Initial intervention processes for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) largely focused on direct efforts to impact core cognitive and academic deficits associated with the diagnosis. Recent research on risk processes in families of children with ID, however, has influenced new developmental system approaches to early intervention. Recent…

Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model proposes that events in higher order social ecosystems should influence human development through their impact on events in lower order social ecosystems. This proposition was tested with respect to ecological violence and the development of children's aggression via analyses of 3 waves of data (1 wave…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

Three generations of participants were assessed over approximately 27 years, and intergenerational prediction models of growth in the third generation's (G3) externalizing and internalizing problems across ages 3-9 years were examined. The sample included 103 fathers and mothers (G2), at least 1 parent (G1) for all of the G2 fathers (99 mothers,…

Advancing the long-term prospective study of explanations for the effects of marital conflict on children's functioning, relations were examined between interparental conflict in kindergarten, children's emotional insecurity in the early school years, and subsequent adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. Based on a community sample…

This study examined bidirectional associations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's externalizing behavior and whether they were moderated by preschool-age effortful control and gender. Mothers and teachers reported on 224 primarily White, middle-class children at ages 3, 5, and 10. Effortful control was assessed via…

This study tested the 5-HTTLPR gene as a moderator in the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and child externalizing symptoms in a disadvantaged, predominantly Black sample of two hundred and one 2-year-old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, prospective design, structural equation model analyses indicated that maternal…

This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4-17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being and 5 analytic methods that adjust for selection factors to estimate the impact of out-of-home placement on children's cognitive skills and behavior problems. Methods included ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and residualized…

Although many studies suggest that family violence is associated with child psychopathology, multiple features of the home environment might account for this association, such as poverty and caregiver psychopathology. Studies are needed examining how change in psychopathology symptoms is affected by home violence, controlling for children's own…

Structural equation modeling was used to examine how maternal distress mediated the link between exposure to community violence (CV) and development of early child behavior problems. Findings indicated that direct CV-early child behavior problems path diminished when maternal distress was included in the model, after controlling for maternal SES…

Two models of vulnerability to socioenvironmental risk were examined in 337 African American children (M = 7.8 years) recruited to overrepresent prenatal alcohol or cocaine exposure: The cumulative risk model predicted synergistic effects from exposure to multiple risk factors, and the fetal patterning of disease model predicted that prenatal…

Investigated models relating coping efficacy, coping efforts, and psychological problems of children of divorce. Structural equation model supported coping efficacy as mediating between active coping, avoiding coping, and psychological problems. Prospective longitudinal model supported coping efficacy as mediating between active coping and…

Early adolescents' (11-14 years) responses to marital hostility were examined in a sample of 416 families. The cognitive-contextual perspective and emotional security hypothesis guided the study and 9 adolescent responses were identified. Prospective associations were examined in several structural equation models that included adolescent problems…

High school students (approximately 14-18 years old; N=2,568) completed questionnaires in which they reported on their involvement in substance use and delinquency, and their perceptions of parental warmth, control, monitoring, and knowledge. Three alternative models were compared describing the nature of relations among these variables. Problem…

Used semi-parametric mixture model with boys assessed repeatedly from 6 to 15 years to approximate a continuous distribution of developmental trajectories for aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity. Found that a chronic oppositional trajectory, with other trajectories held constant, led to covert delinquency only. A chronic physical aggression…