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Inhibitory control has been widely studied in association with social and academic adjustment. However, prior studies have generally overlooked the potential heterotypic continuity of inhibitory control and how this could affect assessment and understanding of its development. In the present study, we systematically considered heterotypic continuity in four well-established measures of inhibitory control, testing two competing hypotheses: (a) the manifestation of inhibitory control coheres within and across time in consistent, relatively simple ways, consistent with homotypic continuity. Alternatively, (b) with developmental growth, inhibitory control manifests in more complex ways with changes across development, consistent with heterotypic continuity. We also explored differences in inhibitory control as a function of the child's sex, language ability, and the family's socioeconomic status. Children (N = 513) were studied longitudinally at 30, 36, and 42 months of age. Changes in the patterns of associations within and among inhibitory control measures across ages suggest that the measures' meanings change with age, the construct manifests differently across development, and, therefore, that the construct shows heterotypic continuity. We argue that the heterotypic continuity of inhibitory control motivates the use of different combinations of inhibitory control indexes at different points in development in future research to improve validity. Confirmatory factors and growth curves also suggest that individual differences in inhibitory control endure, with convergence among inhibitory control measures by 36 months of age.

Manifestations of internalizing problems, such as specific symptoms of anxiety and depression, can change across development, even if individuals show strong continuity in rank-order levels of internalizing problems. This illustrates the concept of heterotypic continuity, and raises the question of whether common measures might be construct-valid for one age but not another. This study examines mean-level changes in internalizing problems across a long span of development at the same time as accounting for heterotypic continuity by using age-appropriate, changing measures. Internalizing problems from age 14-24 were studied longitudinally in a community sample (N = 585), using Achenbach's Youth Self-Report (YSR) and Young Adult Self-Report (YASR). Heterotypic continuity was evaluated with an item response theory (IRT) approach to vertical scaling, linking different measures over time to be on the same scale, as well as with a Thurstone scaling approach. With vertical scaling, internalizing problems peaked in mid-to-late adolescence and showed a group-level decrease from adolescence to early adulthood, a change that would not have been seen with the approach of using only age-common items. Individuals' trajectories were sometimes different than would have been seen with the common-items approach. Findings support the importance of considering heterotypic continuity when examining development and vertical scaling to account for heterotypic continuity with changing measures.

The predictive relations between social capital depth (high-quality relationships across contexts) and breadth (friendship network extensivity) and early-adult life adjustment outcomes were examined using data from a prospective longitudinal study. Interviews at age 22 yielded (a) psychometrically sound indexes of relationship quality with parents, peers, and romantic partners that served as indicators of a latent construct of social capital depth, and (b) a measure of number of close friends. In follow-up interviews at age 24, participants reported on their behavioral adjustment, educational attainment, and arrests and illicit substance use. Early-adolescent assessments of behavioral adjustment and academic performance served as controls; data on what were construed as interpersonal assets (teacher-rated social skills) and opportunities (family income) were also collected at this time. Results showed that depth was associated with overall better young-adult adjustment, net of prior adjustment, and assets and opportunities. Breadth was only modestly associated with later outcomes, and when its overlap with depth was taken into account, breadth predicted higher levels of subsequent externalizing problems. These findings are consistent with the notion that social capital is multidimensional and that elements of it confer distinct benefits during an important life transition. (Contains 3 tables.)

Although the onset of illicit substance use during adolescence can hit parents abruptly like a raging flood, its origins likely start as a trickle in early childhood. Understanding antecedent factors and how they grow into a stream that leads to adolescent drug use is important for theories of social development as well as policy formulations to prevent onset. Based on a review of the extant literature, we posited a dynamic cascade model of the development of adolescent substance-use onset, specifying that (1) temporally distinct domains of biological factors, social ecology, early parenting, early conduct problems, early peer relations, adolescent parenting, and adolescent peer relations would predict early substance-use onset; (2) each domain would predict the temporally next domain; (3) each domain would mediate the impact of the immediately preceding domain on substance use; and (4) each domain would increment the previous domain in predicting substance use. The model was tested with a longitudinal sample of 585 boys and girls from the Child Development Project, who were followed from prekindergarten through Grade 12. Multiple variables in each of the seven predictor domains were assessed annually through direct observations, testing, peer nominations, school records, and parent-, teacher-, and self-report. Partial least-squares analyses tested hypotheses. Of the sample, 5.2% had engaged in substance use by Grade 7, and 51.3% of the sample had engaged in substance use by Grade 12. Five major empirical findings emerged: (1) Most variables significantly predicted early substance-use onset; (2) predictor variables were significantly related to each other in a web of correlations; (3) variables in each domain were significantly predicted by variables in the temporally prior domain; (4) each domain's variables significantly mediated the impact of the variables in the temporally prior domain on substance-use outcomes; and (5) variables in each domain significantly incremented variables in the previous domain in predicting substance-use onset. A dynamic cascade represented the most parsimonious model of how substance use develops. The findings are consistent with six features of social development theories: (1) multiple modest effects; (2) primacy of early influences; (3) continuity in adaptation; (4) reciprocal transactional development; (5) nonlinear growth in problem behaviors during sensitive periods; and (6) opportunities for change with each new domain. The findings suggest points for interventions, public policies, and economics of substance-use and future inquiry. (Contains 6 figures and 18 tables.)

Groups of adolescents were identified on the basis of developmental trajectories of their families' rules and their parents' knowledge of their activities. Characteristics of the adolescent, peer antisociality, and family context were tested as antecedents. In sum, 404 parent-adolescent dyads provided data for adolescents aged 10-16. Most adolescents were classified into groups characterized by low levels and reductions in family rules over time. However, low socioeconomic status and residence in unsafe neighborhoods increased membership in the group characterized by consistently high levels of family rules. Most adolescents were assigned membership in groups characterized by relatively stable moderate-to-high levels of parental knowledge of their activities. However, greater externalizing problems and peer antisociality, as well as residence in an unsafe neighborhood, increased membership in the group characterized by low and decreasing levels of knowledge. Results suggest that personal and contextual risk antecedes nonnormative decreases in parental knowledge, whereas contextual risk inhibits normative reductions in family rules. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Longitudinal studies have found associations between parenting and the development of conduct problems, and have found that resistant to control temperament moderates these associations. Intervention studies have found associations between intervention-induced changes in parenting and subsequent reductions in children's conduct problems. However, no study to date has evaluated whether parents' self-initiated efforts to change their parenting practices affect children's conduct problems and whether effects depend on children's temperament. The current study asked whether parents' concerted efforts, or campaigns, to increase their involvement and limit-setting were effective in reducing growth in conduct problems from late childhood to early adolescence. It also asked whether the effects of campaigns varied according to children's levels of temperamental resistance to control. Analyses statistically controlled for parenting practices and conduct problems before the campaigns, socioeconomic status, gender, and ethnicity. Results indicated that campaigns that included increased involvement and limit-setting were beneficial only for youths who were rated in early childhood as temperamentally resistant to control.

Variations in amounts of nonparental care across infancy, preschool, early elementary school, and early adolescence were examined. Correlations among overall amounts of care provided little evidence of cross-time continuity; grade 1 self-care and grade 6 unsupervised peer contact incrementally predicted grade 6 problems; and most predictive associations were accounted for by family background and social relationship factors. (Author/SD)

Caspi et al. (2003) found an interaction between the serotonin transporter polymorphism gene (5- HTTLPR) and stressful life events on depression. Subsequent attempts to replicate have been inconsistent. The present research included long aliele variants modified by SNP rs2553I and tested the interaction on adolescents' trajectories of anxious/depressed symptoms, with consideration of possible age effects. Adolescents (N = 574), of whom 436 were genotyped, were followed from ages 12 to 17. Analyses demonstrated a G X E interaction in predicting the development of anxious/depressed symptoms. Specifically, adolescents with lower serotonin transcriptional efficiency (TE) genotypes whose mothers reported more stressful events were reported to show more anxious/depressed symptoms and greater increases in the development of symptoms of anxiety and depression than were higher TE adolescents, particularly at ages 16 and 17. Interactions did not differ by gender. Findings demonstrate that stress may affect adolescents' likelihood of experiencing anxious/depressed symptoms when they have a low serotonin TE (A/G-modified 5-HTTLPR) genotype and suggest that the vulnerability may be stronger in late than early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study regarding the association of GABRA2, a gene associated with adult alcohol dependence, with externalizing behavior's trajectories from adolescence through young adulthood and with parental monitoring. Data on externalizing behavior from the Child Development Project (CDP) were analyzed and assessed. CDP participants were recruited in Nashville and Knoxville in Tennessee and Bloomington, Indiana during the preregistration of kindergarten in 1987 and 1988. Furthermore, the behavior's trajectories, as well as the effect of the gene sequence variants and parental monitoring were also identified through growth mixture modeling. Results show that the influence of GABRA2 on trajectory class membership has been significantly moderated by parental monitoring.

Risky sexual behavior poses significant health risks by increasing sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. Previous research has documented many factors related to risky sexual behavior. This study adds to the literature by proposing a prospective, developmental model of peer factors related to risky sexual behavior. Developmental pathways to risky sexual behavior were examined in a sample of 517 individuals (51% female; 82% European American, 16% African American, 2% other) followed from age 5-27. Structural equation models examined direct and indirect effects of peer rejection (assessed via peer nominations at ages 5, 6, 7, and 8), affiliation with deviant peers (assessed via self-report at ages 11 and 12), and delinquency (assessed via maternal report at ages 10 and 16) on risky sexual behavior (assessed via self-report at age 27). More peer rejection during childhood, affiliation with deviant peers during pre- adolescence, and delinquency in childhood and adolescence predicted more risky sexual behavior through age 27, although delinquency at age 16 was the only risk factor that had a significant direct effect on risky sexual behavior through age 27 above and beyond the other risk factors. Peer rejection was related to subsequent risk factors for girls but not boys. Peer risk factors as early as age 5 shape developmental pathways through childhood and adolescence and have implications for risky sexual behavior into adulthood.

In this prospective longitudinal study of 574 children followed from age 5 to age 21, the authors examine the links between early physical abuse and violent delinquency and other socially relevant outcomes during late adolescence or early adulthood and the extent to which the child's race and gender moderate these links. Analyses of covariance indicated that individuals who had been physically abused in the first 5 years of life were at greater risk for being arrested as juveniles for violent, nonviolent, and status offenses. Moreover, physically abused youth were less likely to have graduated from high school and more likely to have been fired in the past year, to have been a teen parent, and to have been pregnant or impregnated someone in the past year while not married. These effects were more pronounced for African American than for European American youth and somewhat more pronounced for females than for males.

Prior literature suggests that there may be relations between children's sleep disorders or inadequate amounts of sleep and behavioral adjustment. Most relevant studies concern clinical populations, however, and relatively few concern community populations. Moreover, previous studies have not addressed empirically the possible role of family functioning as a factor in the relation between children's sleep and adjustment. The present study, conducted in a predominantly low-income, community sample (N = 202), measured 4- to 5-year-old children's sleep patterns through daily logs kept by mothers, and measured family stress and parenting practices through detailed, multifaceted interviews and incidental observations of parent-child interactions. Children's adjustment, both positive and negative, was measured through preschool teacher reports on multiple occasions. A structural equation model showed that disrupted child sleep patterns (variability in reported amount of sleep, variability in bedtime, and lateness of bedtime) predicted less optimal adjustment in preschool, even after considering the roles of family stress and family management practices.