The current study examined the interactive effects of infant activity level and fear on growthtrajectories of behavior problems in early childhood (age 4 to 8 years) using maternal ratings. Thesample was drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and included childrenwho were between 1 and 11 months in 1986. Findings suggested that boys characterized by highactivity level and low levels of fear in infancy escalated in both externalizing and internalizingsymptoms. Also, boys characterized by high fear and low activity level increased in internalizingsymptoms and these effects seemed to be specific to depression rather than anxiety. Temperamentdid not predict escalation in externalizing symptomatology for girls, but low levels of fearpredicted increases in internalizing symptoms. There was also evidence for a decline in depressionspecific symptoms for girls characterized by high fear and low activity in infancy. These findingssuggest the importance of examining interactive models of temperament risk and consideringgender specific pathways to behavior problems.

Previous studies have repeatedly shown verbal intelligence deficits in adolescent antisocialindividuals, but it is not known whether these deficits are in place prior to kindergarten or,alternatively, whether they are acquired throughout childhood. This study assesses whethercognitive deficits occur as early as age 3 years and whether they are specific to persistentlyantisocial individuals. Verbal and spatial abilities were assessed at ages 3 and 11 years in 330 maleand female children, while antisocial behavior was assessed at ages 8 and 17 years. Persistentlyantisocial individuals (N = 47) had spatial deficits in the absence of verbal deficits atage 3 years compared to comparisons (N = 133), and also spatial and verbal deficits atage 11 years. Age 3 spatial deficits were independent of social adversity, early hyperactivity, poortest motivation, poor test comprehension, and social discomfort during testing, and they werefound in females as well as males. Findings suggest that early spatial deficits contribute topersistent antisocial behavior whereas verbal deficits are developmentally acquired. Anearly-starter model is proposed whereby early spatial impairments interfere with early bonding andattachment, reflect disrupted right hemisphere affect regulation and expression, and predispose tolater persistent antisocial behavior.

A significant discrepancy between intelligence and daily adaptive functioning, or adaptivedisability (AD), has been previously found to be a associated with significant psychologicalmorbidity in preschool children with disruptive behavior (DB). The utility of AD as a predictor oflater developmental risks was examined in a 3-year longitudinal study of normal ( N=43) and DB preschool children. The DB children were grouped into those with AD (DB+AD; N = 28) and those without AD (DB-only; N = 98). All children werefollowed with annual evaluations to the end of second grade. Both DB groups demonstratedsubstantial and pervasive psychological and educational morbidity at 3-year follow-up. Incomparison to DB-only children, DB+AD children had more symptoms of attention-deficithyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD), more severe and pervasive behaviorproblems at home, more parent-rated externalizing and internalizing, and lower academiccompetence and more behavioral problems at school. Parents of DB+AD children also reportedgreater parenting stress than did parents in the other groups. A significant contribution of AD toadverse outcomes in the DB group remained on some measures even after controlling for initialseverity of DB. AD also contributed significantly to CD symptoms at follow-up after controllingfor initial DB severity and initial CD symptoms. The results corroborate and extend earlierfindings of the utility of AD as a risk indicator above severity of DB alone. They also imply thatAD in the context of normal intellectual development may arise from both the deficientself-regulation associated with ADHD and from disrupted parenting, with exposure tokindergarten moderating these adverse effects.

This study examined the effects of being victimized by peers on children's behavioral,social, emotional, and academic functioning. We assessed an ethnically diverse sample of 2,064first, second, and fourth graders and followed them over 2 years, locating 1,469 of theparticipants at the follow-up. Correlation and partial correlation analyses revealed that priorvictimization predicted externalizing, internalizing, and social problems 2 years later for thesample as a whole. However, not all victimized children experienced the same types of outcomes;instead, there was heterogeneity in children's responses to victimization. Using clusteranalysis, we identified eight outcome patterns that represented different patterns of functioning.These were labeled as externalizing, internalizing, symptomatic, popular, disliked, absent, lowachieving, and high achieving. Discriminant function analyses revealed that the symptomatic,externalizing, and disliked patterns were systematically related to victimization. Moreover,significant gender and age differences in the severity of effects were obtained. The discussionhighlights the complexity of victimization effects.

The goal of this study was to examine sexual harassment in early adolescence. Available dataindicate that peer to peer sexual harassment is prevalent in high school and is associated withpsychosocial problems for both victims and perpetrators. For the present study, we adopted adevelopmental contextual model to examine the possibility that this behavior develops during thelate elementary and middle school years and is linked to the biological and social changes thatoccur at this time. Youths from Grades 6–8 (N = 1,213) enrolled in sevenelementary and middle schools in a large south-central Canadian city were asked to report on theirsexual harassment behaviors with same- and cross-gender peers; their pubertal development, andthe gender composition of their peer network. The results revealed that cross-gender harassmentwas distinct from same-gender harassment, increased in frequency from Grade 6 to Grade 8, andwas linked to pubertal maturation and participation in mixed-gender peer groups. The implicationsof a developmental contextual model for understanding the emergence of this problematicbehavior in adolescence are discussed.

Externalizing behavior problems of 124 adolescents were assessed across Grades7–11. In Grade 9, participants were also assessed across social-cognitive domains afterimagining themselves as the object of provocations portrayed in six videotaped vignettes.Participants responded to vignette-based questions representing multiple processes of theresponse decision step of social information processing. Phase 1 of our investigation supported atwo-factor model of the response evaluation process of response decision (response valuation andoutcome expectancy). Phase 2 showed significant relations between the set of these responsedecision processes, as well as response selection, measured in Grade 9 and (a) externalizingbehavior in Grade 9 and (b) externalizing behavior in Grades 10–11, even after controllingexternalizing behavior in Grades 7–8. These findings suggest that on-line behavioraljudgments about aggression play a crucial role in the maintenance and growth of aggressiveresponse tendencies in adolescence.

Observed parent–adolescent autonomy struggles were assessed as potential predictorsof the development of peer-rated hostility over a decade later in young adulthood in both normaland previously psychiatrically hospitalized groups of adolescents. Longitudinal, multireporter datawere obtained by coding family interactions involving 83 adolescents and their parents at age 16years and then obtaining ratings by close friends of adolescents' hostility at age 25 years.Fathers' behavior undermining adolescents' autonomy in interactions at age 16 yearswere predictive of adolescents-as-young-adults' hostility, as rated by close friends at age 25years. These predictions contributed additional variance to understanding young adult hostilityeven after accounting for concurrent levels of adolescent hostility at age 16 years and paternalhostility at this age, each of which also significantly contributed to predicting future hostility.Results are discussed as highlighting a pathway by which difficulties attaining autonomy inadolescence may presage the development of long-term difficulties in social functioning.

Although they have received little empirical attention, departures from the parental home playa significant role in demarcating the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The currentstudy examined the extent to which various features of young adults' experiences of leavinghome differed for children of alcoholic (COAs) versus nonalcoholic parents, what adolescentprecursors might account for noted differences and what indicators of young adult adjustment arerelated to the leaving home experience. A total of 227 young adults drawn from a high-risk,community sample of COAs and matched controls were interviewed at ages 18–23 yearsregarding their prior leaving home experiences. COAs showed greater difficulties in negotiatingthis transition, fewer positive feelings about the transition, and different reasons for leaving homeas compared to participants without an alcoholic parent. Moreover, adolescent risk behaviors,family conflict, and family disorganization (assessed prior to this transition) each partly accountedfor COAs' risk for difficulty in the leaving home transition. Although certain aspects of theleaving home transition were uniquely related to young adult adjustment, future research is stillneeded to more comprehensively understand the implications for young adult developmentassociated with such individual differences in the leaving home transition.

This paper uses a latent class modeling approach to examine gender related variations inoffending trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood. This approach is applied to datagathered over the course of a longitudinal study of 896 New Zealand children studied from birthto age 21 years. The analysis identified five trajectory groups: a group of low-risk offenders, threegroups of adolescent-limited offenders who varied in the timing of the onset of offending (early,intermediate, and late onset), and a group of chronic offenders. Identical offending trajectoriesapplied for males and females. However, probabilities of trajectory group membership varied withgender, with females being more likely to exhibit low-risk or early onset adolescent-limitedoffending and males later onset and chronic offending. Examination of social, family, andindividual factors associated with these trajectories suggested the presence of a series of commonetiological factors relating to family functioning and early adjustment that discriminated betweentrajectory groups. These risk factors appeared to operate in a similar fashion for both males andfemales. Implications of these findings for trajectory theories of offending are discussed.

This article reports a comparison on outcomes of 26-year-old males who were defined severalyears ago in the Dunedin longitudinal study as exhibiting childhood-onset versus adolescent-onsetantisocial behavior and who were indistinguishable on delinquent offending in adolescence.Previous studies of these groups in childhood and adolescence showed that childhood-onsetdelinquents had inadequate parenting, neurocognitive problems, undercontrolled temperament,severe hyperactivity, psychopathic personality traits, and violent behavior. Adolescent-onsetdelinquents were not distinguished by these features. Here followed to age 26 years, thechildhood-onset delinquents were the most elevated on psychopathic personality traits,mental-health problems, substance dependence, numbers of children, financial problems, workproblems, and drug-related and violent crime, including violence against women and children. Theadolescent-onset delinquents at 26 years were less extreme but elevated on impulsive personalitytraits, mental-health problems, substance dependence, financial problems, and property offenses.A third group of men who had been aggressive as children but not very delinquent as adolescentsemerged as low-level chronic offenders who were anxious, depressed, socially isolated, and hadfinancial and work problems. These findings support the theory of life-course-persistent andadolescence-limited antisocial behavior but also extend it. Findings recommend intervention withall aggressive children and with all delinquent adolescents, to prevent a variety of maladjustmentsin adult life.