Childhood adversity takes a toll on lifelong health. However, investigations of unpredictability as a form of adversity are lacking. Environmental unpredictability across multiple developmental periods and ecological levels was examined using a multiethnic, longitudinal birth cohort (1998-2000) oversampled for unmarried parents. Data were from the…

Background: In the general population, sleep problems have an impact on daytime performance. Despite sleep problems being common among children with Down syndrome, the impact of sleep problems on daytime behaviours in school-age children with Down syndrome is an understudied topic. Our study examined the relationship between parent-reported and…

Abstract Elementary school teachers often implement classroom behavioral management systems to address student misbehavior. Common problems targeted by these systems are the inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behaviors characteristic of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined teachers' attributions for why…

Research on the role of puberty in adolescent psychological development requires attention to the meaning and measurement of pubertal development. Particular questions concern the utility of self-report, the need for complex models to describe pubertal development, the psychological significance of pubertal timing vs. tempo, and sex differences in…

Young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are more likely than their peers to engage in risk-taking behaviors, including harmful alcohol use, consumption of illicit drugs, and risky sexual behaviors. These behaviors become more common in the general population of young adults as they enter college, particularly for…

Objective: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with significant challenges in child functioning. Although behavioral parent training (BPT) can reduce ADHD symptoms, factors associated with traditional face-to-face (F2F) delivery results in only about half of families receiving BPT. The purpose of this pilot randomized…

Longitudinal data are used to examine whether effects of early child care are amplified and/or attenuated by later parenting. Analyses tested these interactions using parenting as both a categorical and continuous variable to balance power and flexibility in testing moderation. The most consistent finding was that maternal sensitivity during…

Difficulty identifying feelings (a component of alexithymia) and distress tolerance both appear to play a role in impulse-control problems. The goal of the present study was to build upon past research by developing a model of the relations between these constructs and compulsive buying. Participants from the United States and Canada completed a…

Much research on the quality of child care reveals it--in the case of low-quality child care--to be related to poorer child functioning, net of confounding factors, perhaps especially in the case of cognitive-linguistic performance. Recent work using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early…

Studies of brain development suggest that the increase in risk taking observed during adolescence may be due to insufficient prefrontal executive function compared to a more rapidly developing subcortical motivation system. We examined executive function as assessed by working memory ability in a community sample of youth (n = 387, ages 10 to 12…

We explored two unanswered questions about the role of alcohol use in sexual behavior. First, we considered whether alcohol use temporally precedes and predicts changes in sexual behavior assessed as the number of sexual partners, whether the reverse pattern holds, or whether the association reflects a common, external cause. Second, we assessed…

Men are overrepresented in socially problematic behaviors, such as aggression and criminal behavior, which have been linked to impulsivity. Our review of impulsivity is organized around the tripartite theoretical distinction between reward hypersensitivity, punishment hyposensitivity, and inadequate effortful control. Drawing on evolutionary,…

The prospective relationships of conduct problems and peer coercion and deviancy training during kindergarten (mean age = 5.3 years) to overt and covert conduct problems in third-fourth grade were examined in a sample of 267 boys and girls. Coercion and deviancy training were distinct peer processes. Both were associated with earlier child conduct…

This study examines two questions: (1) are the natural environmental contingencies under which reflective and impulsive children operate different? and (2) if so, which, if any of these differences, predict the nature of behavior change? Forty impulsive and reflective children and their mothers were observed while solving discrimination problems…