Variation in the "FMR1" gene may affect aspects of cognition, such as executive function and memory. Environmental factors, such as stress, may also negatively impact cognitive functioning. Participants included 1,053 mothers of children with and without developmental disabilities. Participants completed self-report measures of executive…

Purpose: The current study addresses a gap in the literature regarding syntactic development of adolescent boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Down syndrome (DS). Specifically, we ask whether syntactic skills plateau or continue to change during adolescence for these groups and whether the profile of syntactic change differs between boys with…

Children with CHARGE syndrome, an extremely complex, highly variable genetic disorder, are significantly delayed in the onset of their motor milestones in comparison with children without disabilities due to sensory and motor deficits as well as lengthy hospitalizations and reduced physical activity. Currently, the role of parents' perceptions and…

Parent-child similarity is a function of genetic and environmental transmission. In addition, genetic effects not transmitted to offspring may drive parental behavior, thereby affecting the rearing environment of the child. Measuring genetic proclivity directly, through polygenic risk scores (PRSs), provides a way to test for the effect of…

Purpose: Young people with developmental language disorder (DLD) have poorer mental health than those without DLD. However, not all young people with DLD are equally affected; some have more mental health difficulties than others. What explains these differences remains unclear. Method: Data from a community cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal…

In this study, we examined trajectories of specific domains of behavior problems (i.e., attention problems, depression/anxiety, and aggressive behavior) from age 6 to 18 in a sample of 55 children with fragile X syndrome. We also examined autism status and early parenting as predictors of subsequent behavioral trajectories. We found that attention…

Parental socioeconomic status (SES) is a strong predictor of children's educational achievement (EA), with an increasing effect throughout development. Inequality in educational outcomes between children from different SES backgrounds exists in all Western countries. It has been proposed that a cause of this inequality lies in the interplay…

Observed genetic associations with educational attainment may be due to direct or indirect genetic influences. Recent work highlights "genetic nurture," the potential effect of parents' genetics on their child's educational outcomes via rearing environments. To date, few mediating childhood environments have been tested. We used a large…

Sleep is important for child development. Sleep problems in early childhood are associated with negative outcomes across numerous domains, including executive control, internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, and social competence (Astill et al., 2012; Hysing et al., 2016; Spruyt et al., 2019). Little research has focused on moderators…

We examined the cognitive, language, and instructional factors associated with reading ability in Williams syndrome (WS). Seventy 9-year-olds with WS completed standardized measures of real-word reading, pseudoword decoding, reading comprehension, phonological skills, listening comprehension, nonverbal reasoning, visual-spatial ability, verbal…

The present study examined, within a longitudinal family-informed design and across middle childhood, the predictive associations between preference for solitude and social wariness, two forms of social withdrawal, and peer difficulties. Specifically, preference for solitude, rather than social wariness, was expected to predict peer victimization…

Purpose: Children with poor language tend to have worse psychosocial outcomes compared to their typically developing peers. The most common explanations for such adversities focus on developmental psychological processes whereby poor language triggers psychosocial difficulties. Here, we investigate the possibility of shared biological effects by…

Twin studies have documented that parenting behavior is partly heritable, but it is unclear how parents' genetics shape their caregiving. Using tools of molecular genetics, the present study investigated this process by testing hypotheses about associations between a genome-wide polygenic score for educational attainment and parental caregiving in…

Little research has examined family emotional climate in the context of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of the current study was to determine how the emotional quality of family subsystems (parent--child and parent couple relationships, for both mothers and fathers) combine to create various classes of family emotional…

The primary objectives of the current prospective longitudinal study were to (a) describe social functioning outcomes and (b) identify childhood predictors of social functioning in young adults with (22q11.2DS). Childhood predictors of young adult social functioning were examined. Family environment and parental stress in adolescence were…