Despite widespread implementation of early childhood mental health prevention programs in Canada, variation in response across family adversity contexts remains unclear. Using data from the first Canadian randomized controlled trial of the Family Check-Up® (FCU®), this study examines what works for whom and why. In a sample of 206 caregivers and their two-to four-year-old children (M = 3.42, SD = 0.87; 88.3% White; 57.3% male) we identified four profiles: Socioeconomically Disadvantaged/Low Social Support (30.68%), Low Adversity (31.18%), Caregiver Mental Health Vulnerabilities (20.57%), and High Cumulative Adversity (17.6%). FCU® participation was associated with lower externalizing behaviors across profiles except for the Socioeconomically Disadvantaged/Low Social Support group, with the strongest effect observed among males in the High Cumulative Adversity profile (ß = −0.525, p = .002, 95% CI [−0.861, −0.189]). No effects were found for internalizing behaviors. Findings highlight the need to consider family risk factors and child sex when evaluating prevention programs.

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.

Theorists conceptualize reactive aggression as emotional (especially angry) and proactive aggression as unemotional (although it is unclear whether relations between proactive aggression and emotion are null or negative). Goals of the current study were to: (a) examine links between reactive aggression and a range of emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety), and (b) include neutral emotion to address whether proactive aggression is unrelated or negatively related to emotion. To assess emotion, playgroups of four same-sex, unfamiliar, nine-year-old children (N = 158; 52.5% males; racially/ethnically diverse) interacted as round-robin dyads while completing challenging and cooperative tasks; observers coded emotions second-by-second. To assess both behavioral and observational reactive-versus-proactive aggression, children completed video games with virtual peers. Reactive aggression was positively related to happiness, anger, and anxiety and negatively related to neutral emotion, for at least one task and one aggression measure. Proactive aggression was positively related to neutral emotion but negatively related to happiness, for both tasks and aggression measures. Findings enhance theoretical understanding of: (a) reactive aggression as broadly emotional by relating it to happiness and anxiety as well as anger, and (b) proactive aggression as unemotional by linking it to the display of neutral emotion and the lack of display of happiness.

Children vary in environmental sensitivity, reflecting heightened responsiveness to positive and negative environments. It is commonly measured through the temperament trait of Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS). Currently, no instruments exist in the German language to assess SPS in children. The present study translated the 21-item Highly Sensitive Child Scale (HSC-21) into German and evaluated its psychometric properties using caregiver reports (n = 367) and child self-reports (n = 112). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a bifactor model with a general sensitivity factor and three specific subdimensions (i.e., Ease of Excitation, Low Sensory Threshold, Aesthetic Sensitivity). The German HSC-21 demonstrated full configural, metric and scalar measurement invariance across sex and age groups and good to excellent reliability (internal consistency, test-retest reliability, interrater agreement). HSC-21 scores moderately predicted internalizing problems but not externalizing problems. Consistent with environmental sensitivity theory, Ease of Excitation and Low Sensory Threshold were linked to internalizing problems, whereas Aesthetic Sensitivity predicted better school performance, fewer peer problems, and greater prosocial behavior. The HSC-21 demonstrated meaningful correlations with temperament and personality traits, including positive associations with neuroticism, behavioral inhibition, and sensory sensitivity, and negative associations with extraversion and activity level. Thus, the German HSC-21 represents a reliable and valid measure of SPS and environmental sensitivity.

Particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked with brain and cognitive changes; however, longitudinal evidence characterizing associations with white matter (WM) development across adolescence remains limited. This study examined longitudinal associations between baseline PM2.5 and fronto-limbic WM integrity), as well as separately examined associations with cognition and substance use (SU), across adolescence. Baseline Adolscent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (n = 4,511; 47.4% female; mean age = 9.9 years, SD = 0.5, range = 9-11; 57.0% White, 10.5% Black, 20.4% Hispanic, 2.3% Asian, and 9.8% multiracial). Linear mixed effects/logistical regression tested for PM2.5 interactions with age/sex, controlling for neighborhood factors. PM2.5 and fronto-limbic mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) associations were observed, Cohen’s d effect sizes were reported. At age 9, increased PM2.5 was associated with increased FA in the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), fornix, and uncinate fasciculus (UNC), whereas by age 14, PM2.5 was linked with reduced FA in all tracts. In the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), PM2.5 was linked to increased MD at age 9 and reduced FA at ages 12 and 14. We also observed reductions in MD in the fornix at ages 12 and 14, and in the SLF and UNC at age 14. The links between PM2.5 and cognition and SU were not significant. Findings suggest the association between baseline PM2.5 exposure and fronto-limbic WM varies as a function of age at assessment, with positive associations observed at younger ages and negative associations at older ages.

Maternal tobacco smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) is associated with an increased risk of child externalizing problems. It remains unclear whether these associations are externalizing-specific, or better explained by comorbidity between externalizing and internalizing domains, or vary by age and sex. To address comorbidity and differentiation between domains, we leveraged the severity-directional model of psychopathology. Severity reflects the overall level of psychopathology symptoms across both domains (high levels of severity can only be reached by having symptoms of both types simultaneously), whereas directionality captures the balance/differentiation of internalizing vs. externalizing symptoms regardless of number of total symptoms. Participants included 16,335 children aged 1–19 years old (47.78% female, 58.17% White, 75.46% non-Hispanic) from 55 U.S.-based cohorts within the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) consortium. MSDP predicted differentiation toward externalizing problems in 2-year age bins 1–2 through 7–8 and 13–14 years; remaining (non-significant) age bins had similar magnitudes. MSDP predicted higher symptom severity in all age bins. Findings likely reflect a combination of MSDP associations with comorbid symptom severity and specificity toward externalizing problems, with little evidence of age or sex differences. Additional analyses explored e-cigarette use, other prenatal substance use, and postnatal smoke exposure; associations were sparse and unsystematic.

This study longitudinally examined associations between parent and peer relationships, childhood maltreatment, and adolescents’ psychopathology. We expected lower perceived parental relationship quality to predict greater symptomatology and higher perceived friendship quality to buffer this association, with greater buffering effects for maltreated participants. We assessed 545 participants (295 maltreated, 250 non-maltreated; 60.2% male; 52.8% Black, 27.5% White, 12.8% Bi-racial, 13.4% Latin@) across two timepoints (Wave 1, Mage = 13.8 years, Wave 2, Mage = 16.2 years). Department of Human Services records indicated maltreatment status prior to Wave 1. Adolescents self-reported Wave 1 parental relationship and friendship quality and Wave 2 internalizing/externalizing symptoms. Parental relationship quality did not predict psychopathology, and this association did not differ by maltreatment status. We found a significant three-way interaction between maternal relationship quality, maltreatment, and friendship quality on internalizing (β = .10, p = .037) and externalizing (β = .12, p = .010) symptoms. For non-maltreated adolescents, parental relationships and friendship quality differentially predicted symptomatology. Maltreated adolescents with low maternal relationship and friendship quality exhibited the most symptoms, whereas those with low maternal relationship quality and high friendship quality exhibited the least. Findings invite inquiry into parent and peer relationships’ differential roles in adolescents’ psychopathology.

The differential susceptibility model suggests that the same children who are more susceptible to peer rejection are also more susceptible to peer acceptance. Testing this within-child assumption, we examined whether a subgroup of children exists who are more reactive to both rejection and acceptance, and whether higher levels of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) characterize this subgroup. We randomly assigned 455 preadolescents (Mage = 10.86, 49.5% boys) to receive either counterbalanced rejection and acceptance feedback (experimental group) or neutral feedback (control group) from online fictitious peers, and assessed their emotional, self-esteem, attributional, and behavioral responses. Results revealed two subgroups of children showing elevated emotional or self-esteem reactivity to both rejection and acceptance, supporting within-child differential susceptibility. However, SPS did not distinguish these subgroups or moderate children’s responses to peer feedback – suggesting limited support for SPS as a differential susceptibility marker to experimentally manipulated peer acceptance and rejection.

Emerging research has emphasized the crucial roles of parental responses to adolescents’ negative emotions in adolescent socioemotional development. Parental responses to adolescents’ negative emotions are multidimensional and often interconnected; however, prior research has primarily adopted a variable-centered approach, which may obscure the complex ways in which different parental responses co-occur within families. Moreover, existing research using latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify patterns of parental responses to adolescents’ negative emotions has largely focused on mothers and been conducted predominantly in Western cultural contexts. To address these gaps, the present study employed LPA to examine profiles of adolescent-reported parental responses to adolescents’ negative emotions at the family level, incorporating both fathers’ and mothers’ responses, in China. A total of 1,004 adolescents (53.5% female; aged 14–17 years, Mage = 15.25 years, SDage = 0.50) participated in the study at two time points, spaced eight months apart. The results identified three family-level profiles: Disengaged, Harsh and Dogmatic, and Nurturing. Adolescents exposed to non-nurturing parenting profiles were more likely to experience psychological problems compared with those in the Nurturing profile, with girls showing higher levels of psychological problems in the Disengaged profile and boys exhibiting higher levels of difficulties in the Harsh and Dogmatic profile. Both emotion regulation difficulties and parent–child relationship quality mediated the associations between parenting profiles and adolescent psychological outcomes, although the patterns of mediation varied by gender. In conclusion, this study provides longitudinal evidence linking family-level profiles of parental responses to adolescents’ negative emotions to adolescent psychological outcomes.

Parental criminality is a risk factor for crime, but little is known about why some individuals exposed to this risk refrain from crime. We explored associations of resting heart rate (RHR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), cognitive ability (CA), and psychological functioning (PF) with criminal convictions among men with a convicted parent, accounting for unmeasured familial factors in sibling analyses. Data were obtained from Swedish registers, including all men born in Sweden between 1958 and 1992 with a convicted parent (N = 495,109), followed for up to 48 years. The potential protective factors were measured at mandatory conscription. Outcomes were conviction of any, violent, and non-violent crime. Survival analyses were used to test for associations, adjusting for measured covariates and unmeasured familial factors. Higher levels of RHR, SBP, CA, and PF were associated with reduced risk of criminality after adjusting for covariates. RHR associations were largely explained by familial factors. CA and PF associations were not due to sibling-shared confounders, in line with a causal interpretation. SBP results, indicating a protective effect against non-violent crime, warrant further investigation.

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.

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 examines how infant temperament, particularly fear, influences physiological improvements in infants following maternal postpartum depression (PPD) treatment. Forty infants of birthing parents with major depressive disorder and 40 healthy controls were recruited. Parents with PPD participated in a nine-week cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention. Infant emotion regulation was assessed using high-frequency heart-rate variability (HF-HRV) and frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) at baseline (T1), immediately post-treatment (T2), and three months later (T3). Birthing parents also reported on their infant’s temperamental fear using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Short-Form at these times. A significant increase in HF-HRV was observed immediately after treatment in the PPD group which persisted at T3. While no Group × Visit × Fear interaction emerged from repeated measure models, follow-up regression analyses within the PPD group revealed that higher baseline fear was associated with smaller increases in HF-HRV from T1 to T2 or T3. Although FAA shifted leftward over time, fear did not significantly predict FAA changes. No associations between fear and physiology were observed in the control group. The study suggests that infant fear may reduce the physiological benefits of maternal PPD treatment for infants, underscoring the importance of considering infant characteristics when assessing the impact of maternal PPD interventions.

Research suggests that well-developed parent engagement programs can boost early learning and reduce socioeconomic disparities in subsequent school adjustment. Yet few follow-up studies exist. To address this gap, we followed participants in the Research-based, Developmentally Informed-Parent [REDI-P] intervention study for 8 years to evaluate adolescent outcomes. Participants included 200 4-year-old children (55% White, 26% Black, 19% Latinx; 56% male, 44% female; Mage at study entry = 4.45 years) attending Head Start. Families were randomly assigned to REDI-P home learning materials and coaching or an attention control group. Multi-method measures tracked child literacy skills, learning behaviors, social competence, and conduct problems through grade 7. GLM analyses revealed significant preschool intervention effects on grade 7 working memory, β = 0.35, 95% CI 0.08, 0.62, p = .01; perceived social competence, β = 0.30, 95% CI 0.02, .58, p = .04; deviant peer affiliation, β = −0.33, 95% CI −0.60, −0.06, p = .02; and teacher-rated conduct problems, β = −0.30, 95% CI −0.58, −0.01, p = .04. Serial path models identified developmental progressions linking initial intervention effects to adolescent outcomes. Results highlight the long-term value of empowering parents to support the early social-emotional and pre-academic learning of their preschool children.

Autistic youth commonly experience co-occurring mental health conditions. Core autism features have been linked to internalizing and externalizing symptoms, yet longitudinal pathways remain unclear. This study examined how ritualistic and social diagnostic features predict later internalizing and externalizing behaviors in school-age autistic children. Caregivers reported ritualistic behavior (PDDBI), social diagnostic features (SRS-2), and internalizing and externalizing behaviors (CASI-5; BASC-3) at two time points (baseline Mage = 8.50, SD = 1.62, range = 6.0–11.5; follow-up Mage = 12.67, SD = 1.79, range = 8.7–16.1). Children (n = 139) were 79.1% male (n = 110), 20.9% female (n = 29), 5% African American/Black (n = 7), 0.7% American Indian/Alaska Native (n = 1), 7.2% Asian (n = 10), 17.3% Mixed Race (n = 24), 1.4% Other (n = 2), 68.3% White (n = 95), 17.3% Hispanic/Latinx (n = 24), and 82.7% non-Hispanic/Latinx (n = 115). Ritualistic behavior and social diagnostic features were associated at baseline (r = .590). Baseline ritualistic behavior predicted later internalizing behaviors, while neither social diagnostic features nor ritualistic behavior predicted later externalizing behaviors. Findings underscore the importance of examining specific core autism features, particularly ritualistic behavior, as early indicators of internalizing and externalizing challenges across development.

Child anxiety is linked to emotions during parent–child interactions, and observing emotional flexibility and expressivity may reveal treatment-related changes. This observational study investigated whether changes in dyadic emotional flexibility and expressivity were associated with treatment non-response (responders vs. non-responders), and whether treatment modality (child vs. family cognitive behavior theory (CBT)) and parent gender (mother– vs. father–child dyads) affected these changes. Participants were 116 referred children with anxiety disorders (59.4% girls, Mage = 12.4 years, SD = 2.7) and both parents, enrolled in a randomized controlled trial comparing child CBT (n = 58) with family CBT (n = 58). Anxiety was assessed using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule. Father–child and mother–child dyads were videotaped separately pre- and post-treatment discussing a conflict. Affect (positive, negative, neutral) was continuously coded. Dyadic measures of emotional flexibility (transitions, dispersion, and average duration) and expressivity (positive, negative) were derived from state space grids. Hierarchical linear models showed improvements in dyadic emotional flexibility among treatment responders, and in dyadic positive affect regardless of whether CBT was successful changes did not differ by parent gender or treatment modality. Dyadic negative affect increased only in responders within father–child dyads and in individual CBT. Findings highlight changes in flexible emotional exchanges of parent–child dyads after successful CBT for child anxiety.

Research on the joint role of testosterone and cortisol in aggression has produced inconsistent results, with limited attention to adolescence, a stage characterized by considerable hormonal changes, and to the distinction between within-and between-person effects. This study examined whether peer victimization moderates testosterone–cortisol associations with bullying perpetration in adolescents. Assessed at three 3-month intervals, participants (471 adolescents, Mage = 14.97, SD = 0.70; 47.1% female) reported bullying perpetration and victimization and provided saliva samples for the analysis of hormones. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models revealed a three-way interaction (testosterone × cortisol × victimization). Increases in testosterone predicted changes in bullying perpetration when cortisol decreased. These effects were moderated by victimization. When victimization was below average, testosterone increases predicted more bullying perpetration; when it was above average, testosterone increases predicted less perpetration. These findings highlight that peer victimization shapes how testosterone–cortisol interactions influence adolescent aggression, underscoring the interplay of biological and contextual factors in adolescent adaptation.

Anhedonia is a common and impairing symptom of psychopathology that predicts negative outcomes and may undermine peer relationships. Anhedonia comprises both trait (stable, time-invariant) and state (dynamic, time-varying) components. Relative to trait anhedonia, state anhedonia may be more strongly related to proximal risk for deleterious outcomes. Yet, associations between state anhedonia and daily-life socio-affective experiences in adolescence are not well understood. Thus, the present study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine within-person associations between state anhedonia and the quantity and quality of daily-life peer interactions among a sample of adolescents enriched for suicidality risk, a population at high risk for anhedonic and peer problems. Participants included 102 adolescents assigned female at birth (ages 12–18; M[SD] = 15.34[1.50]; 67.6% at elevated risk for suicidality). State anhedonia, as well as being with peers, connectedness with peers, and positive affect with peers, was measured three times per day for 10 days via EMA (n = 30 prompts). Multilevel models demonstrated that within-person fluctuations in state anhedonia relate to reduced odds of being with peers, as well as decreased connectedness and positive affect with peers. Findings suggest that dynamic changes in state anhedonia are related to both the quantity and quality of peer experiences among adolescents.

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.