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…

A bidimensional acculturation framework cannot account for multiple destination cultures within contemporary settlement societies. A "tridimensional model" is proposed and tested among Jamaican adolescent-mother dyads in the United States compared to Jamaican Islander, European American, African American, and other Black and non-Black U.S.…

This four-wave prospective longitudinal study evaluated stability of language in 324 children from early childhood to adolescence. Structural equation modeling supported loadings of multiple age-appropriate multisource measures of child language on single-factor core language skills at 20 months and 4, 10, and 14 years. Large stability…

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,…

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…

Mechanisms were examined to clarify relations between maternal depressive symptoms, dysfunctional cognitions, and infant night waking among 45 infants (1-24 months) and their mothers. A mother-driven mediational model was tested in which maternal depressive symptoms and dysfunctional cognitions about infant sleep predicted infant night waking via…

This study examined the longitudinal association between marital instability and child sleep problems at ages 9 and 18 months in 357 families with a genetically unrelated infant adopted at birth. This design eliminates shared genes as an explanation for similarities between parent and child. Structural equation modeling indicated that T1 marital…

Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future,…

Longitudinal relations among ego-resiliency (ER), effortful control (EC), and observed intrusive parenting were examined at 18, 30, and 42 months of age ("Ns" = 256, 230, and 210) using structural equation modeling. Intrusive parenting at 18 and 30 months negatively predicted EC a year later, over and above earlier levels. EC at…

This study examined the associations of 11 discipline techniques with children's aggressive and anxious behaviors in an international sample of mothers and children from 6 countries and determined whether any significant associations were moderated by mothers' and children's perceived normativeness of the techniques. Participants included 292…

This study examined specific forms of emotional reactivity to conflict and temperamental emotionality as explanatory mechanisms in pathways among interparental aggression and child psychological problems. Participants of the multimethod, longitudinal study included 201 two-year-old children and their mothers who had experienced elevated violence…

Parents' physiological regulation may support infants' regulation. Mothers (N=152) and 6-month-old male and female infants were observed in normal and disrupted social interaction. Affect was coded at 1-s intervals and vagal tone measured as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Maternal sensitivity was assessed in free play. Mothers and infants…

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…

This study identified mechanisms through which child-mother attachment security at 36 months was associated with mother- and teacher-reported friendship quality at 3rd grade. Data from a subsample of 1,071 children (536 boys) participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth…