Premature infants have significant risk for later behavior problems. This study examined growth trajectories of three problem behaviors across five developmental age points from preschool to early adulthood in a well-characterized sample of premature infants. The effects of neonatal risk, gender, and socioeconomic context were modeled on these…

The current study examined prospective associations between maternal solicitation and acceptance, adolescent self-disclosure, and adolescent externalizing behaviors. Participants included 357 urban adolescents (46% male; 92% African American) and their maternal caregivers. Participants provided data annually (three waves across 2-year time frame).…

This exploratory longitudinal study examined behavioral outcomes and parenting stress among families with children adopted from foster care, taking into account environmental and biological risk factors. Child internalizing and externalizing problems and parenting stress were assessed in 82 adopted children and their families at 2 months…

A gap exists in the literature regarding aggression in autism spectrum disorders and how this behavior compares to other groups. In this multisite study, the "Children's Scale for Hostility and Aggression: Reactive/Proactive" and the Aggression subscale of the "Child Behavior Checklist" were rated for 414 children with autism…

Community violence exposure (CVE) is associated with numerous psychosocial outcomes among youth. Although linear, cumulative effects models have typically been used to describe these relations, emerging evidence suggests the presence of curvilinear associations that may represent a pattern of emotional desensitization among youth exposed to…

This research examined whether following social and physical aggression trajectories across Grades 3-12 predicted psychological maladjustment. Teachers rated participants' (n = 287, 138 boys) aggressive behavior at the end of each school year. Following the 12th grade, psychosocial outcomes were measured: rule-breaking behaviors, internalizing…

There is no current estimation about the impact of prematurity on a child's development in Lebanon.This study describes the developmental profile of 82 former preterm-born children aged between 2 and 8 years. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, third edition (WPPSI-III) and Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL for ages…

Daily living skills standard scores on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-2nd edition were examined in 417 adolescents from the Simons Simplex Collection. All participants had at least average intelligence and a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regressions were used to examine the prevalence and…

Background: Social withdrawal is a core neuropsychiatric phenomenon in developmental psychopathology. Its presence predicts psychopathology across many domains, including depression, psychosis, autism, anxiety, and suicide. Withdrawn behavior is highly heritable, persistent, and characteristically worsens without intervention. To date, few studies…

In order to shed more light on why referred girls are less likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder than boys, this study examined whether behavioral characteristics influence the probability of an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis differently in girls versus boys derived from a multicenter sample of consecutively referred children…

The purpose of this research was to determine whether child, parent, and teacher characteristics such as sex, socioeconomic status (SES), parental depressive symptoms, the number of years of teaching experience, number of children in the classroom, and teachers' disciplinary self-efficacy predict deviations from maternal ratings in a…

The developmental significance of youths' racial identities during adolescence is well established. It is less clear how puberty, a normative process, influences the relationship between racial identity and adjustment outcomes during adolescence. This study examined whether puberty moderates the relationship between racial identity dimensions and…

The present longitudinal study aimed to investigate the influence of ADHD symptoms on reading development in elementary schoolchildren. To this end, repeated assessments of ADHD symptoms (teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and reading achievement (standardized tests of decoding speed and text comprehension) were…

This study examined two competing hypotheses regarding the moderators of the association between relational aggression and peer status in early adolescence. The "mitigation relational aggression" hypothesis examined whether positive social behaviors reduced the negative effects of relational aggression, thus amplifying the association…

No comprehensive studies have examined the utility of family drawings within the context of international adoption. We examined the relationship of Kinetic Family Drawings by 54 internationally adopted children in the USA (65% female; M age = 8.57 years, SD = 2.1) to demographics, child competencies (Child Behavior Checklist: CBCL/6-18) and…