The field of developmental psychopathology has grown rapidly over the pastseveral decades and research conducted within this framework has made substantial contributionsto our understanding of human adaptation and maladaptation (Cicchetti & Cohen, 1995a,1995b; Cicchetti & Richters, 1997; Cicchetti & Toth, 1998a). Influenced by thetheoretical expositions of several prominent developmentalists, including Jay Belsky (1984), UriBronfenbrenner (1979), Robert Emde (1994), Donald Ford and Richard Lerner (1992), MichaelLewis (1997), Patricia Minuchin (1985), Arnold Sameroff (1983; Sameroff & Emde, 1989),Alan Sroufe (Sroufe, Egeland, & Kreutzer, 1990), and Esther Thelen and Linda Smith(1994), theorists have called attention to the importance of viewing the development ofpsychopathology within a continuously unfolding, dynamic, and ever changing context (see, forexample, Belsky, 1993; Cicchetti & Aber, 1986; Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Cicchetti& Toth, 1998b; Coie & Jacobs, 1993; Jensen & Hoagwood, 1997; Richters& Cicchetti, 1993; Susman, 1993). Moreover, we now know that social contexts exerteffects not only on psychological processes but also on biological structures and processes(Boyce, Frank, Jensen, Kessler, Nelson, Steinberg, et al., 1998; Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994;Eisenberg, 1995; Nelson & Bloom, 1997).

Accumulating evidence suggests that social contexts in early life have important andcomplexeffects on childhood psychopathology. Spurred by the lack of an explicit operational definitionthat could guide the study of such effects, we define a social context operationally as “aset of interpersonal conditions, relevant to a particular behavior or disorder and external to, butshaped and interpreted by, the individual child.” Building on this definition, we offer aseries of recommendations for future research, based on five theoretically derived propositions:(a) Contexts are nested and multidimensional; (b) contexts broaden, differentiate, and deepenwith age, becoming more specific in their effects; (c) contexts and children are mutuallydetermining; (d) a context's meaning to the child determines its effects on the child andarises from the context's ability to provide for fundamental needs; and (e) contexts shouldbe selected for assessment in light of specific questions or outcomes. As reflected in anincreasingly rich legacy of literature on child development and psychopathology, social contextsappear to influence emerging mental disorders through dynamic, bidirectional interactions withindividual children. Future research will benefit from examining not only statistical interactionsbetween child- and context-specific factors, but also the actual transactions betweenchildren and contexts and the transduction of contextual influences into pathways ofbiological mediation. Because adverse contexts exert powerful effects on the mental health ofchildren, it is important for the field to generate new, more theoretically grounded researchaddressing the contextual determinants of psychological well-being and disorder.

This paper is on the influences of the classroom context on the course andmalleability of aggressive behavior from entrance into first grade through the transition intomiddle school. Nineteen public elementary schools participated in developmentalepidemiologically based preventive trials in first and second grades, one of which was directed atreducing aggressive, disruptive behavior. At the start of first grade, schools and teachers wererandomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Children within each school wereassigned sequentially to classrooms from alphabetized lists, followed by checking to insurebalanced assignment based on kindergarten behavior. Despite these procedures, by the end offirst quarter, classrooms within schools differed markedly in levels of aggressive behavior.Children were followed through sixth grade, where their aggressive behavior was rated bymiddle school teachers. Strong interactive effects were found on the risk of being highlyaggressive in middle school between the level of aggressive behavior in the first gradeclassrooms and each boy's own level of aggressive, disruptive behavior in first grade. Themore aggressive first grade boys who were in higher aggressive first grade classrooms were atmarkedly increased risk, compared both to the median first grade boys, and compared toaggressive males in lower aggressive first grade classrooms. Boys were already behaving moreaggressively than girls in first grade; and no similar classroom aggression effect was foundamong girls, although girls' own aggressive behavior did place them at increased risk. Thepreventive intervention effect, already reported elsewhere to reduce aggressive behavior amongthe more aggressive males, appeared to do so by reducing high levels of classroom aggression.First grade males' own poverty level was associated with higher risk of being moreaggressive, disruptive in first grade, and thereby increased their vulnerability to classroom levelof aggression. Both boys and girls in schools in poor communities were at increased risk of beinghighly aggressive in middle school regardless of their levels of aggressive behavior in first grade.These results are discussed in terms of life course/social field theory as applied to the role ofcontextual influences on the development and etiology of severe aggressive behavior.

This study evaluatedthe short-term impact of a school-based violence prevention initiative on developmentalprocesses thought to place children at risk for future aggression and violence and examined theinfluence of classroom and neighborhood contexts on the effectiveness of the violenceprevention initiative. Two waves of developmental data (fall and spring) were analyzed from the1st year of the evaluation of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), which includes5053 children from grades two to six from 11 elementary schools in New York City. Threedistinct profiles of exposure to the intervention were derived from Management InformationSystem (MIS) data on between classroom differences in teacher Training and Coaching inRCCP, Classroom Instruction in RCCP, and percentages of students who are Peer Mediators.Developmental processes that place children at risk were found to increase over the course of theschool year. Children whose teachers had a moderate amount of training and coaching fromRCCP and who taught many lessons showed significantly slower growth in aggression-relatedprocesses, and less of a decrease in competence-related processes, compared to children whoseteachers taught few or no lessons. Contrary to expectation, children whose teachers had a higherlevel of training and coaching in the RCCP but taught few lessons showed significantly fastergrowth over time in aggressive cognitions and behaviors. The impact of the intervention onchildren's social cognitions (but not on their interpersonal behaviors) varied by context.Specifically the positive effect of High Lessons was dampened for children in high-riskclassrooms and neighborhoods. Implications for future research on developmentalpsychopathology in context and for the design of preventive interventions are discussed.

Although it is well documented that child maltreatment exertsa deleterious impact on child adaptation, much less is known about the precise etiologicalpathways that eventuate in child abuse and neglect. This paper reports on a multimethodecological study of the relationship between neighborhood structural factors and childmaltreatment reports in African American and European American census tracts. The study hadtwo major components. First, in an aggregate analysis, the effects of four measures ofcommunity structure (impoverishment, child care burden, instability, and geographic isolation)on child maltreatment report rates were examined separately for predominantly AfricanAmerican (n = 94) and predominantly European American (n = 189)census tracts. Impoverishment in particular had a significantly weaker effect on maltreatmentrates in African American than in European American neighborhoods. Second, focusedethnographies were conducted in four selected census tracts with child maltreatment report ratesin the highest and lowest quartiles. Ethnographic data point to the importance of the social fabricin accounting for differences in child maltreatment report rates by predominant neighborhoodethnicity.

Cicchetti and Lynch have conceptualizedecological contexts as consisting of nested levels with varying degrees of proximity to theindividual. These levels of the environment interact and transact with each other over time inshaping individual development and adaptation. With a sample of maltreated (n =188) and nonmaltreated (n = 134) children between the ages of 7 and 12 years, thisinvestigation employed a 1-year longitudinal design to conduct an ecological-transactionalanalysis of the mutual relationships among community violence, child maltreatment, andchildren's functioning over time. Indicators of children's functioning wereexternalizing and internalizing behavior problems and self-rated traumatic stress reactions,depressive symptomatology, and self-esteem. Either full or partial support was obtained for thestudy's primary hypotheses. Rates of maltreatment, particularly physical abuse, wererelated to levels of child-reported violence in the community. In addition, child maltreatment andexposure to community violence were related to different aspects of children'sfunctioning. Specific effects were observed for neglect and sexual abuse and for witnessing andbeing victimized by violence in the community. Finally, there was evidence that children andtheir contexts mutually influence each other over time. Results were discussed within theframework of an ecological-transactional model of development.

This study explored the effects ofstructural and experiential neighborhood factors and developmental stage on antisocial behavior,among a sample of poor urban adolescents in New York City. Conceptually and empiricallydistinct profiles of neighborhood experience were derived from the data, based on measures ofperceived neighborhood cohesion, poverty-related hassles, and involvement in neighborhoodorganizations and activities. Both the profiles of neighborhood experience and a measure ofcensus-tract-level neighborhood hazard (poverty and violence) showed relationships to antisocialbehavior. Contrary to expectation, higher levels of antisocial behavior were reported amongadolescents residing in moderate-structural-risk neighborhoods than those in high-structural-riskneighborhoods. This effect held only for teens in middle (not early) adolescence and was strongerfor teens perceiving their neighborhoods as hassling than for those who did not. Implications forfuture research and preventive intervention are discussed.

Research has shown that offspring of depressed caregivers areat increased risk for maladaptive development and emotional difficulties. Specifically, infantsand toddlers of depressed mothers have been shown to evidence higher percentages of insecureattachments and more behavioral difficulties than offspring of nondisordered mothers. However,even in studies that reveal significant differences between children of depressed andnondepressed caregivers, a substantial number of children with depressed caregivers do notevidence dysfunction. Such findings have resulted in increased attention to the broader socialcontext in which children of depressed mothers develop. This investigation examined the directinfluences of maternal depression on child development, as well as the role of contextual risksthat may be particularly heightened in families with depressed parents. Toddlers with depressedmothers evidenced significantly more insecure attachments than did toddlers with nondisorderedmothers, and this difference was not accounted for by contextual risk. In predicting childbehavior problems, contextual risk was found to mediate the relation between maternaldepression and child behavior problems. Father-report data on child behavior corroborated themother report data. Results are discussed in terms of the diversity of functioning in offspring ofdepressed caregivers that can be attributed to varied levels of contextual risk accompanyingdepression.

To examine the effects of infant negativeemotionality and of mothering and fathering during the toddler years on 3-year-old boys'externalizing problems and inhibition, as well as explore the proposition that children vary intheir susceptibility to rearing influence, 125 first-born, Caucasian boys from maritally intactfamilies were studied. Results revealed that when infant negativity is measured with objective,replicable, and discriminantly valid procedures, no relation obtains between it and externalizingproblems (nor inhibition). Moreover, as hypothesized on the basis of prior work, parenting was astronger predictor of externalizing problems and inhibition in the case of children who werehighly negative as infants. Mothering proved a stronger predictor of externalizing problems andfathering of inhibition, with more negative mothering in the 2nd and 3rd year forecasting higherCBCL-externalizing scores and less negative fathering in the 2nd and 3rd year and more positivefathering in the 2nd year forecasting more inhibition at age 3. Implications of these findings forstudies of parental influence are considered.

Adopting a motivational perspectiveon adolescent development, these two companion studies examined the longitudinal relationsbetween early adolescents' school motivation (competence beliefs and values),achievement, emotional functioning (depressive symptoms and anger), and middle schoolperceptions using both variable- and person-centered analytic techniques. Data were collectedfrom 1041 adolescents and their parents at the beginning of seventh and the end of eighth gradein middle school. Controlling for demographic factors, regression analyses in Study 1 showedreciprocal relations between school motivation and positive emotional functioning over time.Furthermore, adolescents' perceptions of the middle school learning environment (supportfor competence and autonomy, quality of relationships with teachers) predicted their eighth grademotivation, achievement, and emotional functioning after accounting for demographic and prioradjustment measures. Cluster analyses in Study 2 revealed several different patterns of schoolfunctioning and emotional functioning during seventh grade that were stable over 2 years andthat were predictably related to adolescents' reports of their middle school environment.Discussion focuses on the developmental significance of schooling for multiple adjustmentoutcomes during adolescence.

The primary goal of this research is to increase the goodness-of-fit between thetheoretical tenets of family systems theory and quantitative methods used to test systemshypotheses. A family systems perspective is applied to two specific research questionsconcerning family influences on adolescent development: To what extent are familial risk andprotective factors for psychopathology and competence shared or not shared by siblings and aredifferent family relationship patterns associated with optimal adolescent adjustment innondivorced and remarried families? Multirater and multimethod data from a national sample of516 nondivorced and remarried families from the Nonshared Environment and AdolescentDevelopment (NEAD) project were examined using a combination of cluster, factor, andregression analyses. Results indicated that the effects of an individual relationship on adolescentadjustment is moderated by the larger network of relationships in which it is embedded.Evidence for nonshared familial processes in predicting adolescent psychopathology was alsofound but only in a subset of families, and the mechanisms of influence were neither main effectsnor linear, as has been assumed by research to date. Results are discussed in light of familysystems models of relationship influences on development. These results illustrate how familysystems theory provides a specific example of contextualism as regards the development ofpsychopathology in adolescence.

Qualitative methods are well suited to advance the understanding of the role of social contextinthe development of maladaptation and psychopathology. However, they have not been widelyused by developmental psychopathologists, despite being utilized in related fields, particularly inthe sociological study of crime and delinquency. This article assesses the potential for theincreased use of qualitative methods in developmental psychopathology and addresses thechallenges involved in integrating them with quantitative research strategies. The interplay ofqualitative and quantitative methods in the study of juvenile delinquency is reviewed for relevantlessons about both the utility and the difficulties of integrating the two types of methods. Theproblem of assessing continuities and discontinuities over the life course in patterns of antisocialbehavior is discussed as an example of the challenge of integrating methodological paradigms.Schools of thought about qualitative methods and their relationship to quantitative researchparadigms are identified and compared. Examples are discussed of narrative life historyinterviewing and qualitative observational techniques and of recent research endeavorsintegrating these qualitative techniques with quantitative data analyses.

The utility and flexibility of recent advances in statistical methods for thequantitative analysis of developmental data—in particular, the methods of individualgrowth modeling and survival analysis—are unquestioned by methodologists, but have yetto have a major impact on empirical research within the field of developmental psychopathologyand elsewhere. In this paper, we show how these new methods provide developmentalpsychpathologists with powerful ways of answering their research questions about systematicchanges over time in individual behavior and about the occurrence and timing of life events. Inthe first section, we present a descriptive overview of each method by illustrating the types ofresearch questions that each method can address, introducing the statistical models, andcommenting on methods of model fitting, estimation, and interpretation. In the following threesections, we offer six concrete recommendations for developmental psychopathologists hoping touse these methods. First, we recommend that when designing studies, investigators shouldincrease the number of waves of data they collect and consider the use of accelerated longitudinaldesigns. Second, we recommend that when selecting measurement strategies, investigatorsshould strive to collect equatable data prospectively on all time-varying measures and shouldnever standardize their measures before analysis. Third, we recommend that when specifyingstatistical models, researchers should consider a variety of alternative specifications for the timepredictor and should test for interactions among predictors, particularly interactions betweensubstantive predictors and time. Our goal throughout is to show that these methods are essentialtools for answering questions about life-span developmental processes in both normal andatypical populations and that their proper use will help developmental psychopathologists andothers illuminate how important contextual variables contribute to various pathways ofdevelopment.