The present study examined several distinct indicators of regulation (i.e., task-based executive function, surveyed child effortful control, and surveyed household chaos) as moderators of longitudinal bidirectional links between developmental changes in harsh parenting (HP) and child externalizing behaviors (EXT) from age 9 to 14 years. The sample included 311 children (50.4% female; 111 White or European American; 97 Hispanic or Latino; 103 Black or African American). We conducted cross-lagged panel analyses and utilized multiple reporters (mother, father, and child). Regarding bidirectionality between HP and EXT, findings were mixed depending on informant, but overall more child effects than parent effects or bidirectional effects emerged. Child and household regulation moderated certain effects, providing initial evidence of the potential role of regulations in bidirectional links between HP and EXT. The present study adds impetus to considering child self-regulation and household chaos as critical features influencing the bidirectional link between parenting and child functioning.

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.

The Circle of Security – Parenting (COSP™) is a psychoeducational intervention aiming at fostering secure child-parent attachment relationships. In a randomized controlled trial, we investigate the effect of COSP™ as an adjunct to care-as-usual compared to only care-as-usual for at-risk families. Mothers and their 2–12-month-old infants were randomized into COSP™ +care-as-usual (n = 197) for at-risk families in Copenhagen or only care-as-usual (n = 100). At-risk status was either mothers diagnosed with postpartum depression and/or infants showed social withdrawal. The primary outcome was maternal sensitivity which was coded with the Coding Interactive Behavior. Our secondary outcomes were maternal reflective functioning, assessed with the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire – Infant Version, and child-mother attachment, assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure. Results showed no significant differences between the RCT groups on either the primary or secondary outcomes (all ps ≥ .146). We discuss these findings in relation to the applicability and targeted population who can benefit from COSP™, and whether alternative programs would be more effective for at-risk families with infants.

Previous research has suggested bidirectional relations between depressive symptoms and both internal and external core beliefs (self-esteem and optimism, respectively) in adolescence. However, little work has examined the cultural commonality versus specificity of these developmental pathways in adolescence across diverse contexts. To address this gap, the current study traced bidirectional associations among depressive symptoms and two forms of core beliefs (self-esteem and optimism) in adolescents from 12 cultural groups in nine countries. Longitudinal data were collected from 1,090 adolescents at ages 15 and 17. Significant associations emerged between age 15 depressive symptoms and both age 17 core beliefs across all cultural groups except Sweden. No significant associations between age 15 core beliefs and age 17 depressive symptoms were found in the multigroup model. However, the pathways from core beliefs to depressive symptoms and from depressive symptoms to core beliefs did not significantly differ in strength. These findings provide cross-cultural evidence for the scar theory (depressive symptoms → core beliefs), but no clear support for the vulnerability theory (core beliefs → depressive symptoms), perhaps due to the measurement and stability of depression. These findings have implications for understanding the adolescent development of psychopathology and cognitions, such as core beliefs, across diverse cultures.

Despite the growing body of research on the intergenerational transmission of problem behavior, there is a need for more integrative approaches that consider the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. This study uses unique longitudinal data from TRAILS (analytic sample n = 2202), a prospective multiple-generation cohort study in the Netherlands to examine whether parents’ problem behavior (parents’ self-reported lifetime antisocial behavior and substance use, reported at mean age 40 years) predicts offspring problem behavior nearly two decades later (offspring self-reported aggression and delinquency at mean ages 29 and 32 years). In path analyses, independent and relative contributions of genetic (polygenic scores of parents and offspring) and environmental (harsh parenting) pathways were tested. Results confirm intergenerational transmission and consistently point to genetic nurture whereby genetic predisposition predicts parental problem behavior, which in turn predicts harsh parenting, which in turn predicts offspring problem behavior, all while accounting for offspring genetic predisposition, sex and family socioeconomic position. Though these findings are surprising in light of genetic contributions to behavior, they allow for tentative considerations regarding implication for practice to help reduce the continuation of problem behaviors across generations.

Individuals on the autism spectrum or with elevated autistic traits have shown difficulty in recognizing people’s facial emotions. They also tend to gravitate toward anime, a highly visual medium featuring animated characters whose facial emotions may be easier to distinguish. Because autistic traits overlap with alexithymia, or difficulty in identifying and describing feelings, alexithymia might explain the association between elevated autistic traits and difficulty with facial emotion recognition. The present study used a computerized task to first examine whether elevated autistic traits in a community sample of 247 adults were associated with less accurate emotion recognition of human but not anime faces. Results showed that individuals higher in autistic traits performed significantly worse on the human facial emotion recognition task, but no better or worse on the anime version. After controlling for alexithymia and other potentially confounding variables, autistic traits were no longer associated with performance on the facial emotion recognition tasks. However, alexithymia remained a significant predictor and fully mediated the relationship between autistic traits and emotion recognition of both human and anime faces. Findings suggest that interventions designed to help individuals on the autism spectrum with facial emotion recognition might benefit from targeting alexithymia and employing anime characters.

Detrimental impacts of early ecological adversity on children’s development are known, but our understanding of their mechanisms and factors contributing to multifinality of developmental trajectories triggered by adversity is incomplete. We examined longitudinal pathways from ecological adversity parents experienced when children were infants, measured as a cumulative index of fine-grained scores on several ecological risks, to children’s future self-regulation (SR) in 200 U.S. Midwestern community families (96 girls). Parents’ observed power-assertive styles were modeled as mediators, and their negative internal working models (IWMs) of the child, coded from interviews – as moderators. Both were assessed twice, at 16 months and at 3 years, to inform our understanding of their developmental timing. Children’s SR was reported by parents and observed at 4.5 years. Path analyses revealed moderated mediation in mother-child relationships: A path from higher early ecological adversity to elevated power assertion to children’s poorer SR was significant only for mothers with highly negative IWMs of the child. Maternal negative IWMs assessed early, at 16 months, moderated the link between ecological adversity and power assertion. Once elevated, maternal power assertion was stable through age 3 and not moderated by IWM at age 3. There were no significant effects in father-child relationships.

The quality of research across psychology needs improvement. Ample evidence has indicated that publication bias, specifically making publication decisions based on a study’s results, has led to a distorted literature (e.g., high rates of false positives). Registered Reports, which can now be submitted to Development and Psychopathology, are a recent publication format designed to combat publication bias and problematic research practices. The format represents a shift from a system in which publication decisions are based on the nature of the findings, to one that is based on the quality of the study conceptualization and design. In this invited Views article, we introduce the Registered Reports format to Development and Psychopathology by arguing that they can and should be used in developmental psychopathology research. We first describe what Registered Reports are and why they are useful. We then review 10 commonly expressed concerns about publishing Registered Reports – including that they are not appropriate for studies using preexisting data, that they do not allow for exploratory analyses, and that they take too long to publish – explaining why these concerns are unwarranted. We hope that this article will allay concerns about publishing Registered Reports, and that readers will submit them to Development and Psychopathology.

Mothers living in low-income families are more likely to experience depressive symptoms and parenting stress which in turn can undermine mother–child interactions adversely influencing child outcomes. Previous studies demonstrate that social support is beneficial for low-income mothers to fulfill caregiving responsibilities and promote positive child outcomes. However, the longitudinal application of the Family Stress Model with protective factors remains unexplored in the literature. Thus, we examined the association between parenting stress and depressive symptoms at year 1 with harsh and responsive parenting at year 3. Then, we examined whether parenting practices at year 3 predicted child outcomes at year 5 and the main and moderating effects of social support at year 1 and year 3 on parenting and child outcomes. The sample included 1,968 mothers from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Results showed that parenting stress significantly predicted harsh parenting. Harsh parenting was associated with more internalizing behavior problems and decreased adaptive social behavior. Responsive parenting was associated only with fewer internalizing behavior problems. The main effects of social support on responsive and harsh parenting and child outcomes were significant. Specific intervention programs targeted at reducing parenting stress, enhancing parenting skills, and improving the social support network should be designed to support mothers in the context of economic adversity.

Refugee youth are at high risk for trauma-related disorders – outcomes not only the result of pre-migration trauma, but consequences of diverse post-migration stressors. This study identified individual, parental, and environmental factors – some potentially modifiable – associated with trajectories of psychological risk and resilience in 291 Syrian and Iraqi refugee youth during resettlement in the U.S. Data was collected at arrival and at two follow-up visits up to 7 years post-arrival. Linear mixed modeling assessed predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression trajectories. Victimization trauma (i.e., assault) and lower maternal subjective social status predicted more severe PTSD (p = .046, f 2 = .07; p < .001, f 2 = .23) and anxiety (p = .008, f2 = .05; p = .002, f 2 = .11) trajectories in youth. Paternal unemployment predicted less stable PTSD (p = .009, f2 = .13) and anxiety (p < .001, f 2 = .10) trajectories. More severe depression trajectories were associated with female sex (p = .045, f 2 = .06) and death threat traumas (p = .014, f 2 = .07). Findings identified predictors of long-term risk and resilience for refugee youth, as well as potentially modifiable ecological risk factors. Victimization and death threat trauma exposure could be salient in identifying youth at high risk for trauma-related symptoms early in resettlement. Indicators of financial security were also associated with symptoms, suggesting environmental intervention targets.

Emotion recognition, the ability to interpret others’ emotional expressions and infer mental states, is crucial for caregiver–child interactions. The ability to accurately recognize infant emotions may facilitate attuned and responsive caregiving. Across two studies, we validate a novel measure to assess the recognition of infants’ emotions (Reading the Mind in Infant Eyes Test [RMIET]) and investigate how this ability relates to observed caregiving. Study 1 examined item-level performance in 55 infant mental health experts and 100 undergraduate students. Study 2 examined RMIET scores in 133 pregnant people and their later caregiving when their children were 18-month-old. In Study 1, agreement was high among both mental health experts (ICC = .82) and undergraduate students (ICC = .93), providing evidence of the content validity of the RMIET. In Study 2, scores assessing the recognition of adult and infant emotions were positively correlated (r = .22, p = .012). After accounting for covariates, RMIET scores were statistically significantly associated with higher sensitivity and warmth and lower negative regard. Taken together, these studies provide preliminary evidence of content and predictive validity for the RMIET.

Although depression can be transmitted across generations, less is known about how this cycle can be interrupted. This study examines whether the multilevel Fast Track intervention (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01653535) disrupts intergenerational transmission of depression. Children at high risk for aggression were randomly assigned to a 10-year control group or intervention targeting parenting and children’s intrapersonal, interpersonal, and academic skills. The original sample included 891 first-generation (G1) participants who reported on their depression and their children’s (second-generation; G2) internalizing problems. At age 34, 374 G2 participants (n = 191 intervention, n = 183 control) reported on their and their children’s (third-generation; G3) emotional difficulties. Mediated path models showed that a cascading model where higher G1 depressive symptoms influence higher G2 childhood depressive symptoms, leading to higher G2 adulthood depressive symptoms, which in turn is connected with greater G3 emotional difficulties, emerged only in the control group. The Fast Track intervention disrupted the pathways from G1 depressive symptoms to G3 emotional difficulties, from G2 childhood depressive symptoms to G2 adulthood depressive symptoms, and from G2 adulthood depressive symptoms to G3 emotional difficulties, highlighting the importance of preventive interventions in altering developmental trajectories of psychopathology.

Trust judgments involve rapidly evaluating others’ appearance and are critical in psychosocial development. Trust biases may be linked to psychopathology risk, particularly in vulnerable, adversity-affected populations, but very little is known about trust perception in refugee context. Here, we measured trust perception of Syrian refugee children (N = 324, Mage = 6.32 years) displaced in Jordan, using a validated trust task with computer-generated faces varying in perceived trustworthiness (data collection: May-August 2021). Mothers (N = 324, Mage = 32.59) reported on child and mothers’ mental health, and mother-child relationship. Child trust perception was not associated with child or mothers’ mental health, or mother-child relationship (all p > .10), but we found age-related changes in perceived trust, with older children reporting faces as less trustworthy than younger children (B = .32, p < .001). Although children’s social judgments might be associated with socio-emotional functioning in non-refugee populations, our results suggest that refugee children’s mental health does not seem to be linked to their perception of trust, and that trusting others might diminish with age in displaced, at-risk children.

Parent factors impact adolescent’s emotion regulation, which has key implications for the development of internalizing psychopathology. A key transdiagnostic factor which may contribute to the development of youth internalizing pathology is parent anxiety sensitivity (fear of anxiety-related physiological sensations). In a sample of 146 adolescents (M/SDage = 12.08/.90 years old) and their parents (98% mothers) we tested whether parent anxiety sensitivity was related to their adolescent’s brain activation, over and above the child’s anxiety sensitivity. Adolescents completed an emotion regulation task in the scanner that required them to either regulate vs. react to negative vs. neutral stimuli. Parent anxiety sensitivity was associated with adolescent neural responses in bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate, and paracingulate, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, such that higher parent anxiety sensitivity was associated with greater activation when adolescents were allowed to embrace their emotional reaction(s) to stimuli. In the right OFC region only, higher parent anxiety sensitivity was also associated with decreased activation when adolescents were asked to regulate their emotional responses. The findings are consistent with the idea that at-risk adolescents may be modeling the heightened attention and responsivity to environmental stimuli that they observe in their parents.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often struggle with theory of mind (ToM). This study explored the link between parental reflective functioning (PRF) and children’s ToM, focusing on the mediating role of parental stress (PS). A total of 80 children aged 4–7 years (40 with DLD and 40 with typical language development, TLD) and their parents were included for analysis. Assessments included the WPPSI-IV, NEPSY-II, TEC, and ELT for children and the PRFQ and PSI-SF4 for parents. Results showed that children with DLD performed similarly to their TLD peers in terms of nonverbal intelligence but faced difficulties with cognitive and affective ToM and understanding of emotional terms (UET). Parents of DLD children exhibited low interest and curiosity (PRF components) and high PS, particularly due to dysfunctional interactions and challenging behaviors. Mediation analysis revealed that low parental interest and curiosity negatively affected children’s cognitive ToM and UET through increased PS from dysfunctional interactions. These findings highlight the need for early interventions to enhance ToM in children with DLD and support parents in better understanding and interacting with their child. Such interventions can reduce parent–child stress and promote ToM development of children with DLD, aligning with bioecological models of development.

The current study examined how early smartphone ownership impacts parent-child informant discrepancy of youth internalizing problems during the transition to adolescence. We used four waves of longitudinal data (Years 1–4) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD; Baseline N = 11,878; White = 52.0%, Hispanic = 20.3%, Black = 15.0%, Asian = 2.1%, Other = 10.5%; Female = 47.8%). Across the full sample, significant parent-child informant discrepancy, such that parents underestimated child reports, appeared at Year 2 (Mage = 12.0) and increased across the remainder of the study (b = −0.21, SE = .042, p < .001, 95%CI [−.29, −.23]). Further, multi-group models indicated that significant parent-child informant discrepancy emerged in the years following initial smartphone acquisition, whereas youth who remained non smartphone owners did not demonstrate such a pattern. Moreover, this discrepancy grew with additional years of smartphone ownership. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on adolescent smartphone use and mental health by documenting a novel, longitudinally observed risk to timely parental detection of mental health problems by early smartphone ownership.

Individuals with childhood experience of out-of-home care (OHC) face elevated risks of criminal behavior and poor mental health compared with the majority population. Evidence on how trajectories of offending and psychiatric disorders covary among individuals with experience of OHC is needed. This study is based on a cohort of 14,608 individuals (n = 1,319 with OHC experience) born in the Stockholm metropolitan area in 1953 (49% women) from birth to age 63 (2016). Group-based multi-trajectory modeling among those with at least one offense or psychiatric disorder (40.5% of the men, 16.6% of the women) identified four co-occurring trajectories for both sexes. Multinomial regression analyses showed that adolescent OHC placement, particularly in institutions and for behavioral reasons, was linked to higher odds of early-adulthood-limited or decreasing offending and psychiatric trajectories. Most individuals recover from offending and psychiatric disorders by retirement, but placed individuals in particular remain at high risk for offending, alongside psychiatric disorders, throughout early adulthood. Early assessment and tailored attention to needs and risk levels is important when designing long-term care services to mitigate this. Research on underlying mechanisms, and on collaboration between the welfare, justice, and psychiatric care systems, can help to design effective intervention strategies and policies.

This study utilized a novel, observational paradigm to identify functional patterns of father responsiveness to child distress. In particular, we sought to identify a pattern of caregiving deactivation characterized by parenting behavior that functioned to minimize activation of the caregiving behavioral system. We also sought to identify a pattern of caregiving hyperactivation characterized by parenting behavior that functioned to maintain or heighten caregiving system activation. In turn, we examined whether caregiving deactivation and hyperactivation were differentially associated with children’s socioemotional development over a two-year period. Participants included 235 fathers (55% White) and children (Mage = 2.97; 55% female) who visited the laboratory at two measurement occasions spaced approximately two years apart. A path model analysis revealed that caregiving deactivation was uniquely associated with decreases in children’s oppositional defiance and hostility over a two-year period. In contrast, caregiving hyperactivation was uniquely associated with increases in children’s anxiety and social disengagement two years later. The findings highlight the importance of considering both form and function in parenting behavior and provide evidence on the importance of considering fathers’ caregiving behavior.

While empathy is often seen as a resilience factor, emotional resonance with others’ suffering may increase psychological vulnerability during mass trauma exposure, particularly in youth. Since the role of early empathy as a prospective risk factor remains understudied, we used a decade-long longitudinal design to examine whether empathic reactions in childhood predicted early adolescents’ internalizing (depression and anxiety) symptoms following the October 7th attack and the Israel–Hamas war. Empathic distress was assessed at age 1.5 years and age 3 years through observational tasks. Emotional empathy and internalizing symptoms were self-reported at age 11 years, before the war, and reported again after its outbreak. Findings showed substantial internalizing symptoms during the war, with 31% of participants exceeding the clinical cutoff for anxiety and 23% for depression. Non of the empathy measures predicted internalizing symptoms before the war. However, during the war, empathic distress at age 1.5 and emotional empathy at age 11 predicted internalizing symptoms, controlling for negative emotionality and prior internalizing symptoms. Path analysis also linked empathic distress at age 3 to internalizing symptoms during war. Findings suggest that early empathic reactions may increase vulnerability to internalizing symptoms during mass trauma but not in non-traumatic contexts, aligning with a diathesis-stress model. Understanding empathy’s role in risk and resilience can inform interventions for youth exposed to war.

Exposure to adversity during the perinatal period has been associated with cognitive difficulties in children. Given the role of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in attention and impulsivity, we examined whether NAcc volume at age six mediates the relations between pre- and postnatal adversity and subsequent attention problems in offspring. 306 pregnant women were recruited as part of the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes Study. Psychosocial stress was assessed during pregnancy and across the first 5 years postpartum. At six years of age, children underwent structural MRI and, at age seven years, mothers reported on their children’s attention problems. Separate factor analyses conducted on measures of pre- and postnatal adversity each yielded two latent factors: maternal mental health and socioeconomic status. Both pre- and postnatal maternal mental health predicted children’s attention difficulties. Further, NAcc volume mediated the relation between prenatal, but not postnatal, maternal mental health and children’s attention problems. These findings suggest that the NAcc is particularly vulnerable to prenatal maternal mental health challenges and contributes to offspring attention problems. Characterizing the temporal sensitivity of neurobiological structures to adversity will help to elucidate mechanisms linking environmental exposures and behavior, facilitating the development of neuroscience-informed interventions for childhood difficulties.