Children prenatally exposed to opioids exhibit impairments in cognitive functioning and have an increased likelihood of experiencing other forms of adversity. Given that these other forms of early life adversity are linked to lower levels of cognitive functioning, it is important to determine whether the association between opioid exposure and…

Exposure to war is known to impact children's physical and mental health. Recent research reveals that war exposure might even affect the developmental outcomes of children who are yet to be conceived. In this study, we sought to extend such prior work by investigating longitudinal associations between pre-conception war exposure and the…

Prenatal folate and vitamin B[subscript 12] status have been linked to child neuropsychological development, but less is known about maternal genetic influences on this association. We conducted an exploratory longitudinal study of 181 mother--child pairs to assess whether maternal MTHFR 677C>T genotype modifies the association between maternal…

Women are at greater risk of exposure to interpersonal violence during pregnancy. The influence prenatal violence has on children's behavioral adjustment is generally understood to stem from its impact on mothers, but there is a dearth of prospective research to test these models. The current study evaluated the influence of interpersonal violence…

Background: Although plausible links between language development and personality have been suggested, longitudinal studies of these associations into adulthood have not been conducted. Aim: To investigate whether children's age at attaining language milestones is associated with later adult personality. Methods: Mothers' of 8,400 children from…

Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis stress response has been reported among individuals with prenatal substance exposure and those with early adversity exposure. However, few researchers have examined the combined effects of these risk factors. Patterns of HPA reactivity among maltreated foster children with and without…

The current study examined the stability of temperament over time. Observers and mothers rated child behavior at eight timepoints across three assessment waves (8, 15, and 30 months of age). Internal consistency reliability of aggregates of the eight observer reports and eight mother reports were high. When considering single timepoint…

Reports on a longitudinal study of cognitive and motor development among infants born to adolescent and adult mothers when race, parity, socioeconomic status and prenatal care were controlled and home environment evaluated. (HOD)