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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that shares a high comorbidity with anxiety disorders. However, the early development of comorbid ADHD and anxiety symptoms is not well-understood. In this study, the bidirectional relation between ADHD and anxiety symptoms was examined by testing two models of the development of ADHD and anxiety comorbidity: an anxiety effects model, which posits that anxiety symptoms contribute to the development of ADHD symptoms, and an ADHD effects model, which posits that ADHD symptoms contribute to the development of anxiety symptoms. Within the ADHD effects model, parenting practices were tested as mediators of this relation. Participants included children who were 3 years old at baseline (n = 258) and their caregivers who reported on their children's ADHD and anxiety symptoms annually for 3 years. The bidirectional relation of parent-reported anxiety and ADHD symptoms was tested using a series of cross-lagged models. Results indicated that ADHD symptoms predicted later anxiety symptoms, but anxiety symptoms did not predict later ADHD symptoms. Parenting practices did not mediate the relation between ADHD and anxiety symptoms within the ADHD effects model. These findings suggest that ADHD-anxiety comorbidity may develop in part because early symptoms of ADHD contribute to the development of anxiety symptoms; future research should be conducted to elucidate the mechanisms of this relation.

Standardized developmentally based assessment systems have transformed the capacity to identify transdiagnostic behavioral markers of mental disorder risk in early childhood, notably, clinically significant irritability and externalizing behaviors. However, behavior-based instruments that both differentiate risk for persistent psychopathology from normative misbehavior, and are feasible for community clinicians to implement, are in nascent phases of development. Young children’s facial expressions during frustration challenges may form the basis for novel assessments tools that are flexible, quick, and easy to implement as markers of psychopathology to complement validated questionnaires. However, the accuracy of facial expressions to correctly classify young children falling above and below clinical cut-offs is unknown. Our goal was to test how facial expressions during frustration, defined by different facial muscular movements, related to individual differences in irritability and externalizing behaviors and discriminated children with clinically significant levels from peers. Participants were 79 children (ages 3–7) who completed a short, moderately frustrating computer task while facial expressions were recorded. Only negative facial expressions that included eye constriction related to irritability and externalizing behaviors and were clinically discriminating. Moreover, these expressions significantly discriminated children with and without clinically significant irritability and externalizing symptoms with high Area Under the Curve (AUC) values (> .75) indicating good clinical utility. In contrast, expressions without eye constriction showed no clinical utility. The presence of negative expressions with eye constriction in response to a short frustration prompt may serve as an indicator of early psychopathology, raising the potential for novel assessment tools that may enhance precision of early identification.

There is surprisingly little empirical evidence supporting theoretical and anecdotal claims regarding the spontaneous production of prototypic facial expressions used in numerous emotion recognition studies. Proponents of innate prototypic expressions believe that this lack of evidence may be due to ethical restrictions against presenting powerful elicitors in the lab. The current popularity of internet platforms designed for public sharing of videos allows investigators to shed light on this debate by examining naturally-occurring facial expressions outside the laboratory. An Internet prank (“Scary Maze”) has provided a unique opportunity to observe children reacting to a consistent fear- and surprise-inducing stimulus: The unexpected presentation of a “scary face” during an online maze game. The purpose of this study was to examine children’s facial expressions in this naturalistic setting. Emotion ratings of non-facial behaviour (provided by untrained undergraduates) and anatomically-based facial codes were obtained from 60 videos of children (ages 4–7) found on YouTube. Emotion ratings were highest for fear and surprise. Correspondingly, children displayed more facial expressions of fear and surprise than for other emotions (e.g. anger, joy). These findings provide partial support for the ecological validity of fear and surprise expressions. Still prototypic expressions were produced by fewer than half the children.

Limbic-prefrontal connectivity during negative emotional challenges underpins a wide range of psychiatric disorders, yet the early development of this system is largely unknown due to difficulties imaging young children. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has advanced an understanding of early emotion-related prefrontal activation and psychopathology, but cannot detect activation below the outer cortex. Galvanic skin response (GSR) is a sensitive index of autonomic arousal strongly influenced by numerous limbic structures. We recorded simultaneous lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) activation via fNIRS and GSR in 73 3- to 5-year-old children, who ranged from low to severe levels of irritability, during a frustration task. The goal of the study was to test how frustration-related PFC activation modulated psychophysiology in preschool children, and whether associations were moderated by irritability severity. Results showed lPFC activation significantly increased, and GSR levels significantly decreased, as children moved from frustration to rest, such that preschoolers with the highest activation had the steepest recovery. Further, this relation was moderated by irritability such that children with severe irritability showed no association between lPFC activation and GSR. Results suggest functional connections between prefrontal and autonomic nervous systems are in place early in life, with evidence of lPFC down-regulation of frustration-based stress that is altered in early psychopathology. Combining fNIRS and GSR may be a promising novel approach for inferring limbic-PFC processes that drive early emotion regulation and psychopathology.

Burgeoning interest in early childhood irritability has recently turned toward neuroimaging techniques to better understand normal versus abnormal irritability using dimensional methods. Current accounts largely assume a linear relationship between poor frustration management, an expression of irritability, and its underlying neural circuitry. However, the relationship between these constructs may not be linear (i.e., operate differently at varying points across the irritability spectrum), with implications for how early atypical irritability is identified and treated. Our goal was to examine how the association between frustration-related lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activation and irritability differs across the dimensional spectrum of irritability by testing for non-linear associations. Children (N = 92; ages 3–7) ranging from virtually no irritability to the upper end of the clinical range completed a frustration induction task while we recorded LPFC hemoglobin levels using fNIRS. Children self-rated their emotions during the task and parents rated their child’s level of irritability. Whereas a linear model showed no relationship between frustration-related LPFC activation and irritability, a quadratic model revealed frustration-related LPFC activation increased as parent-reported irritability scores increased within the normative range of irritability but decreased with increasing irritability in the severe range, with an apex at the 91st percentile. Complementarily, we found children’s self-ratings of emotion during frustration related to concurrent LPFC activation as an inverted U function, such that children who reported mild distress had greater activation than peers reporting no or high distress. Results suggest children with relatively higher irritability who are unimpaired may possess well-developed LPFC support, a mechanism that drops out in the severe end of the irritability dimension. Findings suggest novel avenues for understanding the heterogeneity of early irritability and its clinical sequelae.

Children who aggress against their peers may use physical or relational forms, yet little research has looked at early childhood risk factors and characteristics that uniquely predict high levels of relational versus physical aggression in preadolescence. Accordingly, the main aim of our study was to link early corporal punishment and externalizing behavior to children's physical and relational peer aggression during preadolescence and to examine how these pathways differed by sex. Participants were 193, 3-year-old boys (39%) and girls who were reassessed following the transition to kindergarten (5.5 years) and preadolescence (10.5 years). A series of autoregressive, cross-lagged path analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between child externalizing problems and corporal punishment at ages 3 and 5.5 years, and their association with physical and relational aggression at age 10.5. Multiple group analysis was used to determine whether pathways differed by sex. Three developmental pathways were identified: (i) direct associations between stable childhood externalizing problems and later physical aggression; (ii) a direct pathway from early corporal punishment to preadolescent relational and physical peer aggression; and (iii) an indirect pathway from early corporal punishment to later physical aggression via continuing externalizing problems in middle childhood. Child sex moderated the nature of these pathways, as well as the direction of association between risk and outcome variables. These data advance our understanding of the etiology of distinct forms of peer aggression and highlight the potential for more efficacious prevention and intervention efforts in the early childhood years.

Background: Early-starting child conduct problems (CP) are linked to the development of persistent antisocial behavior. Researchers have theorized multiple pathways to CP and that CP comprise separable domains, marked by callous-unemotional (CU) behavior, oppositional behavior, or ADHD symptoms. However, a lack of empirical evidence exists from studies that have examined whether there are unique correlates of these domains. Methods: We examined differential correlates of CU, oppositional, and ADHD behaviors during the preschool years to test their potentially distinct nomological networks. Multimethod data, including parent and teacher reports and observations of child behavior, were drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study of children assessed at age 3 and age 6 ( N= 240; 48% female). Results: Dimensions of CU, oppositional, and ADHD behaviors were separable within Confirmatory Factor Analyses across mother and father reports. There were differential associations between CU, oppositional, and ADHD behaviors and socioemotional, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes: CU behavior was uniquely related to lower moral regulation, guilt, and empathy. ADHD was uniquely related to lower attentional focusing and observed effortful control. Finally, CU behavior uniquely predicted increases in teacher-reported externalizing from ages 3–6 over and above covariates, and ADHD and oppositional behavior. Conclusions: Consistent with theory, dimensions of CU, ADHD, and oppositional behavior demonstrated separable nomological networks representing separable facets within early-starting CP. Keywords: Callous-unemotional, conduct problems, oppositional, attention deficit/ hyperactive, nomological network.

Cognitive determinants of emotion regulation, such as effortful control, have been hypothesized to modulate young children's physiological response to emotional stress. It is unknown, however, whether this model of emotion regulation generalizes across Western and non-Western cultures. The current study examined the relation between both behavioral and questionnaire measures of effortful control and densely sampled, stress-induced cortisol trajectories in U.S. and Chinese preschoolers. Participants were 3- to 5- year-old children recruited from the United States (N = 57) and Beijing, China (N = 60). Consistent with our hypothesis, U.S. children showed a significant negative relation between maternal-rated inhibitory control and both cortisol reactivity and recovery. However, this was not replicated in the Chinese sample. Children in China showed a significant positive relation between maternal-rated attentional focusing and cortisol reactivity that was not seen in the U.S. Results suggest that children who reside in Western and non-Western cultures have different predictors of their emotion-related stress response.

Deliberate emotion regulation, the ability to willfully modulate emotional experiences, is shaped through interpersonal scaffolding and forecasts later functioning in multiple domains. However, nascent deliberate emotion regulation in early childhood is poorly understood due to a paucity of studies that simulate interpersonal scaffolding of this skill and measure its occurrence in multiple modalities. Our goal was to identify neural and behavioral components of early deliberate emotion regulation to identify patterns of competent and deficient responses. A novel probe was developed to assess deliberate emotion regulation in young children. Sixty children (age 4–6 years) were randomly assigned to deliberate emotion regulation or control conditions. Children completed a frustration task while lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activation was recorded via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Facial expressions were video recorded and children self-rated their emotions. Parents rated their child’s temperamental emotion regulation. Deliberate emotion regulation interpersonal scaffolding predicted a significant increase in frustration-related LPFC activation not seen in controls. Better temperamental emotion regulation predicted larger LPFC activation increases post- scaffolding among children who engaged in deliberate emotion regulation interpersonal scaffolding. A capacity to increase LPFC activation in response to interpersonal scaffolding may be a crucial neural correlate of early deliberate emotion regulation. Keywords: Early childhood, Deliberate emotion regulation, Imaging, Prefrontal cortex, Interpersonal scaffolding

Preschool (age 3–5) is a phase of rapid development in both cognition and emotion, making this a period in which the neurodevelopment of each domain is particularly sensitive to that of the other. During this period, children rapidly learn how to flexibly shift their attention between competing demands and, at the same time, acquire critical emotion regulation skills to respond to negative affective challenges. The integration of cognitive flexibility and individual differences in irritability may be an important developmental process of early childhood maturation. However, at present it is unclear if they share common neural substrates in early childhood. Our main goal was to examine the neural correlates of cognitive flexibility in preschool children and test for associations with irritability. Forty-six preschool aged children completed a novel, child-appropriate, Stroop task while dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation was recorded using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Parents rated their child’s irritability. Results indicated that left DLPFC activation was associated with cognitive flexibility and positively correlated with irritability. Right DLPFC activation was also positively correlated with irritability. Results suggest the entwined nature of cognitive and emotional neurodevelopment during a developmental period of rapid and mutual acceleration. Keywords: Cognitive flexibility, Irritability, fNIRS, Neurodevelopment, Early childhood

We examined associations between child inhibitory control, harsh parental discipline and externalizing problems in 120 4 year-old boys and girls in the US, China, and Japan. Individual differences in children's inhibitory control abilities, assessed using behavioral tasks and maternal ratings, were related to child externalizing problems reported by mothers. As predicted, both child inhibitory control and maternal harsh discipline made significant contributions to child externalizing problems in all three countries. Across countries, child inhibitory control and maternal harsh discipline made significant independent contributions to early externalizing problems, suggesting an additive model of association. Our findings supported the cross-cultural generalizability of child inhibitory control and parental harsh punishment as key contributors to disruptive behavior in young children.

Findings in the sexual aggression literature on the link between childhood sexual abuse and future sexual coercion have been inconsistent. In adult sexual offenders, studies have found that the relation of sexual abuse to sexual coercion is mediated by sexually related deviant cognitions, but this mediation is not found when replicated on juvenile sexual offenders. In this study it is hypothesized that this link will be found in juvenile sexual offenders when their sexual abuse history is stratified into discrete developmental epochs. It is further hypothesized that the age range of 3 to 7 years, when children rapidly acquire inhibition and cognitive flexibility skills, will be the most potent predictor. A sample of 193 juvenile sexual offenders is used to examine whether sexual abuse specifically in this discrete period, as opposed to other periods, predicts subsequent sexual fantasy. The results confirm that sexual abuse correlates with later adolescent sexual fantasy only during the 3- to 7-year epoch.

Individual differences in young children's frustration responses set the stage for myriad developmental outcomes and represent an area of intense empirical interest. Emotion regulation is hypothesized to comprise the interplay of complex behaviors, such as facial expressions, and activation of concurrent underlying neural systems. At present, however, the literature has mostly examined children's observed emotion regulation behaviors and assumed underlying brain activation through separate investigations, resulting in theoretical gaps in our understanding of how children regulate emotion in vivo. Our goal was to elucidate links between young children's emotion regulation-related neural activation, facial muscular movements, and parent-rated temperamental emotion regulation. Sixty-five children (age 3-7) completed a frustration-inducing computer task while lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activation and concurrent facial expressions were recorded. Negative facial expressions with eye constriction were inversely associated with both parent-rated temperamental emotion regulation and concurrent LPFC activation. Moreover, we found evidence that positive expressions with eye constriction during frustration may be associated with stronger LPFC activation. Results suggest a correspondence between facial expressions and LPFC activation that may explicate how children regulate emotion in real time.

This prospective longitudinal study provides evidence of preschool-age precursors of hostile attribution bias in young school-age children, a topic that has received little empirical attention. We examined multiple risk domains, including laboratory and observational assessments of children's social-cognition, general cognitive functioning, effortful control, and peer aggression. Preschoolers (N = 231) with a more advanced theory-of-mind, better emotion understanding, and higher IQ made fewer hostile attributions of intent in the early school years. Further exploration of these significant predictors revealed that only certain components of these capacities (i.e., nonstereotypical emotion understanding, false-belief explanation, and verbal IQ) were robust predictors of a hostile attribution bias in young school-age children and were especially strong predictors among children with more advanced effortful control. These relations were prospective in nature-the effects of preschool variables persisted after accounting for similar variables at school age. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research and prevention.