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An estimated 12 million girls aged 15–19 years, and 777,000 girls younger than 15 give birth globally each year. Contexts of war and displacement increase the likelihood of early marriage and childbearing. Given the developmentally sensitive periods of early childhood and adolescence, adolescent motherhood in conflict-affected contexts may put a family at risk intergenerationally. We propose that the specifics of normative neuroendocrine development during adolescence, including increased sensitivity to stress, pose additional risks to adolescent girls and their young children in the face of war and displacement, with potential lifelong consequences for health and development. This paper proposes a developmental, dual-generational framework for research and policies to better understand and address the needs of adolescent mothers and their small children. We draw from the literature on developmental stress physiology, adolescent parenthood in contexts of war and displacement internationally, and developmental cultural neurobiology. We also identify culturally meaningful sources of resilience and provide a review of the existing literature on interventions supporting adolescent mothers and their offspring. We aim to honor Edward Zigler's groundbreaking life and career by integrating basic developmental science with applied intervention and policy.

Young children living in conditions of war, disaster, and displacement are at high risk for developmental difficulties that can follow them throughout their lives. While there is robust evidence supporting the need for early childhood development (ECD) in humanitarian settings, implementation of ECD programming remains sparse, largely due to the lack of evidence of how and why these programs can improve outcomes in humanitarian settings. In order to build the evidence base for ECD in humanitarian settings, we review the current state of implementation research for ECD programming (targeting children 0-8) in humanitarian settings, through a literature review and a series of key informant interviews. Drawing from existing frameworks of implementation research and the findings from our analysis, we present a framework for ECD implementation research in humanitarian settings and propose an agenda for future research.

Limited evidence describes promoting development and reducing violence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a missed opportunity to protect children and promote development and human capital. This study presents a systematic literature review of integrated early childhood development plus violence prevention (ECD+VP) interventions in LMICs. The search yielded 5,244 unique records, of which N = 6 studies met inclusion criteria. Interventions were in Chile, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, and Turkey. Five interventions were parent education programs, including center-based sessions (n = 3) and home visiting (n = 2), while one intervention was a teacher education program. All but one study reported improvements in both child development and maltreatment outcomes. The dearth of evidence on ECD+VP interventions suggests additional research is needed. Integrated ECD+VP interventions may improve multiple child outcome domains while leveraging limited resources in LMICs.

Violence exposure can negatively impact early childhood development (ECD), yet limited research exists in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to determine what effective integration of ECD plus violence prevention (ECD+VP) can look like in LMICs. Seventeen key informants were selected using purposive sampling, representing U.N. agencies, donors, implementers and research organisations. Using open coding of semi-structured interviews, the authors identify five priority areas for promoting an integrated ECD+VP agenda: (i) parenting and parent child relationships, (ii) family systems, (iii) development in an ecological context, (iv) system strengthening and integration, and (v) building and translating evidence.

An unprecedented half of the world’s 57 million out of school children live in conflict-affected countries, and 50% of children of primary-school-age are not attending school. In addition, the unauthorized status of many refugees and migrants worldwide is associated with experiences of social exclusion as access to employment and social services are often unavailable or constrained by host-country governments. Children and youth affected by unauthorized or refugee status are also often excluded from services to support healthy development and learning. This chapter presents a process-oriented developmental framework to guide the development and evaluation of interventions that can buffer the effects of social and political upheaval, displacement, and refugee and unauthorized status on children and youth's development. Rigorous evaluations, showing how programs mitigate the risks of displacement or refugee or unauthorized status, could yield great benefits for the fields of humanitarian aid and refugee and migration policy, making the relative dearth of such evidence even more stunning. This chapter reviews the existing literature from rigorous evaluations of interventions to address these issues, discusses the challenge of measurement of risk and protective factors in these contexts with particular sensitivity to cultural variation, as well as how to address cultural factors in the development and evaluation of interventions. The chapter concludes with specific methodological recommendations for a sound research agenda to further improve our understanding of risk and resilience in development of children and youth affected by war, displacement, and refugee or unauthorized status.

Limited evidence describes promoting development and reducing violence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a missed opportunity to protect children and promote development and human capital. This study presents a systematic literature review of integrated early childhood development plus violence prevention (ECD+VP) interventions in LMICs. The search yielded 5,244 unique records, of which N = 6 studies met inclusion criteria. Interventions were in Chile, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, and Turkey. Five interventions were parent education programs, including center-based sessions (n = 3) and home visiting (n = 2), while one intervention was a teacher education program. All but one study reported improvements in both child development and maltreatment outcomes. The dearth of evidence on ECD+VP interventions suggests additional research is needed. Integrated ECD+VP interventions may improve multiple child outcome domains while leveraging limited resources in LMICs.

In this article, we discuss the need for and value of an integrated developmental intervention science in low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs), and the extent to which this integration of basic developmental science has influenced research on child and youth development interventions in these countries. We also consider how a global developmental science can be advanced by capitalizing on the opportunities provided by cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, experimental, and mixed methods approaches. We argue that designing and evaluating human developmental interventions in LAMICs present an opportunity for both research and policy. Testing contextualized developmental approaches through rigorously evaluated interventions yields the promise of finding more powerful and scalable solutions that can reach more children and youth worldwide. Moreover, a theoretically rich and methodologically rigorous understanding of how interventions effect change in diverse countries and contexts can contribute to the development of a truly global developmental science.

Human development and economic development are intrinsically linked. Guided by human capital theory, economists are increasingly recognizing the importance of a range of other skills – in addition to intelligence and technical skills – for economic success. Until fairly recently, years of education completed, literacy, numeracy and IQ – often used as proxies for cognitive ability – were the main measures used to assess the relationship between human capital and economic development. More recently, researchers and practitioners have acknowledged that skills such as the ability to work in groups, maintain good interpersonal relations and a positive attitude, control impulses and demonstrate goal-directed behavior are all critical to economic productivity and individual success. The economist James Heckman highlighted the importance of these skills, which he originally called “non-cognitive” skills, for economic development in 2006 [Heckman, Stixrud, & Urza, 2006]. Since that time, there has been considerable interest among the international development community in these skills, but also confusion as to how to conceptualize, define, and assess this set of skills, and above all, how to foster them. Recent writings by Heckman refer to these skills as “character skills” while others have termed them “life skills,” “21st century skills,” “socio-emotional skills,” or “soft skills.” Regardless of the term used, many of these skills fall under the more clearly defined umbrella of executive functions and self-regulation. While these skills, or more aptly, competencies necessary for healthy and productive lives have been referred to as “non-cognitive,” in fact cognitive processes are at the heart of self-regulation. Such brain processes allow us to flexibly regulate emotions, control anger or strong emotional reactions and maintain calm under pressure according to the demands of a particular context. These domains of