Development and Psychopathology最新文献

Background: Childhood maltreatment is a robust predictor of aggression. Research indicates that both maltreatment experiences and aggression are moderately heritable. It has been hypothesized that gene-environment correlation may be at play, whereby genetic predispositions to aggression in parents and children may be confounded with family environments conducive to its expression. Building on this framework, we tested whether maltreatment mediates the association between a polygenic score for aggression (PGS_AGG) and school-age aggression, and whether this varied for reactive and proactive aggression.

Methods: The sample comprised 721 participants (44.9% males; 99.0% White) with prospective assessments of maltreatment from 5 months to 12 years (10 assessments;1998-2010), and teachers-reported aggression from ages 6 to 13 (6 assessments; 2004-2011). The PGS_AGG was derived using a Bayesian estimation method (PRS-CS).

Results: PGS_AGG was associated with most aggression measures across specific ages and trajectories. Maltreatment experiences partially mediated the association between PGS_AGG and the Childhood-Limited trajectory of reactive - but not proactive - aggression.

Conclusion: Children with higher genetic propensities for aggression were more likely to experience maltreatment, which partly explained the association between PGS_AGG and a Childhood-Limited trajectory of reactive aggression during elementary school. This finding reinforces the possibility of confounding influences between genetic liability for aggression and maltreatment experiences.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, characterized by lack of empathy, guilt, and deficient affect, are linked to facial emotion recognition (FER) deficits in children. While anxiety is also associated with FER anomalies, these relationships are often examined in isolation despite co-occurrence. This study aims to concurrently investigate unique contributions of CU traits and anxiety on children's FER patterns. We recruited 107 children aged 6 to 11 from community settings, assessing CU traits through caregiver reports and anxiety via caregiver and child reports. FER performance was evaluated using a computer-based task. Results indicate that CU traits negatively impact overall FER accuracy, particularly when controlling for parent-reported anxiety. CU traits were inversely related to total FER accuracy for children self-reporting high anxiety levels. These findings enhance our understanding of how CU traits and anxiety interact to influence FER deficits, suggesting that interventions targeting CU traits should consider anxiety symptoms as a critical factor in emotional processing challenges among children.

Research finds genetic predisposition for depression is associated with increases in depression across adolescence and adulthood. In turn, depressive symptoms in adolescence are associated with substance use. However, there has been modest examination of genetic predisposition for depression, growth in depressive symptoms, and substance use from late childhood through adolescence, and mostly in White samples. Also, psychosocial interventions can attenuate associations between genetic predisposition and psychopathology, a genotype by intervention (GxI) effect. We examined associations among polygenic risk for depression, growth in depressive symptoms from age 7 to 16, and substance use at age 16, as well as moderation by a family-based preventive intervention. Participants were African-ancestry (n = 154) and European-ancestry (n = 219) youth from the Early Steps Multisite Study, half of whom participated in the Family Check-Up intervention. A small polygenic by intervention effect was found on reductions in depressive symptoms for African-ancestry youth, and growth in depressive symptoms was positively associated with substance use at age 16. In sensitivity analyses, a small GxI effect was detected in European-ancestry youth on reductions in depressive symptom slopes from age 10 to 16. These findings highlight how early intervention can buffer genetic effects on depressive symptoms over time.

Theoretical perspectives propose that positive childhood experiences (PCEs) are associated with adult mental health symptoms. The aim of the current study was to conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the correlations between PCEs and adult mental health symptoms. 41 unique studies (N = 74,492) were included. Significant, negative, medium-to-large, effects were observed between PCEs and each mental health symptom (medium-to-large for overall mental health: r = -.268; and depression: r = -.273; for anxiety: r = -.246; and PTSD: r = -.243), indicating that higher levels of PCEs are linked to fewer mental health difficulties in adulthood. Meta-regression analyses identified current age at the time of mental health assessment and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as significant moderators. Specifically, the promotive effects of PCEs were stronger among younger adults and weakened with higher ACEs exposure, particularly in relation to overall adult mental health symptoms, depression, PTSD, and anxiety. In contrast, no significant moderation effects were found for sex or the type of PCEs measurement tool used. Integrated prevention frameworks that combine ACEs prevention with PCEs promotion can enhance mental health across the lifespan by addressing both risk and promotive pathways and providing developmentally tailored support.

Child maltreatment increases the risk of emotional and behavioral problems, yet many children demonstrate resilience, functioning better than expected given their level of maltreatment exposure. Although resilience is a dynamic process shaped by children's social support, including friendships, how different patterns of resilience and friendship support unfold together across development remains unclear. To better understand this process, we examined how patterns of emotional resilience, behavioral resilience, and friendship support co-develop across childhood and adolescence. We used group-based multi-trajectory modeling with data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N = 6, 518, 51% female) to identify distinct patterns of emotional and behavioral resilience (doing better-than-expected given their level of maltreatment exposure) and friendship support, across five timepoints from ages 6 to 17 years. We identified five trajectory groups. Nearly half the sample maintained high emotional and behavioral resilience and friendship support across development. While resilience trajectories varied, friendship support was generally high across groups. Most children followed trajectories of high resilience and perceived friendship support. Even among children with lower emotional and/or behavioral resilience trajectories, friendship support remained high, an encouraging finding. Future research should examine how children's other relationships (e.g., with parents and siblings) unfold alongside resilience.

The present study investigated the cross-national measurement invariance of a 10-item Youth Externalizing Problems Screener (YEPS) on a sample of 17,489 adolescents from 32 countries. The original one-factor and two-factor models of YEPS were found to provide a poor fit to the data in most countries. Following the removal of two semantically overlapping items and the inclusion of correlated error terms, adequate model fit was obtained in 31 of 32 countries. Measurement invariance testing of an abbreviated 8-item YEPS (YEPS-SF) supported configural invariance. Partial scalar invariance was achieved only after freely estimating numerous parameters. The alignment analysis revealed that 22% of parameters were non-invariant across countries. South Africa, Hungary, and India showed the largest number of non-invariant parameters, whereas the lowest number was detected in several European countries. These findings highlight the potential of the YEPS-SF for use within individual countries and the challenge of developing cross-culturally comparable measures, suggesting that cultural adaptations may be necessary.

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) have been observed in children exposed to family violence. Although functioning improves for many children after cessation of violence, pathways to recovery are poorly understood. This study tests the mediating pathways between changes in family violence and children's PTS through children's emotional security, parental stress, and parents' PTS. We used longitudinal data of 562 children and their parents who were referred to child protection service. Data included three waves over a one and a half years period. Questionnaire data of both children and parents were analyzed in R Lavaan with Random Intercept Cross Lagged Panel Models to examine intrafamilial associations. Child-reported, but not parent-reported, decreases in family violence predicted decreases in child PTS from the first to the second wave. Changes in parental stress, parent PTS, and emotional security did not mediate the associations between change in family violence and child PTS. We found in exploratory analyses that decreases in parental stress predicted decreases in parent-reported family violence. The results emphasize the importance of reducing family violence for children to recover from PTS. Parental stress may be a factor in restoring safety.

The idea that some abilities might be enhanced by adversity is gaining traction. Adaptation-based approaches have uncovered a few specific abilities enhanced by particular adversity exposures. Yet, for a field to grow, we must not dig too deep, too soon. In this paper, we complement confirmatory research with principled exploration. We draw on two insights from adaptation-based research: 1) enhanced performance manifests within individuals, and 2) reduced and enhanced performance can co-occur. Although commonly assumed, relative performance differences are rarely tested. To quantify them, we need a wide variety of ability measures. However, rather than using adaptive logic to predict which abilities are enhanced or reduced, we develop statistical criteria to identify three data patterns: reduced, enhanced, and intact performance. With these criteria, we analyzed data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to investigate how adversity shapes within-person performance across 10 abilities in a cognitive and achievement battery. Our goals are to document adversity-shaped cognitive performance patterns, identify drivers of reduced performance, identify sets of "intact" abilities, and discover new enhanced abilities. We believe principled exploration with clear criteria can help break new theoretical and empirical ground, remap old territory, and advance theory development.

Suicide rates are rising among U.S. youth, yet our understanding of developmental mechanisms associated with increased suicide risk is limited. One high-risk pathway involves an interaction between heritable trait impulsivity and emotion dysregulation (ED). Together, these confer increased vulnerability to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicide ideation (SI), and suicide attempts (SAs). Previous work, however, has been limited to homogeneous samples. We extend the Impulsivity × ED hypothesis to a more diverse sample of adolescents (N = 344, ages 12-15 at Baseline, 107 males and 237 females) who were treated for major depression and assessed four times over two years. In multilevel models, the impulsivity × ED interaction was associated with higher levels and worse trajectories of NSSI, SI, and SAs. As expected, stressful life events were also associated with poorer trajectories for all outcomes, and NSSI was associated with future and concurrent SI and SAs. These findings extend one developmental pathway of risk for self-harming and suicidal behaviors to more diverse adolescents, with potential implications for prevention.

Autistic children and their parents are at risk for mental health problems, but the processes driving these connections are unknown. Leveraging three data cycles (spaced M = 11.76 months, SD = 2.77) on 162 families with autistic children (aged 6-13 years), the associations between parent-child relationship quality (warmth and criticism), child mental health problems, and parent depression symptoms were examined. A complete longitudinal mediation model was conducted using structural equation modeling. Father depression mediated the link between child mental health problems and father critical comments (β = -0.017, p = 0.018; CI [-.023 - -.015]). Father report of child mental health problems mediated the association between father depression and father critical comments (β = 0.016, p = 0.040; CI [0.003-0.023]) as well as the association between father positive remarks and father depression (β = -0.009, p = 0.032; CI [-0.010 - -0.009]). Additionally, father positive remarks mediated the connection between father depression and child mental health problems (β = 0.022, p = 0.006; CI [0.019-0.034]). No mediation effects were present for mothers. Findings highlight that the mental health of parents and autistic children are intertwined. Interventions that improve the parent-child relationship may reduce the reciprocal toll of parent and child mental health problems.