Research has documented elevated experiences of racial discrimination among African American families, and its adverse impacts on their psychological well-being. However, most studies have investigated the experiences of and consequences for older children and adults. The goal of the current study was to examine the relations among mothers'…

This study examined the relevance of infant temperament, parent personality and parenting stress for children's socio-emotional development, looking in addition for any differences between mothers and fathers. Participants, from a community sample, were 410 mothers and fathers reporting their personality (NEO Personality Inventory), child…

The present study examined teacher sensitivity as a potential moderator of the relationship between children's temperament in infancy and their social development in first grade. Using data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD), we found that first grade teachers who were sensitive and responsive to students'…

We evaluated the extent to which the externalizing behavior construct is self-organizing in the first 2 years of life. Based on dynamic systems theory, we hypothesized that changes in physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations would each be predicted by earlier manifestations of one another. These hypotheses were…

Using both traditional composites and novel profiles of anger, we examined associations between infant anger and preschool behavior problems in a large, longitudinal data set (N = 966). We also tested the role of life stress as a moderator of the link between early anger and the development of behavior problems. Although traditional measures of…

The current study examined the influence of maternal characteristics on the development of infant smiling and laughter, a marker of early positive emotionality (PE) and how maternal characteristics and the development of infant PE contributed to subsequent maternal parenting. One hundred fifty-nine mothers with 4-month-old infants participated.…

Although there is growing consensus that parental stress is a risk factor in child development, longitudinal studies of its effects are few. This study tested a sample of 231 mother-child dyads in terms of whether the relations between the global experience of stress in mothers (perceived stress scale) and child temperamental characteristics…

This case study provides early developmental data about a child later diagnosed as autistic. The report describes results of serial ultrasounds performed during the pregnancy, the complication of maternal diabetes, family history, high maternal stress levels, avoidance behaviors of the infant, and developmental delays exhibited especially in…

This annual report discusses several topics related to the work of the Research and Clinical Center for Child Development at Hokkaido University in Japan. The articles are: (1) "Heart to Heart (Inter "Jo") Resonance: Taking Japanese Concept of Intersubjectivity Out of Everyday Life" (Shigeru Nakano); (2) "Intersubjectivity…