This study examined interparental conflict as a linear and curvilinear predictor of subsequent changes in adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict and, in turn, their psychological difficulties. In addition, adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict…

Prosocial behavior in early childhood is a precursor to later adaptive social functioning. This investigation leveraged mother-reported, physiological, and observational data to examine children's prosocial development from age 2 to age 4 (N = 125). Maternal emotion socialization (ES) strategies and children's parasympathetic regulation have each…

Using a longitudinal, prospective adoption design, the authors of this study examined the effects of the environment (adoptive parents' depressive symptoms and responsiveness) and genetic liability of maternal depression (inferred by birth mothers' major depressive disorder [MDD]) on the development of fussiness in adopted children between 9 and…

Objective: To compare the morning and afternoon/evening functioning of children with ADHD treated in the community with either atomoxetine or long-acting stimulants and reported to be doing well. Method: 109 8- to 12-year-olds and their mothers participated in one of three groups: stimulants (STIM, N = 26), atomoxetine (ATMX, N = 25), or…

The objective of this project was to test the effect of the presence of a mother, compared with the presence of an adult female stranger, upon the apprehensiveness of children confronted with novel stimuli. Subjects were 10 children, 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old, who were individually placed in a room containing a toy cash register, a marble-race toy,…

A study that compared abusing mothers (n=17) to nonabusing mothers (n=16) of children with conduct problems, found that the abusing mothers exhibited a greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies and less use of effective problem-focused strategies. Abusing mothers also perceived their coping to be more ineffective than the nonabusing…

Although research has provided evidence to document a relation between parental psychopathology and female delinquency, the dimensions of that relationship are unclear. Adjudicated delinquent females (N=48) completed a general social history interview and three psychological instruments. Probation records were used to analyze subjects' delinquent…

Studied the effects of maternal employment on mother-child relations and children's psychosocial functioning. Mother-son pairs (N=28) were divided into maternal working versus maternal nonworking groups. Groups were observed at home and in a laboratory. Results indicated no significant main effects or interaction effects for maternal working…

Logistic regression analyses were used to establish the most robust set of risk factors that would best predict borderline/clinical levels of problem behavior (i.e., a t score at or above 60 on the Child Behavior Checklist Total Problem scale) of kindergarten and first-grade children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Results showed…

This study used multivariate techniques to examine the relationship between extent of psychological and physical maltreatment by mothers and fathers and a variety of current psychological symptoms in 251 university women. Behaviors reflective of both psychological and physical maltreatment by both mothers and fathers were found in the same…

This secondary analysis of De Wolff and van IJzendoorn's (1997) meta-analysis of maternal behavior and attachment reexamined their conclusion that sensitivity was not a preferred predictor of attachment security. The meta-analysis included 66 studies with 123 effect sizes sorted through a combination of personal choice and homogeneity analysis…