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Little is known about the factors that facilitate the perpetration of sexual violence within the context of same‐sex romantic relationships (sexual intimate partner violence perpetration [S‐IPV]). The present study sought to identify the effects of external and internal minority stress and problematic drinking on perpetration of S‐IPV within a dyadic framework. A community‐based sample of 137 sexual and gender minority (SGM) couples (N = 274; 59 male assigned at birth and 78 female assigned at birth couples) completed self‐report surveys about minority stressors, alcohol use, and S‐IPV perpetration. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were conducted within an actor‐partner interdependence framework. This approach accounted for both actor effects (e.g., how much one's S‐IPV perpetration is predicted by their own risk factors) and partner effects (e.g., how much one's S‐IPV perpetration is influenced by their partner's risk factors). Both Actor external minority stress and internal minority stress were positively associated with Actor S‐IPV perpetration. Actor problematic drinking was not associated with Actor S‐IPV perpetration; however, Partner problematic drinking was positively associated with Actor S‐IPV perpetration. Observed effects were robust above the addition of other risk factors. This research innovatively extricates S‐IPV perpetration from other forms of IPV and indicates that Actor minority stress and Partner problematic drinking increase S‐IPV likelihood. Results serve as a starting point for development of etiological models to inform the design of culturally‐informed interventions to reduce S‐IPV among SGM couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer victimization is common and linked to maladjustment. Prior research has typically identified four peer victimization subgroups: aggressors, victims, aggressive‐victims, and uninvolved. However, findings related to sex and racial‐ethnic differences in subgroup membership have been mixed. Using data collected in September of 2002 and 2003, this study conducted confirmatory latent class analysis of a racially‐ethnically diverse sample of 5415 sixth graders (49% boys; 50.6% Black; 20.9% Hispanic) representing two cohorts from 37 schools in four U.S. communities to replicate the four subgroups and evaluate measurement invariance of latent class indicators across cohort, sex, race‐ethnicity, and study site. Results replicated the four‐class solution and illustrated that sociodemographic differences in subgroup membership were less evident after accounting for differential item functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of developmental trajectories of depression are important for understanding depression etiology. Existing studies have been limited by short time frames and no studies have explored a key factor: differential patterns of responding to life events. This article introduces a novel analytic technique, growth mixture modeling with structured residuals, to examine the course of youth depression in a large, prospective cohort (N = 11,641, ages 4–16.5, 96% White). Age‐specific critical points were identified at ages 8 and 13 where depression symptoms spiked for a minority of children. Most depression risk was due to dynamic responses to environmental events, drawn not from a small pool of persistently depressed children, but a larger pool of children who varied across higher and lower symptom levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mothers living with HIV (MLH) must navigate disclosing their serostatus to their children, but the longitudinal impact on families remains unknown. This study examined HIV disclosure, parenting, parenting stress, and child adjustment among 174 MLH‐child dyads (aged 6–14; 35% Latinx; 57% Black/African American). Quantitative data were collected over four waves spanning 15 months. Qualitative data were collected with 14 families in which disclosure had occurred. Latent change score modeling revealed that disclosure led to improvements in parenting stress, communication, and relationship quality. Disclosure did not predict child adjustment. Qualitative themes contextualized these findings, revealing stability and improvements in family functioning. MLH should be supported in disclosing their serostatus to their children to minimize parenting stress and bolster parenting skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research has demonstrated a reciprocal relationship between community violence exposure and disruptive behavior problems among youth. No study to date, however, has explored the potential interaction between violence exposure in early adolescence and genetics. Methods: We explore the gene x environment interaction's impact on teacher‐rated aggressive and impulsive behaviors. Violence exposure during the middle school years was assessed using self‐report. Genetic data collection occurred in emerging adulthood. A polygenic score was created using findings from a conduct disorder symptomatology genome‐wide association study. Results: Three longitudinal classes of teacher reported aggressive and impulsive behavior were identified. We found a significant relationship between violence exposure and class membership. There was a significant GxE interaction, such that those with below average levels of the polygenic score and who were exposed to violence were more likely to be in the moderately high aggressive and impulsive class as compared to the no to low class. Conclusions: These findings highlight the influence of genetic risk together with violence exposure on adolescent problem behavior. Although youth may have little control over the environments in which they live, interventions can and should focus on helping all youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scant research exists on the development of mostly heterosexual identity, the largest sexual orientation minority subgroup. We used longitudinal latent class analysis to characterize the patterns of identification with lesbian, gay, bisexual ( LGB), or mostly heterosexual identities from ages 12 to 23 in 13,859 youth (57% female) in a U.S. national cohort. Three classes emerged: completely heterosexual (88.2%), mostly heterosexual (9.5%), and LGB (2.4%). LGB class youth generally identified with sexual minority identities by ages 12-17. In contrast, mostly heterosexual class youth identified with sexual minority identities gradually, with steady increases in endorsement starting at the age of 14. Developmental implications of these differential patterns are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence has shown visual attention span to be a factor, distinct from phonological skills, that explains single-word identification (pseudo-word/word reading) performance in dyslexia. Yet, little is known about how well visual attention span explains text comprehension. Observing reading comprehension in a sample of 105 high school students with dyslexia, we used a pathway analysis to examine the direct and indirect path between visual attention span and reading comprehension while controlling for other factors such as phonological awareness, letter identification, short-term memory, IQ and age. Integrating phonemic decoding efficiency skills in the analytic model, this study aimed to disentangle how visual attention span and phonological skills work together in reading comprehension for readers with dyslexia. We found visual attention span to have a significant direct effect on more difficult reading comprehension but not on an easier level. It also had a significant direct effect on pseudo-word identification but not on word identification. In addition, we found that visual attention span indirectly explains reading comprehension through pseudo-word reading and word reading skills. This study supports the hypothesis that at least part of the dyslexic profile can be explained by visual attention abilities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared suicide attempts, depressed mood, and drug use of 1,710 Dominican public high school students in New York City (NYC) and 9,573 in the Dominican Republic (DR) in 2009. Compared to DR Dominicans, NYC Dominicans were more likely to have reported lifetime marijuana use (27.6% vs. 1.5%), lifetime inhalant use (11.0% vs. 7.6%), lifetime other drug use (9.9% vs. 3.0%), depressed mood (31.3% vs. 27.2%), and suicide attempt (13.8% vs. 8.8%). The results of this study supported the hypothesis that substantial increases in illicit drug use, especially cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and methamphetamines, among NYC Dominican youth account for their increased risk for suicide attempts compared to their DR Dominican counterparts. It also identified suicide attempts as a public health problem among NYC Dominicans, the largest NYC Latino immigrant population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND We used a latent class analysis ( LCA) to characterize coping styles of urban youth and examined if coping styles moderated the association between experiencing discrimination and bullying and depressive symptoms. METHODS The data come from the 2006 Boston Youth Survey, where students were asked to select 2 behaviors they do most often when they are upset, from a list of 15 options. A total of 927 (75%) students contributed to the LCA analytic sample (44% non-Hispanic Blacks, 29% Hispanics, and 58% girls). Relative and absolute fit indices determined the number of classes. An interaction term between types of discrimination and bullying experienced and coping style tested for moderation. RESULTS The LCA revealed that a 3-class solution had the best fit (Lo-Mendell-Rubin likelihood ratio test, 4-class vs 3-class, p-value .12). The largest coping style class was characterized by high endorsement of distractive coping strategies (59%), the second class was characterized by using supportive coping strategies (27%), and the third class was characterized by using avoidance coping strategies (12%). We found a significant interaction between discrimination and coping style for depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The relationship between experiencing discrimination and depression varied based on coping style and the type of discrimination and bullying experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although studies have established associations between parenting characteristics and adolescent suicidality, the strength of the evidence for these links remains unclear, largely because of methodological limitations, including lack of accounting for possible child effects on parenting. This study addresses these issues by using autoregressive cross-lag models with data on 802 adolescents and their parents across 5 years. Observed parenting behaviors predicted change in adolescent suicidal problems across 1-year intervals even after controlling for adolescents' effects on parenting. Nurturant-involved parenting continued to demonstrate salutary effects after controlling for adolescent and parent internalizing psychopathology: over time, observed nurturant-involved parenting reduced the likelihood of adolescent suicidal problems. This study increases the empirical support implicating parenting behaviors in the developmental course of adolescent suicidality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two hundred and sixty-five participants and their romantic partners were involved in a prospective, longitudinal, and multimethod study during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Guided by the development of the early adult romantic relationships (DEARR) model (Bryant & Conger, 2002), the research (a) investigated mid-adolescent family experiences and individual differences in personality as predictors of qualities in the early adult romantic union and (b) evaluated the degree to which marital beliefs mediated these associations. Structural equation modeling partially supported the mediating effects of marital beliefs. The findings were generally consistent with the DEARR model, suggesting that it is informative to study early adult romantic relationship functioning within a developmental-contextual framework, while simultaneously considering the unique effects of personality and relationship cognitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between characteristics of early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) and changes in the quality of teacher-child interactions. One hundred forty-one early childhood teachers, serving 3- to 5-year-olds in publically funded early education programs in the state of Arkansas, participated in this study. All childcare sites and preschool programs participating in the study received ECMHC through the Arkansas Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Project over a period of 3 years. Findings from this study suggest that teachers exposed to ECMHC through their employment at one of the project sites made significant gains toward high-quality teacher-child interactions relative to their initial levels of quality. In particular, delivery aspects of ECMHC and teachers' experiences of ECMHC predicted change in quality of teacher-child interactions. Findings suggest that ECMHC may be a promising professional development intervention for teachers in early childhood settings and that specific characteristics of consultation may be particularly influential in impacting change in those settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although suicide ideation, plans, and attempts increase during adolescence, it remains unclear whether boys' and girls' risk for these outcomes peaks at different ages. We used longitudinal categorical data ( never, once, 2+ times) from the Family Transitions Project ( N = 1,248 rural European Americans, ages 11-19) to investigate whether yearly prevalence rates of adolescent suicidal episodes follow different patterns by sex. Multiple-group growth models revealed that peak levels of past-year ideation and plans occurred during mid adolescence for girls, but slowly increased through late adolescence for boys. We found that prevalence patterns for attempts were very similar for boys and girls, with both increasing through mid adolescence and then declining, although girls' risk declined slightly more rapidly. This information may help alert gatekeepers to developmental periods during which boys and girls are particularly vulnerable to suicide-related experiences, and also may help inform the timing of preventive efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated the link between neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and the incident of colon and rectal cancer. The study followed 111,129 women included in the Nurses' Health Study who have no history of cancer in 1986, until 2006. Study authors discovered that neighborhood SES is not associated with colon cancer. However, the study revealed that in women with college or greater education, high neighborhood SES lowers the risk of rectal and colon cancer.

This paper provides an introduction to a recently developed conceptual framework—the dimensional–categorical spectrum—for utilizing general factor mixture models to explore the latent structures of psychological constructs. This framework offers advantages over traditional latent variable models that usually employ either continuous latent factors or categorical latent class variables to characterize the latent structure and require an a priori assumption about the underlying nature of the construct as either purely dimension or purely categorical. The modeling process is discussed in detail and then illustrated with data on the delinquency items of Achenbach's child behavior checklist from a sample of children in the National Adolescent and Child Treatment Study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the role of adolescent perceptions of parental behavior and disrupted parenting in the continuity of antisocial behavior across generations. Participants included 430 adolescents and their biological parents assessed during the period from the 9th to 12th grades (9th grade age in years: M=15.09, SD=0.43). Structural equation modeling provided support for the mediating role of adolescent perceptions and disrupted parenting in the familial transmission of antisocial behavior. Furthermore, the results were consistent across parent and adolescent gender. The findings extend previous research by suggesting a significant role for adolescent perceptions of parents' activities in the development and growth of antisocial behavior. Results also support significant stability in antisocial tendencies over the course of adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]