Grades often decline during the high school transition, creating stress. The present research integrates the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat with the implicit theories model to understand who shows maladaptive stress responses. A diary study measured declines in grades in the first few months of high school: salivary cortisol…

Preterm birth and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay are early adverse stressful experiences, which may result in an altered temperamental profile. The serotonin transporter gene ("SLC6A4"), which has been linked to infant temperament, is susceptible to epigenetic regulation associated with early stressful experience. This study…

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…

Little is understood about why some youth from low-socioeconomic-status (SES) environments exhibit good health despite adversity. This study tested whether role models and "shift-and-persist" approaches (reframing stressors more benignly while persisting with future optimism) protect low-SES youth from cardiovascular risk. A total of 163…

Methods are needed for quantifying the potency and differential effects of risk factors to identify at-risk groups for theory building and intervention. Traditional methods for constructing war exposure measures are poorly suited to "unpack" differential relations between specific types of exposure and specific outcomes. This study of…

The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

This study explores the ecological correlates of child abuse and maltreatment using a model which focuses on the degree to which mothers are given support for the parent function. (BRT)

This paper examines complex models of the associations between family income, material hardship, parenting, and school readiness among White, Black, and Hispanic 6-year-olds, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). It is critical to test the universality of such complex models, particularly given their…

Infant temperamental difficulty was strongly related to mothers' level of postpartum depression, both directly and through the mediation of parenting self-efficacy. Social support appeared to function protectively against depression, primarily through self-efficacy. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. (Author/RH)

Suggests that the determinants of individual differences in parental functioning are illuminated by research on the etiology of child maltreatment. Three domains of determinants include parents' personal psychological resources, child characteristics, and contextual sources of stress and support. A process model of competent parental functioning…

Describes a model of risk potential for developmental outcome that was based on cardiac, medical, surgical, and family stress factors in 31 children with transposition of the great arteries. All children had undergone reparative open heart surgery utilizing cardiopulmonary bypass during infancy. (Author/RH)

Proposed and tested a diathesis-stress model in which the joint forces of individual vulnerability (anxious solitude) and interpersonal adversity (peer exclusion) predict children's depressive symptoms over time. Found that anxious solitude and peer exclusion co-occur in children soon after kindergarten entry and that anxious solitary children who…

Discusses building blocks for a developmental psychopathology, focusing on studies of risk, competence, and protective factors. Describes studies of stress and competence, giving particular attention to methodology and strategies for data analysis. A three-model approach to stress resistance is also presented, and Project Competence is evaluated…

Tested hypotheses from an organizational-developmental model for childhood resilience among 7- to 9-year olds. Found that caregiving factors and early development differentiated children with resilient and stress-affected adaptations. Variables reflecting emotionally responsive, competent parenting were direct, proximal predictors of resilience…

Used contextual and transactional approach to examine age and gender differences in experience and consequences of life stress in clinic-referred 8- to 18-year olds. Found that adolescent girls experienced highest interpersonal stress, self-generated within parent-child and peer relationships. Preadolescent girls experienced highest independent…