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Background: Teacher reports of disobedient behaviours in children with intellectual disability noted in previous investigations represent a mismatch with the typical personality profile associated with intellectual disability. We hypothesise that this contradiction arises from the frustration experienced by children with intellectual disability when faced with tasks inappropriate for their mental age.Method: Children with mild to moderate intellectual disability attempted two tasks, one level-appropriate and the other level-inappropriate for their mental age. Results were scored on a Disobedient Behaviour Checklist.Results: Compared to both the mental age and chronological age comparison groups, children with intellectual disability showed increased disobedient behaviours when faced with the level-inappropriate task, but showed no significant differences on the level-appropriate task.Conclusions: Children with intellectual disability may be no more likely to misbehave in classroom settings than children without disability, provided children with intellectual disability receive instruction that is sensitive and appropriate to their ability level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive parenting behaviors and children's internalizing problems (Int. Probs) are bidirectionally associated during late childhood and early adolescence. These bidirectional associations likely emerge earlier and may be stronger when children are prone to reactive negative emotions, making parents' support especially critical in children's regulation of negative emotions. The purpose of this study was to test (a) bidirectional associations between parents' positive responsivity and children's internalizing problems from very early through middle childhood and (b) the moderating role of children's negative emotionality in these bidirectional associations ( N = 4,898). Small bidirectional associations between internalizing problems and responsivity were found from ages 3 to 5. Internalizing problems at 3 years were negatively associated with responsive parenting at 5 years. Parent responsivity at 3 and 5 years was negatively associated with later internalizing problems at ages 5 and 9 years, respectively. Negative emotionality only moderated the parent-driven association between responsivity at 3 years and internalizing problems at 5 years, with higher responsivity associated with lower internalizing problems only for children with moderate to high negative emotionality. Parents' positive responsivity to children's behavior and children's internalizing problems were only bidirectionally associated in early childhood (ages 3-5). Across ages 3-5 and 5-9, greater parent responsivity to children's behavior was associated with fewer internalizing problems and may be especially beneficial for children with higher negative emotionality. Results further suggest that young children experiencing internalizing problems may be more likely to receive less responsive parenting later, regardless of children's negative emotionality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Paternal incarceration is an important predictor of teen delinquency, but the factors that may explain this relationship-such as early child problem behaviors and level of father engagement-have not been adequately explored. The current longitudinal study examined paternal history of incarceration as a predictor of teen self-reported delinquency over a 15-year gap, considering early child problem behaviors and father engagement as mediators. Sex differences in these relationships were also evaluated. This four-wave longitudinal study included an analytic sample of 4897 teens who participated in the birth-cohort Future of Families and Child Well-Being Study. Mothers and fathers were interviewed shortly after the focal child's birth and were then reassessed in follow-up interviews at child ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. The focal children were interviewed at ages 9 and 15. Results showed that paternal prior incarceration at year 1 was associated with greater child behavior problems and father engagement at year 5; however, those relationships disappeared by age 9. Paternal history of incarceration was not related to teen delinquency, but child behavior problems at age 9 were directly related to subsequent engagement in delinquent behaviors. Paternal current incarceration was related to subsequent father engagement but was not associated with later child behaviors. No significant indirect pathways emerged, indicating a lack of support for mediation. No sex differences in these relationships were observed. Overall, the findings underscore the complexity of the relationships between paternal incarceration, child behavior, and father engagement in the emergence of delinquent behaviors., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical Standards: This is an observational study utilizing archival with no ethical approval required, as confirmed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham Institutional Review Board (IRB). Consent to Participate: The study relied on precollected data and involved no contact with participants on the part of the research team. Informed consent was obtained from all individuals who participated in the study by the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study at baseline and at all subsequent waves. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Developmental psychopathology has, since the late 20 th century, offered an influential integrative framework for conceptualizing psychological health, distress, and dysfunction across the lifespan. Leaders in the field have periodically generated predictions about its future and have proposed ways to increase the macroparadigm's impact. In this paper, we examine, using articles sampled from each decade of the journal Development and Psychopathology 's existence as a rough guide, the degree to which the themes that earlier predictions have emphasized have come to fruition and the ways in which the field might further capitalize on the strengths of this approach to advance knowledge and practice in psychology. We focus in particular on two key themes first, we explore the degree to which researchers have capitalized on the framework's capacity for principled flexibility to generate novel work that integrates neurobiological and/or social-contextual factors measured at multiple levels and offer ideas for moving this kind of work forward. Second, we discuss how extensively articles have emphasized implications for intervention or prevention and how the field might amplify the voice of developmental psychopathology in applied settings.

Purpose: To identify risk subgroups of youth suicide decedents using demographic and clinical psychiatric and medical diagnostic profiles to inform tailored youth suicide prevention efforts., Methods: This study linked Ohio Medicaid and death certificate data for Medicaid enrolled youth aged 8-25 years who died by suicide between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2020 (N = 511). Latent class analysis was used to identify distinct clinical risk subgroups., Results: Three latent classes were identified. Internalizing problems were common across all classes, but especially prevalent in class 1, the High Internalizing + Multiple Comorbidities group (n = 152, 30%). A prior history of suicidal behavior was confined to class 1 decedents, who were otherwise characterized by substance misuse, and multiple psychiatric and medical comorbidities. Class 2 decedents, the Internalizing + Externalizing group (n = 176, 34%), were more often younger, male, Black, and unlikely to have a history of substance misuse. Decedents in class 3, the Internalizing + Substance Misuse group (n = 183, 36%), were more often older and likely to have a history of substance misuse, but unlikely to exhibit other externalizing problems., Discussion: Internalizing psychopathology is particularly common among youth who die by suicide, with comorbid externalizing psychopathology, substance misuse, and medical problems contributing to youth suicide risk. Because less than a third of youth who die by suicide have a prior history of recognized suicidal thinking or behavior, universal screening for youth suicide risk should be considered, particularly in younger children, and efforts to integrate suicide prevention in traditional health care settings should be prioritized., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: The stress of a mother's depression may increasingly tax psychobiological systems that help children with self-regulation, increasing children's allostatic load over time. Some evidence supports children exposed to maternal depression tend to have shorter telomeres and tend to have more somatic and psychological problems. Children having one or more A1 alleles of dopamine receptor 2 (DRD2, rs1800497), tend to have greater sensitivity to maternal depression and could experience more adverse child outcomes that contribute to greater allostatic load., Methods: Using the Future Families and Child Wellbeing dataset, secondary-data analyses were used to test the effect of repeated exposure to maternal depression during early childhood on children's telomere length during middle childhood moderated by children's DRD2 genotype (N = 2884)., Results: Greater maternal depression was not significantly associated with shorter child telomere length and this association was not moderated by DRD2 genotypes while controlling for factors associated with child telomere length., Implications: The effect of maternal depression on children's TL may not be significant in populations from diverse racial-ethnic and family backgrounds during middle childhood. These findings could help further our current understanding psychobiological systems affected by maternal depression that result in adverse child outcomes., Limitations: Even though this study used a relatively large and diverse sample, replication of DRD2 moderation in even larger samples is an important next step., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. This study is not pre-registered. Access to the dataset used in the current study can be found at the following link: https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The bidirectional associations between maternal depression and child psychological functioning are generally well-established. Paternal depression may also share some bidirectional associations with child psychological functioning, but there is limited research in this area. It is unclear how or when one family member's anxiety or depression might affect another family member's mental health. The present study tested the bidirectional associations between maternal depression, paternal depression, and children's internalizing problems of anxiety and depression from early childhood into mid-adolescence. The present study also included unmarried parents, who are often underrepresented in research. Secondary analyses were performed using a subset of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) study, beginning when children were 3-years-old and ending when children were 15-years-old. Families ( N = 4,873) were from racially and economically diverse backgrounds-nearly half of the mothers were non-Hispanic Black and 65% of mothers had a high school degree or further education. We found evidence of bidirectional associations between maternal depression and child internalizing problems across early childhood and into adolescence. We found no bidirectional associations between paternal and maternal depression or between paternal depression and children's internalizing problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a complex construct composed of the means and the motivations by which a person harms his or her intimate partner. Existing measures only assess forms of IPA perpetration while neglecting to measure the motivations for aggressing. The present study sought to fill this lacuna by adapting and validating an existing measure of the forms and functions of adolescent peer aggression to assess IPA perpetration in adults. This new measure-the Forms and Functions of Intimate Partner Aggression (FFIPA)-comprises 4 latent dimensions of IPA (i.e., overt, relational, proactive, and reactive). Participants were 341 heavy-drinking heterosexual couples (N = 682) with a recent history of psychological and/or physical IPA recruited from 2 metropolitan cities in the United States. The FFIPA demonstrated good model fit and internal validity. Unique patterns of convergent and criterion-related validity supported the 4 dimensions of the FFIPA. Results also indicated women perpetrated significantly more overt and relational aggression than men. Findings support the FFIPA as a valid measure of the forms and functions of IPA perpetration. More important, as the only instrument that parses the forms and functions of IPA perpetration, the FFIPA delineates the unique motivations of an aggressive partner separately from the form of his or her aggressive behavior(s). Further replication is needed to generalize this measure to nonconflictual and other types of intimate relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Longitudinal data from NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development tested direct, indirect and reciprocal effects of maternal depressive symptoms, stress/support factors on child bullying and peer victimization through mother-child relationship quality at grades 3, 5, 6. Data from 828 mother-child dyads indicated small significant effects of some hypothesized pathways, including a small direct effect of maternal depressive symptoms at grade 3 on peer victimization at grade 5, but not on bullying behaviors. Mother-child relationship quality at grade 5 negatively predicted bullying at grade 6, but not peer victimization. There were small effects of bullying behaviors at grade 5 on decreased mother-child relationship quality at grade 6. Maternal employment at grade 3 predicted decreased bullying behaviors at grade 6 through mother-child relationship quality at grade 5. Findings are relevant for parent inclusive research and approaches to anti-bully intervention strategies and prevention policies.

The aim of this study is to examine the role of repeated exposure to rocket attacks in the links between personality vulnerability (dependency and self-criticism) and internalizing/externalizing psychopathology. A main-effect vulnerability model (personality leads to psychopathology) was compared with a main-effect scarring model (psychopathology leads to personality vulnerability). Also, a stress-diathesis pattern (personality vulnerability is activated under stress) was compared to a dual-vulnerability pattern (either personality vulnerability or stress, but not both, lead to psychopathology). Israeli adolescents (N = 362) repeatedly exposed to rocket attacks were assessed annually over 3 years. In 2008 and 2010, personality and psychopathology were assessed. Cumulative exposure was measured as the sums of exposure across the three assessment waves. Theoretical models were tested via Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Structural Equation Modeling analyses. Baseline dependency and self-criticism were associated with an increase in anxiety, whereas baseline depression was associated with an increase in dependency. Under low, not high, levels of rocket exposure, self-criticism and depression were longitudinally associated. Violence commission was associated with an increase in dependency under high, not low, cumulative exposure. Results are consistent with both scarring and vulnerability models, and with both stress-diathesis and dual-vulnerability patterns of adolescent risk and resilience.

Objective: Positive psychological outcomes among adolescent and young adult survivors of childhood cancer may influence long-term health status. We examined posttraumatic growth (PTG) and Life satisfaction (LS) in adolescence, and their impact on future emotional and physical health status in young adulthood., Methods: Survivors (n = 2802) from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study were longitudinally analyzed across social, emotional, and physical factors during adolescence (12-17 years old), and PTG (PTG-Inventory) and LS (Cantril-Ladder-of-Life) during young adulthood (19-24 years old). The impact of PTG and LS on survivors' future long-term mental health, physical health, and social skills was also examined (23-28 years old) using Structural Equation Modeling., Results: Survivors reported high levels of LS (M = 7.43, range 1 to 10) and a positive impact from their cancer experience (M = 48.78, range 0 to 105). Adolescent predictors of higher PTG included older age at diagnosis (p = 0.001), experiencing more severe chronic health conditions (p = 0.01), cancer recurrence/relapse (p = 0.01), and being diagnosed with a non-CNS cancer (p = 0.001). Higher perceived general health (p = 0.01), higher social skills (p = 0.001), and diagnosis with a non-CNS cancer (p = 0.02) were associated with higher LS. Higher PTG during young adulthood predicted poorer perceived health (p = 0.04) and worse emotional health (p = 0.001) in later adulthood. Higher LS predicted better emotional health (p = 0.001) and better perceived health (p = 0.001)., Conclusions: While LS was found to help survivors have better perceived long-term emotional and physical health outcomes, survivors with higher PTG fond both positive and negative impacts from cancer. Future therapeutic trials to improve LS should be considered., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The authors compared the protective effects of 3 sources of perceived social support-from family members, friends, and school personnel-on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents exposed to rocket attacks. Data were based on 362 Israeli adolescents (median age = 14), chronically exposed to rockets from the Gaza Strip, for whom robust effects of exposure on internalizing and externalizing symptoms were reported during the 2009-2010 period (Henrich & Shahar, 2013). New analyses revealed that perceived family social support assessed in 2009 buffered against the effect of exposure to rocket attacks on depression, aggression, and severe violence during 2009-2010. Findings are consistent with a human-ecological perspective exposure to political violence and encourage the employment of family-based preventive interventions in afflicted areas., ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

This longitudinal study aimed to examine the association between depressive and anxiety symptoms and academic motivation by gender, and whether positive school and family factors would be associated with academic motivation, in spite of the presence of such symptoms. Study participants were predominantly economically disadvantaged youths aged 13-15 years in a Northeastern US urban public school system. The Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) served as the basis for a survey undertaken in 2003 and 2004 with information being used from students who participated at both time points (N = 643). Multiple linear regression analyses showed that depressive symptoms were negatively associated with academic motivation, while anxiety was positively related to academic motivation in both genders. Teacher support, school attachment and parental control were positively related to academic motivation even in the presence of internalizing problems. The negative association of depressive symptoms with academic motivation may be potentially decreased by attachment to school., (Copyright © 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cognitive functioning has historically been used to predict adaptive outcomes of people with autism spectrum disorders; however, research shows that it is not a complete predictor. The current study explored whether emotion perception was a predictor of adaptive outcomes, and more specifically, hypothesized that emotion perception (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2 error scores) would mediate adaptive functioning of people with autism spectrum disorder (Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition). People with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated significantly lower adaptive functioning and emotion perception skills compared to typically developing individuals. Emotion perception acted as a significant mediator for socialization, but not communication or daily living skills, highlighting that in people with autism spectrum disorders, lower socialization abilities is the result, in part, of emotion perception deficits. It was unexpected that emotion perception was not a mediator for communication skills. This may be related to sample restrictions, or the narrow focus on emotion perception. Future research should involve a larger, more inclusive autism spectrum disorder sample, broaden approaches to exploring relationships between social perception and adaptive outcomes, and relate findings to brain mechanisms underlying emotion perception., (© The Author(s) 2013.)

Two hypothesized moderators of the effect of peer victimization during fifth grade on subsequent symptoms of (anxious) depression in sixth grade were examined: engagement in bullying and baseline fifth grade symptoms of (anxious) depression. Analyses were conducted on longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Interview data from 1,081 fifth grade participants assessed peer victimization and engagement in bullying classmates during the school year. Self-reported symptoms of depression were measured in fifth and sixth grade with the Child Depression Inventory Short form. Additionally, maternal reports of child anxious depression were measured with the Child Behavior Checklist. Engagement in bullying and concurrent depression symptoms moderated the effect of peer victimization in fifth grade on child-reported symptoms of depression in sixth grade. The adverse effect of peer victimization was stronger for children with high levels of concurrent depression symptoms or engagement in bullying. Concurrent symptomatology also moderated the effects of peer victimization on mother-reported child anxious depression 1 year later.

Purpose of the Research: This study explored whether psychological interventions are currently used by pediatric oncology nurses to help children cope with their treatment and, if so, which interventions were considered by oncology nurses to be the most effective., Methods and Sample: A web-based survey was developed to assess pediatric oncology nurses' impressions of psychological care for pediatric patients during their medical treatment. A sample of 88 pediatric oncologic nurses from twelve leading pediatric oncology departments in the US participated in the survey. The closed questions were analyzed through quantitative methods with statistics. The open questions were examined through qualitative methods with report narratives and discourse analysis., Key Results: Pediatric oncology nurses identified three psychological interventions to reduce suffering: educating children by explaining the procedure; providing emotional support to children by listening, answering children's worries, or holding their hands; and distracting children through passive and active forms. The survey further showed that nurses spent on average 3 h per day providing emotional support, would be willing to be trained in additional interventions (93%), and could devote at least 10 min per treatment to provide support (77%)., Conclusions: This work demonstrates the central role nurses play as emotional support caregivers. Since nurses would be willing to provide emotional support during treatments, training may be an approach to incorporate the use of psychological interventions., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The effects of Israeli adolescents' exposure to rocket attacks over time were examined, focusing on anxiety, depression, aggression, and violence commission., Method: A sample of 362 adolescents from southern Israel was followed from 2008 through 2011 with four annual assessments. Measures included exposure to rocket attacks (gauging whether children were affected by rocket attacks, both directly and indirectly, through friends and family), anxiety (items from the State Anxiety Inventory), depression (the Center for Epidemiological Studies Child Depression Scale), aggression (the Orpinas Aggression Scale), and violence commission (from the Social and Health Assessment)., Results: Concurrent and longitudinal findings differed. Wave 1 exposure to rockets attacks was associated with Wave 1 anxiety, depression, and aggression. Longitudinal results evinced only modest effects of exposure on anxiety and depression, no effects on aggression, but robust effects on violence commission. Exposure to terror attacks before the study predicted increased odds of violence commission at the fourth and final wave, controlling for violence commission at the first, second, and third wave. Exposure to rocket attacks in the second wave predicted increased odds of violence commission at the third wave., Conclusion: This is the first longitudinal study attesting to the prospective longitudinal effect of exposure to terrorism on adolescent violence. Findings should serve as a red flag for health care practitioners working in civil areas afflicted by terrorism and political violence., (Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In recent discussions regarding concerns about the academic achievement of US students, educational policy makers have suggested the implementation of certain teacher policies. To address the limited empirical research on the putative educational impact of such policies, this study used multilevel structural equation models to investigate the longitudinal associations between teacher evaluation and reward policies, and student mathematics achievement and dropout with a national sample of students (n = 7,779) attending one of 431 public high schools. The student sample included an equal number of boys and girls averaging 16 years of age, and included a White (53%) majority. This study examined whether associations between teacher policies and student achievement were mediated by the teacher-student relationship climate. Results of this study were threefold. First, teacher evaluation policies that allowed students to evaluate their teachers were associated with more positive student reports of the classroom teaching climate. Second, schools with teacher reward policies that included assigning higher performing teachers with higher performing students had a negative association with student perceptions of the teaching climate. Lastly, schools with better student perceptions of the teaching climate were associated with lower student dropout rates by students' senior year. These findings are discussed in light of their educational policy implications.

We examined whether clinically distinct subgroups can be derived from a sample of toddlers (n = 186) who failed the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, received a comprehensive clinical evaluation, and were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Three subgroups emerged from cluster analysis distinguished by (a) social, communication, and intellectual skills and (b) the rate and intensity of repetitive behaviors and abnormal sensory response. Preoccupations, compulsions, and rituals did not distinguish resultant subgroups. These results support a dimensional diagnostic view of ASDs in toddlers since subgroup differences were based on symptom severity rather than different symptom profiles. Results also identify specific types and levels of behavioral deficit relevant to toddler populations. Implications for early diagnosis are discussed.

How and why do internalizing and externalizing problems, psychopathological problems from different diagnostic classes representing separate forms of psychopathology, co-occur in children? We investigated the development of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from ages 2 to 12 with the use of latent class growth analysis. Furthermore, we examined how early childhood factors (temperament, cognitive functioning, maternal depression, and home environment) and early adolescent social and behavioral adjustment variables were related to differential trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems. The sample (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care) consisted of 1,232 children (52% male). Mother reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991, 1992) were used to construct the trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems. Analyses identified groups of children exhibiting pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems. Children exhibiting continuous externalizing or continuous co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems across the 10-year period under investigation were more likely to (a) engage in risky behaviors, (b) be associated with deviant peers, (c) be rejected by peers, and (d) be asocial with peers at early adolescence. However, children exhibiting pure internalizing problems over time were only at higher risk for being asocial with peers as early adolescents. Moreover, the additive effects of individual and environmental early childhood risk factors influenced the development of chronic externalizing problems, although pure internalizing problems were uniquely influenced by maternal depression. Results also provided evidence for the concepts of equifinality and multifinality.

Objective: Using a multi-trait-multi-method technique, self-concept was analysed as a function of chronological age in children with mild intellectual disabilities. Also, relations between reading achievement and self-concept were measured., Methods: Participants were assessed on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised, the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance and the Self-Description Questionnaire I--Individual Administration., Results: A median split was run to divide participants into younger and older groups; older participants evidenced coefficients that revealed more multidimensionality, stability and discriminant validity. Also, a significant canonical correlation was found between the Harter Pictorial Scale at Time 1 and WRMT-R at Time 2, chi(2)(8) = 17.99, r = 0.62, p = 0.02., Conclusion: As a whole, these results suggest that children with intellectual disabilities evince self-concept development similar to what would be expected in typically-developing children.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the authors aimed to describe the pathways of risk within sexual risk taking, alcohol use, and delinquency, and then identify how the trajectory of sexual risk is linked to alcohol use and delinquency. Risk trajectories were measured with adolescents aged 15-24 years (N = 1,778). Using Latent Class Growth Analyses (LCGA), models indicated that the majority of adolescents engaged in sexual risk and alcohol use. In joint trajectory analyses, LCGA revealed six risk taking classes: sex and alcohol, moderate risk taking, joint risk taking, moderate alcohol, alcohol risk, and alcohol and delinquency experimentation. Editors' Strategic Implications: School administrators and curriculum designers should pay attention to the study's findings with respect to the need for prevention programs to target early adolescents and integrate prevention messages about alcohol use and sexual risk taking.

Background: Terrorism leads to adolescent depression, but little is known about protective factors. We investigated 90 adolescents (in grades 7-9) residing in Dimona, Israel, before and after their exposure to a suicide bombing., Objective: To examine the prospective effect of social support from friends, parents, and school personnel on the link between bombing-related perceived stress and adolescent depression., Methods: Seven months prior to the suicide bombing, adolescents completed questionnaires as part of an ongoing investigation of youth risk/resilience under stress. The focus of the present study was on the Perceived Social Support Scale. One month subsequent to the suicide bombing, participants were interviewed by telephone about their bombing-related perceived stress (a 1-item measure) and depression (the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Child Depression Scale)., Results: Bombing-related perceived stress was associated with an increase in continuous levels of depression from before to after the bombing (beta = .29; P = .006). Prebombing social support from friends buffered against this effect (beta = -.29; P = .010). Adolescents reporting high bombing-related perceived stress evinced an increase in depression if they reported low levels of friends' support (beta = .61; P < .001) but not high levels of friends' support (beta = .00; P = .98). In addition, social support from friends predicted an increase in adolescent depression over time when bombing-related perceived stress was low (beta = .34; P = .026)., Conclusion: In adolescence, social support from friends might protect against the depressogenic effect of terrorism-related perceived stress.

Purpose: To prospectively examine whether personal agency beliefs and direct coping mediate the association between spirituality and depressive symptoms in a school-based sample of adolescents, and whether gender, race, or grade level moderate this model., Method: Students (N = 1096) from sixth through ninth grades in a northeastern public school system were administered self-report instruments in group format at baseline, 6-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up. Demographic variables and constructs of spirituality, personal agency, direct coping, and depressive symptoms were assessed., Results: Structural equation modeling was used to examine the longitudinal associations among the constructs while controlling for socioeconomic status and baseline depressive symptoms. For the total sample, the model predicted 21% of the variance in depressive symptoms over 1 year. The model was moderated by gender but not by race or grade level. The model explained 28% of the variance in depressive symptoms for girls and 16% of the variance in depressive symptoms for boys. Moreover, there was an indirect effect of spirituality on depressive symptoms for girls but not for boys., Conclusion: These results suggest mechanisms by which spirituality may maintain lower levels of depressive symptoms among adolescent girls during periods of transition to middle and high school.

This study investigated the desensitization to violence over a short period of time. Participants watched nine violent movie scenes and nine comedy scenes, and reported whether they enjoyed the violent or comedy scenes and whether they felt sympathetic toward the victim of violence. Using latent growth modeling, analyses were carried out to investigate how participants responded to the different scenes across time. The findings of this study suggested that repeated exposure to media violence reduces the psychological impact of media violence in the short term, therefore desensitizing viewers to media violence. As a result, viewers tended to feel less sympathetic toward the victims of violence and actually enjoy more the violence portrayed in the media. Additionally, desensitization to media violence was better represented by a curvilinear pattern, whereas desensitization to comedy scenes was better represented by a linear pattern. Finally, trait aggression was not related to the pattern of change over time, although significant effects were found for initial reports of enjoyment and sympathy.

A client's expectation that therapy will be beneficial has long been considered an important factor contributing to therapeutic outcomes, but recent empirical work examining this hypothesis has primarily yielded null findings. The present study examined the contribution of expectancies for treatment outcome to actual treatment outcome from the start of therapy through 12-month follow-up in a clinical sample of individuals (n=72) treated for fear of flying with either in vivo exposure or virtual reality exposure therapy. Using a piecewise hierarchical linear model, outcome expectancy predicted treatment gains made during therapy but not during follow-up. Compared to lower levels, higher expectations for treatment outcome yielded stronger rates of symptom reduction from the beginning to the end of treatment on 2 standardized self-report questionnaires on fear of flying. The analytic approach of the current study is one potential reason that findings contrast with prior literature. The advantages of using hierarchical linear modeling to assess interindividual differences in longitudinal data are discussed.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of violence exposure sequelae is essential to providing effective treatments for traumatized youth. This longitudinal study examined the mediating role of posttraumatic stress in the relationship between violence exposure and psychopathology, and compared the mediated models by gender. Urban adolescents (n=1,358) were surveyed using the Social and Health Assessment. The proposed relationships were examined using Structural Equation Modeling. Posttraumatic stress fully mediated the relationships between victimization and depression and anxiety in girls, and partially so in boys. In addition, posttraumatic stress partially mediated the relationships between violence exposure and commission of violence in boys. Current findings support the longitudinal effects of violence exposure on adolescent mental health. Posttraumatic stress represents a unique mechanism for the development of psychopathology in girls and is also related to negative outcomes in boys. These findings have direct implications for prevention and rehabilitation efforts among violence exposed youth.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study utilized an ecological approach to investigate the joint contribution of parents and schools on changes in violent behavior over time among a sample of 6,397 students (54% female) from 125 schools. This study examined the main and interactive effects of parent and school connectedness as buffers of violent behavior within a hierarchical linear model, focusing on both students and schools as the unit of analysis. Results show that students who feel more connected to their schools demonstrate reductions in violent behavior over time. On the school level, our findings suggest that school climate serves as a protective factor for student violent behavior. Finally, parent and school connectedness appear to work together to buffer adolescents from the effects of violence exposure on subsequent violent behavior.

Action theories acknowledge the reciprocal nature of the relationship between individual action and social context. In this article, the author discusses various ways that the social context and the individual's actions can interact in childhood and adolescence. From an ecological perspective, emphasis is placed on two main issues: Children and adolescents develop within an interactive web of social contexts, and the examination of some contexts without taking into account others can lead to an incomplete and inaccurate accounting of the role of the social environment. Social contexts are frequently dynamic systems that fluctuate over time, and the extent to which children and adolescents can exert effortful control over changes in contexts varies. Implications of the ecological perspective for action-oriented research are discussed., ((c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

An ecological developmental model of adolescent suicidality was used to inform a hierarchical logistic regression analysis of longitudinal interactions between parent, peer, and school relations and suicide attempts. Reanalyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, it was found that parent relations were the most consistent protective factor, and among boys with prior suicide attempts, school relations augmented the effects of parent relations when peer relations were low. Results indicated the need to understand suicidal behavior as a component of interactive social processes in the design of clinical interventions.

Objective: To examine the longitudinal associations between supportive relationships with friends and parents and sexual risk behavior in adolescence based on an ecological-transactional perspective., Methods: Analyses were conducted on 2,652 sexually active adolescents from the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)., Results: African-American adolescents had lower risk for sexual risk behavior. Supportive friendships and parent connectedness interacted in predicting decreased likelihood of sexual risk behavior. Mother-child communication about sex contributed to decreased likelihood of sexual risk only for girls. There were also small reciprocal effects of sexual risk behavior on decreased relationship quality over time., Conclusion: To better understand the parents' role in adolescent sexual risk behavior, multiple facets of parenting, the social contexts of parenting and adolescents' peers, and the effects of adolescents' behavior on these relationships should be taken into consideration.

Although previous research has implicated adolescent depression in academic difficulties, few studies have explored the role of cognitive/personality factors in this area. To address this gap, the present study examines the role of self-criticism in academic functioning among early adolescent students over a 1-year interval. We hypothesized and found that adolescent self-criticism and depressive symptomatology interacted to predict decreased grade point average (GPA) over time, an interaction that was found predominantly in boys. This finding illustrates the need to integrate research on personality and psychopathology into educational psychology.

Purpose: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we investigated weapon violence involving violence exposure and commission, as well as the protective roles of parent and school connectedness over time., Methods: Adolescents from Add Health's core sample (N = 7033) were followed for one year over two waves of measurement., Results: Consistent with hypotheses, violence exposure and violence commission uniquely predicted each other over time. Also, adolescents who were more connected with their parents were less likely to commit weapon violence over time, and adolescents who were more connected to school were less likely to be exposed to weapon violence over time. However, neither domain of connectedness buffered adolescents from the effects of violence exposure on committing violence. Further, parent and school connectedness seemed to have more power as preventive rather than as mitigating factors in relation to weapon violence., Conclusion: Further research using a broader array of violence measures may reveal additional processes through which protective factors can help sever the link between weapon violence exposure and commission.

This longitudinal study investigated the effects of witnessing violence on committing violence among diverse urban middle school students (11-15 years old) over a 1-year period (N = 1,599). It examined parent support and prosocial cognitions as moderators that might interact with one another in buffering adolescents from the effects of witnessing violence. The study also explored gender and ethnicity differences across these protective processes. According to the results, both average and high levels of parent support may offer male adolescents who witness violence protection against committing subsequent acts of violence. Adolescent females who witness violence appear to be uniquely protected from committing acts of violence if they have highly prosocial cognitions. Applications to resilience and competency models are discussed.

Objective: To examine the association between sexual activity among urban adolescent girls and four global measures of psychosocial adaptation (academic motivation, school achievement, depressive symptoms, and expectations about the future)., Method: Data derived from the Social and Health Assessment, a self-report survey administered in 1998 to students in the public school system in New Haven, CT (149 classes at 17 middle and high schools)., Results: Of 1,413 respondents (57% black, 28% Hispanic; mean age 13.4 +/- 1.7 years), 414 (29%) acknowledged prior sexual intercourse; the proportions of sexually active girls in 6th, 8th, and 10th grades were 14%, 30%, and 50%, respectively. In multivariate analyses of covariance, sexual activity was significantly associated with all four measures of psychosocial adaptation (p < .001). Other correlates of at least one measure of maladaptation included socioeconomic status, sensation seeking, and lower school grade (p < .001 for each), peer pressure (p < .01), and black ethnicity, and the interaction of sexual activity by lower school grade (p < .05 for each)., Conclusions: Compared with their sexually naive peers, sexually active adolescent girls had lower scores on global measures of psychosocial adaptation. These findings have clinical, policy, and research relevance to a vulnerable population at high risk of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Integrating psychoanalytic and action models of development affords a rich, detailed depiction of developmental psychopathology. Psychoanalytic models depict mental representations of self and others as unconsciously organizing and regulating affect, cognition, and behavior, in response to both maturational imperatives and drive related conflicts. Action models emphasize the active, reciprocal, and goal oriented nature of person-context exchanges. In linking the two perspectives, we propose that representations serve as the mechanisms through which individuals shape their development, personality, and well-being. This integrative perspective is illustrated using a clinical case of an adolescent female treated for an eating disorder.

The authors examined a theoretical model linking interpersonal relatedness and self-definition (S.J. Blatt, 1974), autonomous and controlled regulation (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 1985), and negative and positive life events in adolescence (N = 860). They hypothesized that motivational orientation would mediate the effects of interpersonal relatedness and self-definition on life events. Self-criticism, a maladaptive form of self-definition, predicted less positive events, whereas efficacy, an adaptive form of self-definition, predicted more positive events. These effects were fully mediated by the absence and presence, respectively, of autonomous motivation. Controlled motivation, predicted by self-criticism and maladaptive neediness, did not predict negative events. Results illustrate the centrality of protective, pleasure-related processes in adaptive adolescent development.

Psychometric properties for a new instrument, the EZ-Personality Questionnaire designed to assess the functioning of students with cultural-familial mental retardation, are presented. The analysis of data from 661 participants yielded a 37-item, seven-scale instrument that confirmed the five hypothesized factors of Positive Reaction Tendency, Negative Reaction Tendency, Effectance Motivation, Expectancy of Success, and Outerdirectedness and identified two additional factors of Curiosity/Creativity and Obedience. Separate studies were conducted to establish the concurrent and construct validity of the instrument. Reliability was examined through split-half and test-retest analyses. All psychometric indices were within acceptable levels, resulting in an instrument with potential applications in research, education, and clinical settings.

Previous research has shown that the Interpersonal Concerns factor of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D'Affliti, & Quinlan, 1976, 1979; Depressive Experiences Questionnaire for Adolescent [DEQ-A]; Blatt, Schaffer, Bers, & Quinlan, 1992) assesses 2 levels of interpersonal relatedness in young adults and older adolescents: neediness and relatedness. However, studies investigating the relation of the DEQ and DEQ-A with social functioning have not used the Neediness and Relatedness subscales of the Interpersonal Concerns factor. This study investigated (a) whether the Neediness and Relatedness subscales can be differentiated in a sample of early adolescents and (b) how the 2 subscales are differentially associated with indexes of social functioning. Results indicate that this differentiation of Neediness and Relatedness, and their associations with social functioning, emerges in early adolescence, especially for girls.