high, moderate, and low profiles endorsed greater levels of aggression compared to the low-increasing profile. There were nuanced differences across samples and profiles on suicidal ideation/attempts and anxiety/depression. Across samples, there were no significant differences between profiles on substance use. Overall, our study helps to inform understanding of the developmental course and prognosis of impulsivity, as well as adding to collaborative efforts linking data across multiple studies to better inform understanding of developmental processes.

As part of the special issue of Development and Psychopathology honoring the remarkable contributions of Dr Dante Cicchetti, the current paper attempts to describe the recent contributions that a developmental psychopathology perspective has made in understanding the development of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems over the lifespan. The paper also identifies some of the future challenges and research directions. Because the scope of this task far exceeds the confines of a journal length article this paper does not attempt a comprehensive review. Rather, it builds on an earlier review and commentary that was published in Development and Psychopathology in 2013, with a similar goal.)Building on that work and updating its conclusions and suggestions for future directions, the current paper emphasizes findings from the research areas that were identified for further study in 2013 and the findings that have been published since that time.

The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) is a landmark prospective, longitudinal study of human development focused on a sample of mothers experiencing poverty and their firstborn children. Although the MLSRA pioneered a number of important topics in the area of social and emotional development, it began with the more specific goal of examining the antecedents of child maltreatment. From that foundation and for more than 40 years, the study has produced a significant body of research on the origins, sequelae, and measurement of childhood abuse and neglect. The principal objectives of this report are to document the early history of the MLSRA and its contributions to the study of child maltreatment and to review and summarize results from the recently updated childhood abuse and neglect coding of the cohort, with particular emphasis on findings related to adult adjustment. While doing so, we highlight key themes and contributions from Dr Dante Cicchetti’s body of research and developmental psychopathology perspective to the MLSRA, a project launched during his tenure as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.

A long-standing practice in clinical and developmental psychology research on childhood maltreatment has been to consider prospective, official court records to be the gold standard measure of childhood maltreatment and to give less weight to adults’ retrospective self-reports of childhood maltreatment, sometimes even treating this data source as invalid. We argue that both formats of assessment – prospective and retrospective – provide important information on childhood maltreatment. Prospective data drawn from court records should not necessarily be considered the superior format, especially considering evidence of structural racism in child welfare. Part I overviews current maltreatment definitions in the context of the developmental psychopathology (DP) framework that has guided maltreatment research for over 40 years. Part II describes the ongoing debate about the disproportionalities of minoritized children at multiple decision-making stages of the child welfare system and the role that racism plays in many minoritized families’ experience of this system. Part III offers alternative interpretations for the lack of concordance between prospective, official records of childhood maltreatment and retrospective self-reports, and for the differential associations between each format of data with health outcomes. Moving forward, we recommend that future DP research on childhood maltreatment apply more inclusive, diversity and equity-informed approaches when assessing and interpreting the effects of childhood maltreatment on lifespan and intergenerational outcomes. We encourage future generations of DP scholars to use assessment methods that affirm the lived experiences of individuals and families who have directly experienced maltreatment and the child welfare system.

High-risk pregnancies elevate maternal stress, impacting offspring neurodevelopment and behavior. This study, involving 112 participants, aimed to compare perceived stress, neurodevelopment, and behavior in high-risk and low-risk pregnancies. Two groups, high-risk and low-risk, were assessed during pregnancy for stress using hair cortisol and psychological analysis. At 24 months post-birth, their children’s neurodevelopment and behavior were evaluated. Results revealed higher perceived stress and pregnancy-related concerns in high-risk pregnancies, contrasting with low-risk pregnancies. Offspring from high-risk pregnancies displayed elevated internalizing behavior scores, while low-risk pregnancies showed higher externalizing behavior scores. Additionally, women in low-risk pregnancies exhibited increased cortisol concentrations 24 months post-delivery. These findings underscore the necessity for early stress detection and prevention programs during pregnancy, particularly in high-risk cases, to enhance maternal and infant health.

Parental warmth during the transition from childhood to adolescence is a key protective factor against a host of adolescent problems, including substance use, maladjustment, and diminished well-being. Moreover, adolescents and parents often disagree in their perceptions of parenting quality, and these discrepancies may confer risk for problem outcomes. The current study applies latent profile analysis to a sample of 687 mother–father–6th grade adolescent triads to identify patterns of adolescent–parent convergence and divergence in perceptions of parental warmth. Five profiles were identified, and associations with adolescent positive well-being, substance use, and maladjustment outcomes in 9th grade were assessed. Patterns of divergence in which adolescents had a pronounced negative perception of parental warmth compared to parents, as well as those wherein pronounced divergence was present in only one adolescent–parent dyad, were associated with diminished positive well-being compared to adolescents who had more positive perceptions of warmth than parents. Having more negative perceptions of warmth compared to parents was also associated with elevated risk for alcohol and marijuana initiation, but only when the divergence was pronounced rather than more moderate. These findings add nuance to findings from previous between-family investigations of informant discrepancies, calling for further family-centered methods for investigating multiple perspectives.

This study compared two versions of the NICHD Protocol for interviewing young suspected sexual offenders: the Revised Suspect Protocol (RSP) and the Standard Suspect Protocol (SSP). The RSP incorporated relevant evidence-based practices informed by research on the value of (a) effectively explaining the suspects’ rights, (b) rapport building and support, and (c) appropriate questioning strategies. Interviewers using the RSP communicated the children’s rights more effectively (reading them more often, checking, verifying, and correcting understanding) and provided more support. In the substantive phase, they remained supportive while recall prompts dominated the questioning. Compared to children in the SSP group, children in the RSP condition understood their rights better, were more responsive during rapport-building, and reacted to interviewer support in the substantive phase with increased responsiveness, which in turn, predicted reduced reluctance, increased emotional expression, and greater informativeness. They were also more likely to make full rather than partial confessions than children in the SSP group. Full confessions were positively predicted by the appropriate communication of legal rights, interviewer support, and reliance on open-ended prompts, thereby confirming the superiority of the RSP relative to the SSP.

Exposure to early life adversity (ELA) is hypothesized to sensitize threat-responsive neural circuitry. This may lead individuals to overestimate threat in the face of ambiguity, a cognitive-behavioral phenotype linked to poor mental health. The tendency to process ambiguity as threatening may stem from difficulty distinguishing between ambiguous and threatening stimuli. However, it is unknown how exposure to ELA relates to neural representations of ambiguous and threatening stimuli, or how processing of ambiguity following ELA relates to psychosocial functioning. The current fMRI study examined multivariate representations of threatening and ambiguous social cues in 41 emerging adults (aged 18 to 19 years). Using representational similarity analysis, we assessed neural representations of ambiguous and threatening images within affective neural circuitry and tested whether similarity in these representations varied by ELA exposure. Greater exposure to ELA was associated with greater similarity in neural representations of ambiguous and threatening images. Moreover, individual differences in processing ambiguity related to global functioning, an association that varied as a function of ELA. By evidencing reduced neural differentiation between ambiguous and threatening cues in ELA-exposed emerging adults and linking behavioral responses to ambiguity to psychosocial wellbeing, these findings have important implications for future intervention work in at-risk, ELA-exposed populations.

Previous studies show aggression-related structural alterations in frontal and limbic brain regions. Most studies have focused on overall aggression, instead of its subtypes, and on specific regions instead of networks. This study aims to identify both brain networks and regions that are associated with reactive and proactive subtypes of aggression. Structural MRI data were collected from 340 adolescents (125 F/215 M) with a mean age of 16.29 (SD = 1.20). Aggression symptomology was indexed via the Reactive Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ). Freesurfer was used to estimate Cortical Volume (CV) from seven networks and regions within specific networks associated with aggression. Two multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) were conducted on groups for low versus higher reactive and proactive RPQ scores. Our reactive aggression MANCOVA showed a main effect in CV [F(14,321) = 1.935, p = 0.022,ηp2 = 0.078] across all the 7-Networks. Unpacking this main effect revealed significant volumetric differences in the right Limbic Network (LN) (p = 0.029) and the Temporal Pole (p = 0.011), where adolescents in the higher reactive aggression group showed higher cortical volumes. Such findings are consistent with region/voxel-specific analyses that have associated atypical structure within the LN and reactive aggression. Moreover, the temporal pole is highly interconnected with regions important in the regulation and initiation of reactive aggression.

Growing evidence supports the unique pathways by which threat and deprivation, two core dimensions of adversity, confer risk for youth psychopathology. However, the extent to which these dimensions differ in their direct associations with youth psychopathology remains unclear. The primary aim of this preregistered meta-analysis was to synthesize the associations between threat, deprivation, internalizing, externalizing, and trauma-specific psychopathology. Because threat is proposed to be directly linked with socioemotional development, we hypothesized that the magnitude of associations between threat and psychopathology would be larger than those with deprivation. We conducted a search for peer-reviewed articles in English using PubMed and PsycINFO databases through August 2022. Studies that assessed both threat and deprivation and used previously validated measures of youth psychopathology were included. One hundred and twenty-seven articles were included in the synthesis (N = 163,767). Results of our three-level meta-analyses indicated that adversity dimension significantly moderated the associations between adversity and psychopathology, such that the magnitude of effects for threat (r’s = .21–26) were consistently larger than those for deprivation (r’s = .16–.19). These differences were more pronounced when accounting for the threat-deprivation correlation. Additional significant moderators included emotional abuse and youth self-report of adversity. Findings are consistent with the Dimensional Model of Adversity and Psychopathology, with clinical, research, and policy implications.

The current study evaluated cultural values and family processes that may moderate associations between daily racial-ethnic discrimination and distress among Mexican-origin youth. Integrating micro-time (daily diary) and macro-time (longitudinal survey) research design features, we examined familism, family cohesion, and ethnic-racial socialization from youth-, mother-, and father- reports as potential buffers of daily associations between youth racial-ethnic discrimination and youth distress (negative affect and anger). The analytic sample, drawn from the Seguimos Avanzando study, included 317 Mexican-origin adolescents (Mage = 13.5 years) and their parents, recruited from the Midwestern United States. Results indicated that youth-reported familism and family cohesion significantly buffered daily associations between youth racial-ethnic discrimination and youth distress. In contrast, parent-reported familism and family cohesion and some aspects of ethnic-racial socialization exacerbated the discrimination to distress link. The implications of these results are discussed to inform efforts supporting the healthy development of Mexican-origin youth and their families.

Reactive and control processes – e.g., negative emotionality and immediacy preference – may predict distinct psychopathology trajectories. However, externalizing and internalizing problems change in behavioral manifestation across development and across contexts, thus necessitating the use of different measures and informants across ages. This is the first study that created developmental scales for both internalizing and externalizing problems by putting scores from different informants and measures onto the same scale to examine temperament facets as risk factors. Multidimensional linking allowed us to examine trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems from ages 2 to 15 years (N = 1,364) using near-annual ratings by mothers, fathers, teachers, other caregivers, and self report. We examined reactive and control processes in early childhood as predictors of the trajectories and as predictors of general versus specific psychopathology in adolescence. Negative emotionality at age 4 predicted general psychopathology and unique externalizing problems at age 15. Wait times on an immediacy preference task at age 4 were negatively associated with age 15 general psychopathology, and positively associated with unique internalizing problems. Findings demonstrate the value of developmental scaling for examining development of psychopathology across a lengthy developmental span and the importance of considering reactive and control processes in development of psychopathology.

Unraveling the neurobiological foundations of childhood maltreatment is important due to the persistent associations with adverse mental health outcomes. However, the mechanisms through which abuse and neglect disturb resting-state network connectivity remain elusive. Moreover, it remains unclear if positive parenting can mitigate the negative impact of childhood maltreatment on network connectivity. We analyzed a cohort of 194 adolescents and young adults (aged 14–25, 47.42% female) from the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network (NSPN) to investigate the impact of childhood abuse and neglect on resting-state network connectivity. Specifically, we examined the SAN, DMN, FPN, DAN, and VAN over time. We also explored the moderating role of positive parenting. The results showed that childhood abuse was linked to stronger connectivity within the SAN and VAN, as well as between the DMN-DAN, DMN-VAN, DMN-SAN, SAN-DAN, FPN-DAN, SAN-VAN, and VAN-DAN networks about 18 months later. Positive parenting during childhood buffered the negative impact of childhood abuse on network connectivity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the protective effect of positive parenting on network connectivity following childhood abuse. These findings not only highlight the importance of positive parenting but also lead to a better understanding of the neurobiology and resilience mechanisms of childhood maltreatment.

Although new mothers are at risk of heightened vulnerability for depressive symptoms, there is limited understanding regarding changes in maternal depressive symptoms over the course of the postpartum and early childhood of their child’s life among rural, low-income mothers from diverse racial backgrounds. This study examined distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms among rural low-income mothers during the first five years of their child’s life, at 6, 15, 24, and 58 months, using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292). Latent class growth analysis identified four distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, including Low-decreasing (50%; n = 622), Low-increasing (26%; n = 324), Moderate-decreasing (13%; n = 156), and Moderate-increasing (11%; n = 131) trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that higher perceived financial strain and intimate partner violence, and lower social support predicted higher-risk trajectories (Low-increasing, Moderate-decreasing, and Moderate-increasing) relative to the Low-decreasing trajectory. Compared to the Low-decreasing trajectory, lower neighborhood safety/quietness predicted to the Low-increasing trajectory. Moreover, lower social support predicted the Moderate-increasing trajectory, the highest-risk trajectory, compared to those in Moderate-decreasing. The current analyses underscore the heterogeneity on patterns of depressive symptoms among rural, low-income mothers, and that the role of both proximal and broader contexts contributing to distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms over early childhood.