One variant of substance-use disorder is characterized by behavioral disinhibition. In this report, we martial evidence for a model for the development of this variant. We hypothesize that genetic liability for this variant is reflected in a spectrum of risk indicators linked to the inability or unwillingness to inhibit behavioral impulses. Included in this spectrum are personality traits suggesting low constraint, and externalizing psychopathology, including conduct, oppositional defiant, and attention-deficit disorder in children and antisocial personality disorder and behavior in adults. We further hypothesize that these individual differences in behavioral disinhibition are manifestations of underlying central nervous system processes associated with various psychophysiological anomalies, some of which may index genetic risk for substance abuse. Support for the model is derived from the analysis of findings from the Minnesota Twin Family Study, an epidemiological investigation of approximately 2,700 adolescent twins and their parents.

This study used a three-wave longitudinal design to investigate developmental cascades among social competence and externalizing and internalizing behavioral adjustment in a normative sample of 117 children seen at 4, 10, and 14 years. Children, mothers, and teachers provided data. A series of nested path analysis models was used to determine the most parsimonious and plausible cascades across the three constructs over and above their covariation at each age and stability across age. Children with lower social competence at age 4 years exhibited more externalizing and internalizing behaviors at age 10 years and more externalizing behaviors at age 14 years. Children with lower social competence at age 4 years also exhibited more internalizing behaviors at age 10 years and more internalizing behaviors at age 14 years. Children who exhibited more internalizing behaviors at age 4 years exhibited more internalizing behaviors at age 10 years and more externalizing behaviors at age 14 years. These cascades among social competence and behavioral adjustment obtained independent of child intelligence and maternal education and social desirability of responding.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative contributions of social withdrawal, peer rejection, and victimization by peers in predicting feelings of loneliness and depressed mood over time. According to the proposed model, the feelings of loneliness associated with social withdrawal are mediated by the negative peer experiences (negative peer status and peer victimization) to which withdrawn children are exposed. In predicting depressed mood over time, it was further hypothesized that self-reported loneliness ultimately mediates the subsequent depressed mood associated with withdrawal and negative peer experiences. The study was conducted across 2 consecutive years (Time 1 and Time 2), with children each year nominating peers for peer status, social withdrawal, and victimization measures, and completing self-report measures of loneliness and depressed mood. Fourth- and fifth-grade children participated at Time 1, and children that remained in the same school were again evaluated at Time 2 (N = 567). A series of regression analyses indicated that the postulated sequence of mediations adequately represented the pattern of longitudinal associations between the variables, as well as their pattern of change over time. The contribution of social withdrawal to the prediction of subsequent loneliness was accounted for by the expected pattern of mediations of negative peer experiences. Self-reported loneliness ultimately mediated the subsequent depressed mood associated with withdrawal and negative peer experiences.

This report describes the state of the art in distinguishing data generated by differential susceptibility from diathesis–stress models. We discuss several limitations of existing practices for probing interaction effects and offer solutions that are designed to better differentiate differential susceptibility from diathesis–stress models and quantify their corresponding implications. In addition, we demonstrate the utility of these methods by revisiting published evidence suggesting that temperamental difficulty serves as a marker of enhanced susceptibility to early maternal caregiving across a range of outcome domains in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. We find that, with the exception of mother reports of psychopathology, there is consistent evidence in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development that the predictive significance of early sensitivity is moderated by difficult temperament over time. However, differential susceptibility effects emerged primarily for teacher reports of academic skills, social competence, and symptomatology. In contrast, effects more consistent with the diathesis–stress model were obtained for mother reports of social skills and objective tests of academic skills. We conclude by discussing the value of the application of this work to the next wave of Gene × Environment studies focused on early caregiving experiences.

This study evaluated Mind Reading, an interactive systematic guide to emotions, for its effectiveness in teaching adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) to recognize complex emotions in faces and voices. Experiment 1 tested a group of adults diagnosed with AS/HFA (n = 19) who used the software at home for 10–15 weeks. Participants were tested on recognition of faces and voices at three different levels of generalization. A matched control group of adults with AS/HFA (n = 22) were assessed without any intervention. In addition, a third group of general population controls (n = 24) was tested. Experiment 2 repeated the design of Experiment 1 with a group of adults with AS/HFA who used the software at home and met in a group with a tutor on a weekly basis. They were matched to a control group of adults with AS/HFA attending social skills training and to a general population control group (n = 13 for all three groups). In both experiments the intervention group improved significantly more than the control group on close, but not distant, generalization tasks. Verbal IQ had significant effects in Experiment 2. Using Mind Reading for a relatively short period of time allows users to learn to recognize a variety of complex emotions and mental states. However, additional methods are required to enhance generalization.The first author was supported by the National Alliance for Autism Research, the Corob Charitable Trust, the Cambridge Overseas Trust and B'nai B'rith Leo Baeck scholarships. The second author was supported by the Shirley Foundation, the Medical Research Council, and the Three Guineas Trust. We are grateful to the following for helping with this study: our participants, Red Green and Blue Ltd, Jessica Kingsley Ltd, Pamela Yates for arranging and running the social skills groups, Andrea Macleod and Rob Whiskens (Autism West Midlands), Jill Howard (Autism London), Lynne Moxon (European Services for People with Autism), and Harriet Fisher and James Graham (The Interact Centre). Many thanks to Jacqueline Hill, Chris Ashwin, Sally Wheelwright, Matthew Belmonte, Yael Golan, Sarah Johnson, Emma Chapman, and Ilaria Minio Paluello. A version of this work was presented at the International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), May 2004.

Efforts to understand the etiology of adult mental disorders by studying children has produced unanticipated changes in our understanding of pathology, individual development, and the role of social context. Among these are the blurring of the division between mental illness and mental health, the need to attend to patterns of adaptation rather than personality traits, and the powerful influences of the social world on individual development. Current developmental views place deviancy in the dynamic relation between individuals and their contexts. At another level, when we view the history of developmental psychopathology, dialectical developmental processes are evident as we trace how patterns of adaptation of researchers, expressed in theoretical models and empirical paradigms, increasingly have come to match the complexities of human mental health and illness.

Bowlby's attachment theory is a theory of psychopathology as well as a theory of normal development. It contains clear and specific propositions regarding the role of early experience in developmental psychopathology, the importance of ongoing context, and the nature of the developmental process underlying pathology. In particular, Bowlby argued that adaptation is always the joint product of developmental history and current circumstances (never either alone). Early experience does not cause later pathology in a linear way; yet, it has special significance due to the complex, systemic, transactional nature of development. Prior history is part of current context, playing a role in selection, engagement, and interpretation of subsequent experience and in the use of available environmental supports. Finally, except in very extreme cases, early anxious attachment is not viewed as psychopathology itself or as a direct cause of psychopathology but as an initiator of pathways probabilistically associated with later pathology.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the theory and evidence for the links of parent–child attachment with internalizing problems in childhood and adolescence. We address three key questions: (a) how consistent is the evidence that attachment security or insecurity is linked to internalizing symptoms, anxiety, and depression? (b) How consistent is the evidence that specific forms of insecurity are more strongly related to internalizing symptoms, anxiety, and depression than are other forms of insecurity? (c) Are associations with internalizing symptoms, anxiety, and depression consistent for mother–child and father–child attachment? The current findings are consistent with the hypothesis that insecure attachment is associated with the development of internalizing problems. The links between specific insecure attachment patterns and internalizing problems are difficult to evaluate. Father–child and mother–child attachments have a comparable impact, although there are relatively few studies of father–child attachment. No moderators consistently affect these relations. We also propose two models of how attachment insecurity may combine with other factors to lead to anxiety or depression.

Recent research has suggested that there are two distinct trajectories for the development of antisocial behavior in boys: a childhood-onset pathway and an adolescent-onset pathway. After reviewing the limited available research on antisocial girls, we propose that this influential method of conceptualizing the development of severe antisocial behavior may not apply to girls without some important modifications. Antisocial girls appear to show many of the correlates that have been associated with the childhood-onset pathway in boys, and they tend to show impaired adult adjustment, which is also similar to boys in the childhood-onset pathway. However, antisocial girls typically show an adolescent-onset to their antisocial behavior. We have proposed that these girls show a third developmental pathway which we have labeled the “delayed-onset” pathway. This model rests on the assumption that many of the putative pathogenic mechanisms that contribute to the development of antisocial behavior in girls, such as cognitive and neuropsychological deficits, a dysfunctional family environment, and/or the presence of a callous and unemotional interpersonal style, may be present in childhood, but they do not lead to severe and overt antisocial behavior until adolescence. Therefore, we propose that the delayed-onset pathway for girls is analogous to the childhood-onset pathway in boys and that there is no analogous pathway in girls to the adolescent-onset pathway in boys. Although this model clearly needs to be tested in future research, it highlights the need to test the applicability of current theoretical models for explaining the development of antisocial behavior in girls.

Few students of psychopathology and mental health would argue that the period between adolescence and adulthood is simply a passive medium through which individuals pass untouched, a segment of the life span that has no unique impact on ongoing trajectories of functioning and adjustment. Yet the relative lack of attention given to this period in theoretical conceptualizations and empirical investigations suggests an assumption that the events and experiences constituting the transition to adulthood are relatively inconsequential to the course of psychopathology and mental health. In comparison, far more attention has been given to childhood effects on adult psychopathology. Early experiences may be critical, and deserve all the attention they are given; however, their influences on later psychopathology and mental health are likely mediated and sometimes reversed by later experiences (Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994; Curtis & Cicchetti, 2003; Sroufe, 1997; Sroufe, Carlson, Levy, & Egeland, 1999; Sroufe, Egeland, & Kreutzer, 1990). There is a clear need to devote equal attention to more developmentally proximal influences (Cairns, 2000; Lewis, 1999; Schulenberg, Maggs, & O'Malley, 2003). This is especially true from a systems perspective, where development is viewed as a function of strong person–context interactions with a temporal course given to fits and starts that correspond, at least in part, to shifts in the individual, the context, and the interaction between the two (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002; Sameroff, 2000). More specifically, developmental transitions, representing major life changes within individuals and in social roles and contexts, can contribute to alterations in the course of mental health and psychopathology.John Schulenberg's work on this Special Issue was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH, MH59396) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, DA01411), Arnold Sameroff's work was supported by a grant from NIMH (MH59396), and Dante Cicchetti's work was supported by grants from NIDA (DA12903) and the Spunk Fund, Inc. This Special Issue is based, in part, on the Michigan Symposium on Development and Psychopathology: Continuity and Discontinuity during the Transition to Adulthood, held at the University of Michigan in June 2002, chaired by John Schulenberg and Arnold Sameroff, and sponsored by the NIMH-funded Center for Development and Mental Health, the Institute for Social Research, Office of the Vice President for Research, and Center for Human Growth and Development.

In response to rapidly growing rates of comorbidity among psychiatric disorders, clinical scientists have become interested in identifying transdiagnostic processes that can help explain dysfunction across diagnostic categories (e.g., Kring & Sloan, 2009). One factor that has received a great deal of attention is that of emotion regulation, namely, the ability to modulate the intensity and/or duration of emotional states (e.g., Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995; Gross, 1998). Recent theoretical and empirical work has begun to emphasize the role that emotion regulation plays in the temporal comorbidity between internalizing and externalizing conditions (e.g., Aldao & De Los Reyes, 2015; De Los Reyes & Aldao, 2015; Drabick & Kendall, 2010; Jarrett & Ollendick, 2008; Patrick & Hajcak, 2016). However, close inspection of this work reveals two very pertinent areas of growth: (a) this literature is characterized by mixed findings that are likely explained, in part, by methodological heterogeneity; and (b) emotion regulation tends to be studied in relatively narrow terms. To address these issues, we provide a series of recommendations for facilitating cross-study comparisons and leveraging multifaceted approaches to studying emotion regulation processes within a developmental psychopathology framework. We hope that our perspective can enhance the organization and growth of this very important area of inquiry, and ultimately result in more effective prevention and treatment programs.

Six and a half years after adoption, 6- to 12-year-old children reared in Romanian orphanages for more than 8 months in their first years of life (RO, n = 18) had higher cortisol levels over the daytime hours than did early adopted (EA, ≤ 4 months of age, n = 15) and Canadian born (CB, n = 27) children. The effect was marked, with 22% of the RO children exhibiting cortisol levels averaged over the day that exceeded the mean plus 2 SD of the EA and CB levels. Furthermore, the longer beyond 8 months that the RO children remained institutionalized the higher their cortisol levels. Cortisol levels for EA children did not differ in any respect from those of CB comparison children. This latter finding reduces but does not eliminate concerns that the results could be due to prenatal effects or birth family characteristics associated with orphanage placement. Neither age at cortisol sampling nor low IQ measured earlier appeared to explain the findings. Because the conditions in Romanian orphanages at the time these children were adopted were characterized by multiple risk factors, including gross privation of basic needs and exposure to infectious agents, the factor(s) that produced the increase in cortisol production cannot be determined. Nor could we determine whether these results reflected effects on the limbic–hypothalamic–pituitary– adrenal axis directly or were mediated by differences in parent–child interactions or family stress occasion by behavioral problems associated with prolonged orphanage care in this sample.

The malleability of insecure and disorganized attachment among infants from maltreating families was investigated through a randomized preventive intervention trial. Findings from research on the effects of maltreatment on infant attachment were incorporated into the design and evaluation of the intervention. One-year-old infants from maltreating families (N = 137) and their mothers were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: (a) infant–parent psychotherapy (IPP), (b) psychoeducational parenting intervention (PPI), and (c) community standard (CS) controls. A fourth group of infants from nonmaltreating families (N = 52) and their mothers served as an additional low-income normative comparison (NC) group. At baseline, mothers in the maltreatment group, relative to the nonmaltreatment group mothers, reported greater abuse and neglect in their own childhoods, more insecure relationships with their own mothers, more maladaptive parenting attitudes, more parenting stress, and lower family support, and they were observed to evince lower maternal sensitivity. Infants in the maltreatment groups had significantly higher rates of disorganized attachment than infants in the NC group. At postintervention follow-up at age 26 months, children in the IPP and PPI groups demonstrated substantial increases in secure attachment, whereas increases in secure attachment were not found for the CS and NC groups. Moreover, disorganized attachment continued to predominate in the CS group. These results were maintained when intent to treat analyses were conducted. The findings are discussed in terms of the utility of translating basic research into the design and evaluation of clinical trials, as well as the importance of preventive interventions for altering attachment organization and promoting an adaptive developmental course for infants in maltreating families.This research was supported by grants from the Administration of Children, Youth, and Families, the National Institute of Mental Health (MH54643), and the Spunk Fund, Inc.

The psychological construct of empathy refers to an intersubjective induction process by which positive and negative emotions are shared, without losing sight of whose feelings belong to whom. Empathy can lead to personal distress or to empathic concern (sympathy). The goal of this paper is to address the underlying cognitive processes and their neural underpinnings that constitute empathy within a developmental neuroscience perspective. In addition, we focus on how these processes go awry in developmental disorders marked by impairments in social cognition, such as autism spectrum disorder, and conduct disorder. We argue that empathy involves both bottom-up and top-down information processing, underpinned by specific and interacting neural systems. We discuss data from developmental psychology as well as cognitive neuroscience in support of such a model, and highlight the impact of neural dysfunctions on social cognitive developmental behavior. Altogether, bridging developmental science and cognitive neuroscience helps approach a more complete understanding of social cognition. Synthesizing these two domains also contributes to a better characterization of developmental psychopathologies that impacts the development of effective treatment strategies.

Self-regulatory processes are believed to be critical to early personality and behavioral adjustment. Such processes can be observed on multiple levels, including the physiological, attentional, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal domains of functioning. Data from several longitudinal studies suggest links between early temperamental tendencies such as behavioral inhibition and frustration tolerance, and regulatory developments at the levels of physiological, attentional, and emotional regulation. Deficits in these particular levels of self-regulation may underlie childhood social withdrawal and aggression. Significant gaps remain in our knowledge of the pathways to disordered behavior and the role that self-regulation plays in such pathways. Suggestions are made for the ways in which future longitudinal studies might address these gaps.

Maternal depression is prevalent, and puts children at risk. Little evidence addresses whether treatment for maternal depression is sufficient to improve child outcomes. An experiment was conducted testing whether psychotherapeutic treatment for mothers, suffering from major depression in the postpartum period, would result in improved parenting and child outcomes. Participants included depressed women randomly assigned to interpersonal psychotherapy (n = 60) or to a waitlist (n = 60), and a nondepressed comparison group (n = 56). At 6 months, depressed mothers were less responsive to their infants, experienced more parenting stress, and viewed their infants more negatively than did nondepressed mothers. Treatment affected only parenting stress, which improved significantly but was still higher than that for nondepressed mothers. Eighteen months later, treated depressed mothers still rated their children lower in attachment security, higher in behavior problems, and more negative in temperament than nondepressed mothers. Initial response to treatment did not predict reduced risk for poor child outcomes. Early maternal negative perceptions of the child predicted negative temperament and behavior problems 18 months after treatment. Treatment for depression in the postpartum period should target the mother–infant relationship in addition to the mothers' depressive symptoms.This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 50524 to the second author. Additional support was provided by NIMH Traineeship MH 15755, through the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota and by the Canada Research Chairs program. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Grazyna Kochanska, our numerous undergraduate coders, and our generous and dedicated participants.

Developmental sequences in disruptive behavior from childhood to adolescence are traced retrospectively and prospectively in two community samples of boys. Three developmental pathways are distinguished: (a) an early authority conflict pathway, consisting in sequence of stubborn behavior, defiance, and authority avoidance; (b) a covert pathway, consisting of minor covert behaviors, property damage, and moderate to serious forms of delinquency; and (c) an overt pathway, consisting of aggression, fighting, and violence. The overlap among the three disruptive pathways is examined. Those boys who escalated in the overt pathway were more likely to escalate in the covert pathway than boys escalating in the covert pathway showing an escalation in the overt pathway. Escalation in the authority conflict pathway was not associated with escalation in either the overt or the covert pathways. Boys' rate of self-reported delinquency was highest for those in triple pathways (covert-overt-authority conflict) or in certain dual pathways (covert-overt, covert-authority conflict). However, by age 16 the highest rate of offending was displayed by those in the triple pathways. The rate of violent offenses was also highest for those in the triple pathways and for those in the overt and covert pathways. Results from the rate for court petitions largely supported these findings. Lowest rates of offending were observed for boys in the overt and authority conflict pathways. Implications are discussed for clinical practice and future research.

This paper is on the influences of the classroom context on the course and malleability of aggressive behavior from entrance into first grade through the transition into middle school. Nineteen public elementary schools participated in developmental epidemiologically based preventive trials in first and second grades, one of which was directed at reducing aggressive, disruptive behavior. At the start of first grade, schools and teachers were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Children within each school were assigned sequentially to classrooms from alphabetized lists, followed by checking to insure balanced assignment based on kindergarten behavior. Despite these procedures, by the end of first quarter, classrooms within schools differed markedly in levels of aggressive behavior. Children were followed through sixth grade, where their aggressive behavior was rated by middle school teachers. Strong interactive effects were found on the risk of being highly aggressive in middle school between the level of aggressive behavior in the first grade classrooms and each boy's own level of aggressive, disruptive behavior in first grade. The more aggressive first grade boys who were in higher aggressive first grade classrooms were at markedly increased risk, compared both to the median first grade boys, and compared to aggressive males in lower aggressive first grade classrooms. Boys were already behaving more aggressively than girls in first grade; and no similar classroom aggression effect was found among girls, although girls' own aggressive behavior did place them at increased risk. The preventive intervention effect, already reported elsewhere to reduce aggressive behavior among the more aggressive males, appeared to do so by reducing high levels of classroom aggression. First grade males' own poverty level was associated with higher risk of being more aggressive, disruptive in first grade, and thereby increased their vulnerability to classroom level of aggression. Both boys and girls in schools in poor communities were at increased risk of being highly aggressive in middle school regardless of their levels of aggressive behavior in first grade. These results are discussed in terms of life course/social field theory as applied to the role of contextual influences on the development and etiology of severe aggressive behavior.

The concepts of self-regulation and autonomy are examined within an organizational framework. We begin by retracing the historical origins of the organizational viewpoint in early debates within the field of biology between vitalists and reductionists, from which the construct of self-regulation emerged. We then consider human autonomy as an evolved behavioral, developmental, and experiential phenomenon that operates at both neurobiological and psychological levels and requires very specific supports within higher order social organizations. We contrast autonomy or true self-regulation with controlling regulation (a nonautonomous form of intentional behavior) in phenomenological and functional terms, and we relate the forms of regulation to the developmental processes of intrinsic motivation and internalization. Subsequently, we describe how self-regulation versus control may be characterized by distinct neurobiological underpinnings, and we speculate about some of the adaptive advantages that may underlie the evolution of autonomy. Throughout, we argue that disturbances of autonomy, which have both biological and psychological etiologies, are central to many forms of psychopathology and social alienation.

In recent years, the role of gender in the development of psychopathology has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers, theoreticians, and other professionals interested in the well-being of children and adolescents. This interest has taken diverse forms, ranging from the examination of sex differences in the prevalence of adjustment difficulties to the exploration of unique etiologies and trajectories in the development of psychopathology for boys versus girls. In this paper we (a) critically examine the current status of available theories, research, and methods related to the study of gender and psychopathology and provide recommendations for future work; (b) identify promising new trends that appear to have utility for enhancing our understanding of the role of gender in the development of adjustment difficulties; and (c) generate conclusions regarding gender and psychopathology by integrating information from past and present work with new ideas about fruitful directions for future inquiry.