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The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is a nationally representative, internationally comparable household survey implemented to examine protective and risk factors of child development in developing countries around the world. This introduction describes the conceptual framework, nature of the MICS3, and general analytic plan of articles in this Special Section. The articles that follow describe the situations of children with successive foci on nutrition, parenting, discipline and violence, and the home environment. They address 2 common questions: How do developing and underresearched countries in the world vary with respect to these central indicators of children's development? How do key indicators of national development relate to child development in each of these substantive areas? The Special Section concludes with policy implications from the international findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Experiencing some degree of parenting stress is virtually unavoidable, particularly as children enter early adolescence and assert their independence. In this study, the authors examined how parenting stress attributed to the parent, the child, or the dyad changed in mean level and relative standing across their child's transition to adolescence. The authors also compared mothers and fathers from the same families in terms of parenting stress and explored how one parent's stress affected the other parent's stress. Design. Participants included 222 European American parents (111 mothers and 111 fathers), assessed when their children were 10 and 14 years old. Results. Parenting stress was highly stable from 10 to 14 years. Total parenting stress increased across time, and was attributable to stress due to increased parent-child dysfunctional interaction, not parental distress or stress due to child behavior. Mothers and fathers agreed moderately in their relative standing and in the average levels of parenting stress in the 3 different domains of parenting stress at each time point. Mothers' and fathers' stress across domains were sometimes related. Conclusions. Mothers' and fathers' increased parenting stress across their child's transition to adolescence seems to derive from parent-child interaction rather than qualities of the parent or the child per se. Finding ways to maintain parent-child communication and closeness may protect parents and families from increased stress during this vulnerable time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parental education is linked to child development and wellbeing, but unique and combined contributions of maternal and paternal education have rarely been studied., Aims: This study assessed the individual and joint associations of maternal and paternal education on children's odds of a probable developmental delay., Methods and Procedures: Mothers (N = 3566) from the Upstate KIDS cohort study reported on theirs and the father's highest level of education and completed the Ages and Stages Questionnaires up to 7 times when the child was 4- to 36-months-old. A nonparametric constrained inference technique assessed the association between education and probable developmental delays., Outcomes and Results: Higher levels of maternal and paternal education were protective against child probable developmental delays in years 2 (18, 24 months; p-trends<.001) and 3 (30, 36 months; p-trends<.001), but not year 1 (4, 8, 12 months; p-trend=.486-.832). Trends held adjusting for parental age and race. When adjusting for the other parent's education, only maternal education had unique associations with delays. Among parents with the same or similar education levels, when both parents had one level higher education it was also protective., Conclusions and Implications: Both maternal and paternal education may protect against children's developmental delays in toddlerhood, but maternal education may be particularly important., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Lower neighborhood opportunity, measured by the Child Opportunity Index [COI], is associated with increased pediatric morbidity, but is less frequently used to examine longitudinal well child care. We aimed to evaluate associations between the COI and well child visit [WCV] attendance from birth - <36 months of age., Methods: The Upstate KIDS population-based birth cohort includes children born 2008-2010 in New York state. The exposure, 2010 census tract COI (very low [VL] to very high [VH]), was linked to children's geocoded residential address at birth. The outcome was attended WCVs from birth - <36 months of age. Parents reported WCVs and their child's corresponding age on questionnaires every 4-6 months. These data were applied to appropriate age ranges for recommended WCVs to determine attendance. Associations were modeled longitudinally as odds of attending visits and as mean differences in proportions of WCVs by COI., Results: Among 4650 children, 21% (n = 977) experienced VL or low COI. Children experiencing VL (adjusted OR [aOR] 0.68, 95% CI 0.61, 0.76), low (aOR 0.81, 95% CI 0.73, 0.90), and moderate COI (aOR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81, 0.96), compared to VH COI, had decreased odds of attending any WCV. The estimated, adjusted mean proportions of WCV attendance were lower among children experiencing VL (0.45, P < .01), low (0.53, P = .02), moderate (0.53, P = .05), and high (0.54, P = .03) compared to VH COI (0.56)., Conclusions: Lower COI at birth was associated with decreased WCV attendance throughout early childhood. Reducing barriers to health care access for children experiencing lower COI may advance equitable well child care., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Jordan Tyris reports financial support was provided by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Division of Intramural Research. Kavita Parikh reports a relationship with Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that includes: funding grants. Kavita Parikh reports a relationship with National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that includes: funding grants. Kavita Parikh reports a relationship with National Heart Lung and Blood Institute that includes: funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Academic Pediatric Association. All rights reserved.)

Background: Studies have inconsistently observed that children conceived by IVF or ICSI have higher blood pressure compared to children not conceived by these ARTs., Objective and Rationale: The aim was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of blood pressure measures of offspring conceived by ART and those conceived naturally. Resolving the suspicion of ART as a risk factor of higher blood pressure, and therefore of heart disease, has public health and clinical implications., Search Methods: A biomedical librarian searched the Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. Searches were limited to records published in English since 1978. Grey literature was searched. Inclusion criteria were humans born via infertility treatment (vs no treatment) who underwent a blood pressure assessment. Exclusion criteria were non-human participants, non-quantitative studies, absence of a control group, and specialty populations (e.g. cancer patients only). Two reviewers independently screened each record's title and abstract and full text using Covidence, extracted data using Excel, and assessed bias using the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Quality Assessment Tool for cohort studies., Outcomes: Of 5082 records identified, 79 were included in the systematic review and 36 were included in the meta-analysis of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in ART and non-ART groups. Overall, 34 reports including 40 effect sizes from 25 unique cohorts, compared blood pressure between ART (N = 5229) and non-ART (N = 8509, reference) groups with no covariate adjustment. No standardized mean differences (SMD) in SBP (0.06 per SD of mmHg, 95% CI = -0.05, 0.18) or DBP (0.11, 95% CI = -0.04, 0.25) by treatment were found, but the heterogeneity was considerable (I2=76% for SBP and 87% for DBP). Adjusted analyses were presented in 12 reports, representing 28 effect sizes from 21 unique cohorts (N = 2242 treatment vs N = 37 590 non-treatment). Studies adjusted for varied covariates including maternal (e.g. age, education, body mass index, smoking, pregnancy complications), child (e.g. sex, age, physical activity, BMI, height), and birth characteristics (e.g. birth weight and gestational age). Adjusted results similarly showed no SMD for SBP (-0.03, 95% CI = -0.13, 0.08) or DBP (0.02, 95% CI = -0.12, 0.16), though heterogeneity remained high (I2 = 64% and 86%). Funnel plots indicated a slight publication bias, but the trim and fill approach suggested no missing studies. Removal of five studies which adjusted for birth outcomes (potentially over-adjusting for mediators) made no material difference. Type of treatment (e.g. IVF vs ICSI), period effects by birth year (≤2000 vs >2000), offspring age group (<8, 8-14, 15+), or study location (e.g. Europe) did not modify the results., Wider Implications: In conclusion, conception by ART was not associated with offspring blood pressure in a meta-analysis, although considerable heterogeneity was observed. Given the increasing number of children born using ART, perpetuating a difference in blood pressure would mean unnecessary risk screening for many children/adults on a population level. At a clinical level, couples considering these reproductive technologies have some reassurance that there is no evidence of strong vascular 'programming' due to the techniques used., Registration Number: PROSPERO No. CRD42022374232., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 2024.)

Objective: Forty-three percent of children younger than 5 years in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at risk of not meeting their developmental potential. This study investigated how 3 aspects of national development (national life expectancy, education, and income levels) are associated with early childhood development by influencing 5 domains of nurturing care (caregiving, the learning environment, safety and security, nutrition, and the health of the home environment)., Methods: In total, 159,959 families with children aged 36 to 59 months living in 51 LMICs provided data. National development was measured using 3 indicators (national life expectancy, education, and income levels), and nurturing care was measured using 10 indicators that collectively captured the 5 nurturing care domains. Path analyses examined how nurturing care indicators mediated the effects of national development on early childhood development., Results: Higher national life expectancy was directly associated with more advanced childhood development. Higher national levels of education and income were indirectly associated with more advanced childhood development through aspects of nurturing care, such as reduced caregiver psychological aggression or physical violence, increased learning materials and wired appliances in the home environment, and greater caregiver education and child height-for-age. Greater caregiver cognitive caregiving practices promoted childhood development, regardless of levels of national development., Conclusion: Intervening to promote caregiver education, appropriate discipline strategies, cognitive caregiving practices, and family access to wired appliances, learning materials, and adequate nutrition is key to promoting childhood development in nations with lower levels of national development., Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Written work prepared by employees of the Federal Government as part of their official duties is, under the U.S. Copyright Act, a “work of the United States Government” for which copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code is not available. As such, copyright does not extend to the contributions of employees of the Federal Government.)

We prospectively examined associations between mobility in neighborhood opportunity and early childhood recurrent wheezing/asthma. Downward mobility was associated with developing asthma, but not recurrent wheezing, though associations were attenuated after adjusting for family-level socioeconomic status. Elucidating how neighborhoods impact asthma may inform asthma equity initiatives in early childhood., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD contractsHHSN275201200005C,HHSN267200700019C). J.T. was supported by the NICHD through the Pediatric Scientist Development Program. The Pediatric Scientist Development Program is supported by Award Number K12-HD000850 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and partnering organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Pediatric Society, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the March of Dimes. K.P. reports funding from grant numbers 1R03HS028484-01A1 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 1R01HL161665-01 from the NIH/NHLBI, and 1R25HD111358 from the NIH/NICHD. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends juice introduction after 12 months of age. Juice consumption has been linked to childhood obesity and cardiometabolic risk., Objectives: To examine the prospective relationship between the age of juice introduction and primary and secondary cardiometabolic outcomes in middle childhood., Methods: Parents reported the age of juice introduction on Upstate KIDS questionnaires completed between 4 and 18 months. The quantity and type of juice introduced were not measured. Anthropometry, blood pressure (BP), and arterial stiffness by pulse wave velocity (PWV) were measured for 524 children (age, 8-10 y) at study visits (2017-2019). Age- and gender-adjusted z-scores were calculated using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference for anthropometrics. Plasma lipids, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in a subset of children were also measured (n = 248). Associations between age at juice introduction (categorized as <6, 6 to <12, ≥12 months), and outcomes were estimated using mean differences and odds ratios, applying generalized estimating equations to account for correlations between twins., Results: Approximately 18% of children were introduced to juice at <6 months, 52% between 6 and <12 months, and 30% ≥ 12 months of age. Children who were introduced to juice before 6 months had higher systolic BP (3.13 mmHg; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.52, 5.74), heart rate (4.46 bpm; 95% CI: 1.05, 7.87), and mean arterial pressure (2.08 mmHg; 95% CI: 0.15, 4.00) compared with those introduced ≥12 months after covariate adjustment including sociodemographic factors and maternal prepregnancy body mass index. No adjusted differences in anthropometry, lipids, HbA1c, and CRP levels were found., Conclusions: Early juice introduction during infancy was associated with higher systolic BP, heart rate, and mean arterial pressure in middle childhood. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03106493 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03106493?term=upstate%20KIDS&rank=1)., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Single-pollutant models have linked prenatal PM 2.5 exposure to lower birthweight. However, analyzing air pollutant mixtures better captures pollutant interactions and total effects. Unfortunately, strong correlations between pollutants restrict traditional methods., Objectives: We explored the association between exposure to a mixture of air pollutants during different gestational age windows of pregnancy and birthweight., Methods: We included 4,635 mother-infant dyads from a New York State birth cohort born 2008-2010. Air pollution data were sourced from the EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality model and matched to the census tract centroid of each maternal home address. Birthweight and gestational age were extracted from vital records. We applied linear regression to study the association between prenatal exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO X , SO 2 , and CO and birthweight during six sensitive windows. We then utilized Bayesian kernel machine regression to examine the non-linear effects and interactions within this five-pollutant mixture. Final models adjusted for maternal socio-demographics, infant characteristics, and seasonality., Results: Single-pollutant linear regression models indicated that most pollutants were associated with a decrement in birthweight, specifically during the two-week window before birth. An interquartile range increase in PM 2.5 exposure (IQR: 3.3 µg/m 3 ) from the median during this window correlated with a 34 g decrement in birthweight (95 % CI: -54, -14), followed by SO 2 (IQR: 2.0 ppb; β: -31), PM 10 (IQR: 4.6 µg/m 3 ; β: -29), CO (IQR: 60.8 ppb; β: -27), and NO X (IQR: 7.9 ppb; β: -26). Multi-pollutant BKMR models revealed that PM 2.5 , NO X , and CO exposure were negatively and non-linearly linked with birthweight. As the five-pollutant mixture increased, birthweight decreased until the median level of exposure., Discussion: Prenatal exposure to air pollutants, notably PM 2.5 , during the final two weeks of pregnancy may negatively impact birthweight. The non-linear relationships between air pollution and birthweight highlight the importance of studying pollutant mixtures and their interactions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the children's neighborhood quality, as a measure of place-based social determinants of health, is associated with the odds of developmental delay and developmental performance up to the age of 4 years., Study Design: Mothers of 5702 children from the Upstate KIDS Study, a longitudinal population-based cohort of children born from 2008 through 2010, provided questionnaire data and a subset of 573 children participated in a clinic visit. The Child Opportunity Index 2.0 was linked to home census tract at birth. Probable developmental delays were assessed by the Ages and Stages Questionnaire up to 7 times between 4 and 36 months, and developmental performance was assessed via the Battelle Developmental Inventory at the age of 4 years., Results: In unadjusted models, higher neighborhood opportunity was protective against developmental delays and was associated with slightly higher development scores at age 4. After adjusting for family-level confounding variables, 10-point higher Child Opportunity Index (on a 100-point scale) remained associated with a lower odds of any developmental delay (OR = .966, 95% CI = .940-.992), and specifically delays in the personal-social domain (OR = .921, 95% CI = .886-.958), as well as better development performance in motor (B = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.11-1.48), personal-social (B = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.003-1.28), and adaptive (B = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.04-1.34) domains at age 4., Conclusions: Community-level opportunities are associated with some aspects of child development prior to school entry. Pediatric providers may find it helpful to use neighborhood quality as an indicator to inform targeted developmental screening., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest This study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (contracts #HHSN275201200005C, #HHSN267200700019C). The study sponsor had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the paper for publication. The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Early infant growth trajectories have been linked to obesity risk. The aim of this study was to examine early infant feeding practices in association with anthropometric measures and risk of overweight/obesity in childhood. A total of 2492 children from Upstate KIDS, a population-based longitudinal cohort, were included for the analysis. Parents reported breastfeeding and complementary food introduction from 4 to 12 months on questionnaires. Weight and height were reported at 2-3 years of age and during later follow-up at 7-9 years of age. Age and sex z-scores were calculated. Linear mixed models were conducted, adjusting for maternal and child sociodemographic factors. Approximately 54% of infants were formula-fed at <5 months of age. Compared to those formula-fed, BMI- (adjusted B, -0.23; 95% CI: -0.42, -0.05) and weight-for-age z-scores (adjusted B, -0.16; -0.28, -0.03) were lower for those exclusively breastfed. Infants breastfed for ≥12 months had a lower risk of being overweight (aRR, 0.33; 0.18, 0.59) at 2-3 years, relative to formula-fed infants. Compared to introduction at <5 months, the introduction of fruits and vegetables between 5 and 8 months was associated with lower risk of obesity at 7-9 years (aRR, 0.45; 0.22, 0.93). The type and duration of breastfeeding and delayed introduction of certain complementary foods was associated with lower childhood BMI.

Study Question: Do children born to mothers with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have an adverse cardiometabolic profile including arterial stiffness at 9 years of age compared to other children?, Summary Answer: Children of mothers with PCOS did not have differing cardiometabolic outcomes than children without exposure., What Is Known Already: While women with PCOS themselves have higher risk of cardiometabolic conditions such as obesity and diabetes, the evidence on intergenerational impact is unclear. Given in utero sequalae of PCOS (e.g. hyperandrogenism, insulin resistance), the increased risk could be to both boys and girls., Study Design, Size, Duration: The Upstate KIDS cohort is a population-based birth cohort established in 2008-2010 to prospectively study the impact of infertility treatment on children's health. After ∼10 years of follow-up, 446 mothers and their 556 children attended clinical visits to measure blood pressure (BP), heart rate, arterial stiffness by pulse wave velocity (PWV), mean arterial pressure, lipids, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and anthropometrics., Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Women self-reported ever diagnoses of PCOS ∼4 months after delivery of their children in 2008-2010. Linear regression models applying generalized estimating equations to account for correlation within twins were used to examine associations with each childhood cardiometabolic outcome., Main Results and the Role of Chance: In this cohort with women oversampled on infertility treatment, ∼14% of women reported a PCOS diagnosis (n = 61). We observed similarities in BP, heart rate, PWV, lipids, hsCRP, HbA1c, and anthropometry (P-values >0.05) among children born to mothers with and without PCOS. Associations did not differ by child sex., Limitations, Reasons for Caution: The sample size of women with PCOS precluded further separation of subgroups (e.g. by hirsutism). The population-based approach relied on self-reported diagnosis of maternal PCOS even though self-report has been found to be valid. Participants were predominantly non-Hispanic White and a high proportion were using fertility treatment due to the original design. Differences in cardiometabolic health may be apparent later in age, such as after puberty., Wider Implications of the Findings: Our results provide some reassurance that cardiometabolic factors do not differ in children of women with and without self-reported PCOS during pregnancy., Study Funding/competing Interest(s): Supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States (contracts #HHSN275201200005C, #HHSN267200700019C, #HHSN275201400013C, #HHSN275201300026I/27500004, #HHSN275201300023I/27500017). The authors have no conflicts of interest., Registration Number: NCT03106493., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 2023.)

Research suggests that polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) traits (e.g., hyperandrogenism) may create a suboptimal intrauterine environment and induce epigenetic modifications. Therefore, we assessed the associations of PCOS traits with neonatal DNA methylation (DNAm) using two independent cohorts. DNAm was measured in both cohorts using the Infinium MethylationEPIC array. Multivariable robust linear regression was used to determine associations of maternal PCOS exposure or preconception testosterone with methylation β-values at each CpG probe and corrected for multiple testing by false-discovery rate (FDR). In the birth cohort, 12% (102/849) had a PCOS diagnosis (8.1% PCOS without hirsutism; 3.9% PCOS with hirsutism). Infants exposed to maternal PCOS with hirsutism compared to no PCOS had differential DNAm at cg02372539 [β(SE): -0.080 (0.010); FDR p  = 0.009], cg08471713 [β(SE):0.077 (0.014); FDR p  = 0.016] and cg17897916 [β(SE):0.050 (0.009); FDR p  = 0.009] with adjustment for maternal characteristics including pre-pregnancy BMI. PCOS with hirsutism was also associated with 8 differentially methylated regions (DMRs). PCOS without hirsutism was not associated with individual CpGs. In an independent preconception cohort, total testosterone concentrations were associated with 3 DMRs but not with individual CpGs, though the top quartile of testosterone compared to the lowest was marginally associated with increased DNAm at cg21472377 near an uncharacterized locus (FDR p  = 0.09). Examination of these probes and DMRs indicate they may be under foetal genetic control. Overall, we found several associations among newborns exposed to PCOS, specifically when hirsutism was reported, and among newborns of women with relatively higher testosterone around conception.

Objectives: To investigate childhood growth patterns in twins and to determine whether they show the same signs of excess growth as singletons born small-for-gestational age (SGA), which may confer future cardiometabolic risk., Study Design: In the Upstate KIDS cohort of infants delivered from 2008 through 2010, we compared height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) z-scores at 0-3 and 7-9 years of age, as well as risk of rapid weight gain (RWG) in infancy and overweight/obesity beginning at 2 years, among appropriate-for-gestational age (AGA) twins (n = 1121), AGA singletons (n = 2684), and two groups of SGA twins: uncertain SGA twins (<10th percentile for birthweight by a singleton reference but >10th% by a population-based twin birthweight reference; n = 319) and true SGA twins (<10th% by a population-based twin reference; n = 144)., Results: Compared with AGA twins, both SGA twin groups had lower weight and BMI z-scores at both time points. By 7-9 years, both groups caught up in height with AGA twins. Compared with AGA singletons, z-score differences decreased between 0-3 and 7-9 years for uncertain SGA and true SGA twins, though true SGA twins had the lowest z-scores for all measures. During infancy, twins were more likely to display RWG compared with AGA singletons (RR = 2.06 to 2.67), which may reflect normal catch-up growth, as no twin group had higher prevalence of overweight/obesity at either time point., Conclusions: Though twins had lower height, weight, and BMI z-scores at birth and into toddlerhood, differences were reduced by 7-9 years, with no evidence of pathological growth and no group of twins showing elevated risk of overweight/obesity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Funding: This study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (contracts #HHSN275201200005 C, #HHSN267200700019 C, #HHSN275201400013 C, #HHSN275201300026I/27500004). JLG, EHY, RS, DLP, and KLG have contributed to this work as part of their official duties as employees of the United States Federal Government. Role of Funder: The funder/sponsor did not participate in the work, to include study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Prior Presentation of Findings: Findings from this work have been partially presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research in June, 2022 and at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine in February, 2023., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Purpose: To evaluate whether underlying infertility and mode of conception are associated with childhood behavioral disorders., Methods: Oversampling on fertility treatment exposure using vital records, the Upstate KIDS Study followed 2057 children (of 1754 mothers) from birth to 11 years. Type of fertility treatment and time to pregnancy (TTP) were self-reported. Mothers completed annual questionnaires reporting symptomology, diagnoses, and medications at 7-11 years of age. The information identified children with probable attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety or depression, and conduct or oppositional defiant disorders. We estimated adjusted relative risks (aRR) for disorders by underlying infertility (TTP > 12 months) or treatment exposure groups compared to children born to parents with TTP ≤ 12 months., Results: Children conceived with fertility treatment (34%) did not have an increased risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (aRR): 1.21; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.65), or conduct or oppositional defiant disorders (aRR: 1.31; 0.91, 1.86), but did have an increased risk of anxiety or depression (aRR: 1.63; 1.18, 2.24), which remained elevated even after adjusting for parental mood disorders (aRR: 1.40; 0.99, 1.96). Underlying infertility without the use of treatment was also associated with a risk of anxiety or depression (aRR: 1.82; 95% CI: 0.96, 3.43)., Conclusions: Underlying infertility or its treatment was not associated with risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Observations of increased anxiety or depression require replication., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Currently serving as Associate Editor on Annals of Epidemiology., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Shorter gestational age (GA) is a risk factor of developmental delay. GA is usually estimated clinically from last menstrual period and ultrasound. DNA methylation (DNAm) estimates GA using sets of cytosine-guanine-sites coupled with a clock algorithm. Therefore, DNAm-estimated GA may better reflect biological maturation. A DNAm GA greater than clinical GA, known as gestational age acceleration (GAA), may indicate epigenetic maturity and holds potential as an early biomarker for developmental delay risk. We used data from the Upstate KIDS Study to examine associations of DNAm GA and developmental delay within the first 3 years based on the Ages & Stages Questionnaire® (n = 1010). We estimated DNAm GA using two clocks specific to the Illumina Methylation EPIC 850K, the Haftorn clock and one developed from the Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction study, in which women were followed to detect pregnancy at the earliest time possible. Among singletons, each week increase in DNAm GA was protective for overall delay (odds ratio:0.74; 95% confidence interval:0.61-0.90) and delay in all domains except for problem-solving skills. Among twins, we observed similar point estimates but lower precision. Results were similar for clinical GA. GAA was largely not associated with developmental delays. In summary, either DNAm GA or clinical GA at birth, but not epigenetic maturity (i.e. GAA), was associated with decreased odds of developmental delay in early childhood. Our study does not support using DNAm GA or GAA as separate risk factors for future risk of developmental delay within the first 3 years of age., (Published by Oxford University Press 2023.)

Background: Young children's digital media use may adversely affect child development, but the mechanisms of this association are unclear. We evaluated whether screen time displaces reading and peer play time, which are subsequently associated with child development., Methods: When children were 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months, mothers (n = 3894) reported the time their children spent on screens, being read to by an adult, and playing with other children. At 36 months, mothers completed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire©, an assessment of their child's developmental status., Results: In unadjusted models, screen time from 12 to 36 months was not associated with reading but was associated with less time engaging in play with peers. In adjusted models accounting for developmental delay at 12 months, family and child characteristics, screen time was not directly associated with developmental delay. More peer play time was associated with a lower likelihood of developmental delay, and having higher screen time increased the likelihood of developmental delay indirectly through reduced peer play time. Results were similar for developmental delays in fine and gross motor, communication, and personal-social domains., Conclusions: Screen time in early childhood did not displace reported time spent reading, but did displace reported peer play time., Impact: Among children 1-3 years of age, more screen time was associated with less time engaged in peer play but not less reading with an adult. Having higher screen time from 1 to 3 years increased the odds of developmental delay indirectly through reduced peer play time. Ensuring that children engage in adequate time playing with peers may offset the negative associations between screen time and child development., (© 2022. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

Objective: We used the Social Relations Model to inspect the individual- and dyad-specific components of attachment among young adults and their parents, and examined relations between these components and parenting stress., Background: Young adulthood is a transitional period in which the whole family is concerned with "launching" the young adult and exploring new ways to interact with and attach to one another. However, research on young adulthood attachment has primarily focused on young adults' attachment style rather than reciprocal attachments among family members., Method: When the young adults were age 23, mothers, fathers, and young adults from 156 families reported their mutual attachment security. At ages 18 and 23, parents of the adolescent/young adult reported their parenting stress in interparental and parent-child relationship domains., Results: Attachment in the families of young adults can be separated into three components: 1) actor effects (each family member's internal working model of attachment), 2) partner effects (characteristics of each family member as an attachment figure), and 3) relationship effects (dyad-specific attachment between family members). Increase of parenting stress in a family subsystem (dyad of family members) predicted attachment insecurity within the subsystem. Additionally, compensatory effects across family subsystems were observed., Conclusion: Attachment in the family during young adulthood is explained by family members' own characteristics as well as dyad-specific interactions and is predicted by parenting stress in family subsystems.

Background: Maternal antenatal depression experienced around conception or during pregnancy may adversely affect child development. This study explores three potential mechanisms of the effects of antenatal depression on children's developmental delays at 2-3 years: gestational age of the child, continued depressive symptoms postnatally, and interrupted breastfeeding practices., Methods: Mothers (N = 2888) of 3450 children, including 2303 singletons and 1147 multiples from the Upstate KIDS cohort provided data. Linked hospital discharge data was combined with mothers' reports to identify women with moderate to severe antenatal depression. Gestational age was extracted from birth certificates. Mothers completed a depression screener at 4 months postpartum, reported about their breastfeeding practices from 4 to 12 months postpartum, and completed a developmental delay screener when children were 24, 30, and 36 months., Results: In unadjusted path analysis models, mothers with antenatal depression had more postnatal depressive symptoms and breastfed fewer months, which translated into children being more likely to have developmental delays. Gestational age was not a mediator. Effects were similar across girls and boys and singletons and twins, and largely held when adjusting for covariates., Limitations: Main limitations were the relatively advantaged sample and reliance on maternal report., Conclusions: Maternal antenatal depression may impact child development through continued depressive symptoms in the postpartum period and through reduced breastfeeding duration suggesting additional targets for intervention., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Methods: Twenty maternal parenting practices and 15 behaviors of their 5½- month-old infants in a U.S. national sample ( N = 360) and 9 international samples ( N = 653) were microcoded from videorecords of naturalistic interactions at home and aggregated into domains. Altogether, the samples were recruited from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, as well as the United States., Background and Rationale: A previous test of three competing models of the nature and structure of the maternal parenting practices supported a hybrid 2 factor/6 domain model as superior to a 1-factor dimensional model and a multi-factor style model: Maternal parenting practices are structured into nurture, physical, social, didactic, material, and language domains undergirded by dyadic and extradyadic factors. Infant behaviors were organized into physical, social, exploration, nondistress vocalization, and distress communication domains. The current study sought to examine links connecting these previously identified maternal domains and factors with infant behavior domains using structural equation models., Results: Mothers' dyadic factor is associated with infant social behaviors with mother; and mothers' extradyadic factor and encouragement of infant physical development are associated with infant exploration of their immediate physical environment and physical development. Infant distress communication (and less nondistress vocalization) is associated with more maternal nurturing., Discussion: Mothers' parenting practices in the middle of the first year of infant life are commonly structured and adapted to specific needs and developmental tasks of infants. Evaluations of mother-infant interactions with national and international samples permit a wide yet judicious analysis of common vs. specific models of mother-infant relationships., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Background: Feeding problems are common in early childhood, and some evidence suggests that feeding problems may be associated with psychopathology. Few prospective studies have explored whether toddler feeding problems predict later psychopathology., Methods: Mothers of 1,136 children from the Upstate KIDS cohort study provided data when children were 2.5 and 8 years of age. Food refusal (picky eating) and mechanical/distress feeding problems and developmental delays were assessed at 2.5 years. Child eating behaviors (enjoyment of food, food fussiness, and emotional under and overeating) and child psychopathology (attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), oppositional-defiant (OD), conduct disorder (CD), and anxiety/depression) symptoms were assessed at 8 years., Results: Mechanical/distress feeding problems at age 2.5, but not food refusal problems, were associated with ADHD, problematic behavior (OD/CD), and anxiety/depression symptoms at 8 years in models adjusting for eating behaviors at 8 years and child and family covariates. Associations with mechanical/distress feeding problems were larger for ADHD and problematic behavior than anxiety/depression symptoms, though all were modest. Model estimates were similar for boys and girls., Conclusions: Much of the research on feeding problems focuses on picky eating. This study suggests that early mechanical and mealtime distress problems may serve as better predictors of later psychopathology than food refusal. Parents and pediatricians could monitor children with mechanical/distress feeding problems for signs of developing psychopathology., (© 2022 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

This study coordinates moral value development in adolescence, parenting style, and gender with issues of stability and specificity. The primary research question asked whether parenting styles of mothers and fathers influence the development of adolescent moral values, and secondary research questions asked whether adolescent moral values were stable and whether gender moderated predictive relations of parenting styles and adolescent moral values. At 14 and 18 years, a sample of 246 adolescents completed the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure - Short Form; at 14 years, mothers and fathers self-reported their parenting styles using the Parental Authority Questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses established a 2-factor model of adolescent moral values across the two ages: Life and Social Contract captured prosocial aspects of morality that are left to individual choice, and Law and Social Order captured acts that are legally or morally obligatory for individuals to perform. Structural equation modeling investigated relations between parental parenting styles and the two adolescent moral value factors, with adolescent age, gender, and family SES as covariates. Both moral values factors had high stabilities across the 4-year period. Mothers' authoritarian parenting at 14 years, but not their authoritative or permissive parenting, negatively predicted Life and Social Contract moral values, but not Law and Social Order, in adolescents at 18 years, more so for boys. Fathers' parenting styles did not predict adolescents' moral values at 18 years. Girls and adolescents from higher-SES families had higher Life and Social Contract moral values at 14 years; boys experienced more increases in Life and Social Contract moral values from 14 to 18 years than girls. Stability and parental predictive validity of moral values for adolescence are discussed., (Published 2022. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: To evaluate whether children conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART) or ovulation induction (OI) have greater cardiometabolic risk than children conceived without treatment., Design: Clinical assessments in 2018-2019 in the Upstate KIDS cohort., Setting: Clinical sites in New York., Patient(s): Three hundred thirty-three singletons and 226 twins from 448 families., Intervention(s): Mothers reported their use of fertility treatment and its specific type at baseline and approximately 4 months after delivery. High validity of the self-reported use of ART was previously confirmed. The children were followed up from infancy through 8-10 years of age. A subgroup was invited to participate in clinic visits., Main Outcome Measure(s): The measurements of blood pressure (BP), arterial stiffness using pulse wave velocity, anthropometric measures, and body fat using bioelectrical impedance analysis were performed (n = 559). The levels of plasma lipids, C-reactive protein, and hemoglobin A1c were measured using blood samples obtained from 263 children., Result(s): The average age of the children was 9.4 years at the time of the clinic visits Approximately 39% were conceived using fertility treatment (18% using ART and 21% using OI). Singletons conceived using fertility treatment (any type or using ART or OI specifically) did not statistically differ in systolic or diastolic BP, heart rate, or pulse wave velocity. Singletons conceived using OI were smaller than singletons conceived without treatment, but the average body mass index of the latter was higher (z-score: 0.41 [SD, 1.24]) than the national norms. Twins conceived using either treatment had lower BP than twins conceived without treatment. However, twins conceived using OI had significantly higher arterial stiffness (0.59; 95% CI, 0.03-1.15 m/s), which was attenuated after accounting for maternal BP (0.29; 95% CI, -0.03 to 0.46 m/s). Twins did not significantly differ in size or fat measures across the groups. The mode of conception was not associated with the levels of lipids, C-reactive protein, or glycosylated hemoglobin., Conclusion(s): Clinical measures at the age of 9 years did not indicate greater cardiometabolic risk in children conceived using ART or OI compared with that in children conceived without treatment., Clinical Trial Registration Number: ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT03106493., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objectives: To assess the association between age of juice introduction and child anthropometry after the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their guidelines in 2017 to recommend delaying juice introduction until at least 12 months of age (previously 6 months), citing concerns of weight gain., Study Design: Upstate KIDS is a prospective birth cohort with follow-up through 9 years of age. Juice introduction was assessed on parental questionnaires at 4-18 months and categorized as <6, 6-<12, and ≥12 months. Child height and weight were recorded at 2-3 and 7-9 years of age. Weight-, height-, and body mass index (BMI)-for-age and sex z scores were calculated using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference. Overweight/obese and obese status were categorized as BMI-for-age z score ≥85th and ≥95th percentiles. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and parental BMI, we assessed the associations of age of juice introduction with child anthropometry., Results: Prevalence of childhood obesity was 16.4% at 2-3 (n = 1713) and 22.8% at 7-9 years of age (n = 1283). Juice introduction at <6 vs ≥12 months was associated with higher weight-for-age z score at 2-3 years of age (mean difference = 0.21; 95% CI 0.04-0.37). At 7-9 years of age, juice introduction at <6 vs ≥12 months was related to higher BMI-for-age (0.38; 0.12-0.64) and weight-for-age z scores (0.27; 0.06-0.49). Risk of developing overweight/obesity and obesity was 1.54 (0.99-2.38) and 2.17 (1.11-4.23) times higher among children with juice introduced at <6 months. No associations were found with juice introduced at 6-<12 vs ≥12 months., Conclusions: Risk of developing overweight/obesity or obesity is higher among children introduced to juice before 6 months of age compared with ≥12 months., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

There is limited research regarding the continuity, stability, and role of country of origin in preterm infant temperament across the first year of life. This prospective longitudinal study examined patterns of mean-level continuity and individual-differences stability of select scales of temperament at 6 and 12 months in preterm infants from three countries, Chile (n = 47), United Kingdom (n = 44), and United States (n = 50). Temperament was assessed with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire and observed using the Bayley Behavior Rating Scale. Continuity and stability across infant age, country effects, and interactions of country and age on preterm infant temperament were examined. Chilean mothers rated infants higher in soothability, duration of orienting, and orientation/engagement compared with mothers from the United Kingdom and/or United States. Continuity of temperament from 6 to 12 months varied by country: Chilean mothers reported increasing smiling and laughter and activity level from 6 to 12 months, and mothers from the United Kingdom reported decreasing smiling and laughter and increasing fear from 6 to 12 months. Infant temperament was stable in all three countries. Correlations evidenced low concordance between maternal reports and examiner observations of infant temperament at 12 months. However, among Chilean infants, higher maternal reported activity level was associated with higher examiner observed orientation/engagement score., (© 2022 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.)

Objective: To determine whether feeding problems are indicators of developmental delay., Study Design: In this prospective longitudinal cohort study, mothers of 3597 children (49% female, 35% multiples) reported on their children's feeding problems and developmental delays (using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire [ASQ]) when children were age 18, 24, and 30 months. Average scores of feeding problems were computed at each age, as well as a categorical score indicating a persistently high number of feeding problems ≥90th percentile across time. The Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-2) was used to assess development in 5 domains for a subset of children at 4 years., Results: In adjusted analyses, feeding problems (per point increase) were increasingly associated with 6 ASQ domains from 18 months (OR, 1.30-1.98) to 24 months (OR, 2.07-2.69) to 30 months (OR, 3.90-5.64). Compared with children who never experienced feeding problems, children who experienced a high number of feeding problems at 1 or 2 time points were more than twice as likely to have a delay on all ASQ domains (OR, 2.10-2.50), and children who experienced a high number of feeding problems at all 3 time points were ≥4-fold more likely to have a delay on all ASQ domains (OR, 3.94-5.05). Children with 1-point higher feeding problems at 30 months scored 3-4 points lower in all BDI-2 domains at 4 years., Conclusions: Frequent feeding problems, especially those that persist into the third year, could be used to identify children at risk for developmental delay for more targeted screening., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Maternal prenatal stress is associated with physiologic and adverse mental health outcomes in the offspring, but the underlying biologic mechanisms are unknown. We examined the associations of maternal perceived stress, including preconception exposure, with DNA methylation (DNAm) alterations in the cord blood buffy coats of 358 singleton infants., Methods: Maternal perceived stress was measured prior to and throughout pregnancy in a cohort of women enrolled in Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction Trial (EAGeR) trial. Perceived stress assessments based on a standardized Likert-scale were obtained in periconception (~2 months preconception and 2-8 weeks of gestation) and pregnancy (8-36 weeks of gestation). Cumulative perceived stress was estimated by calculating the predicted area under the curve of stress reported prior to and during pregnancy. DNAm was measured by the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip. Multivariable robust linear regression was used to assess associations of perceived stress with individual CpG probes., Results: Based on a 0 to 3 scale, average reported preconception and early pregnancy stress were 0.76 (0.60) and 0.67 (0.50), respectively. Average mid- to late-pregnancy stress, based on a 0 to 10 scale, was 4.9 (1.6). Neither periconception nor pregnancy perceived stress were associated with individual CpG sites in neonatal cord blood (all false discovery rate [FDR] >5%)., Conclusion: No effects of maternal perceived stress exposure on array-wide cord blood neonatal methylation differences were found., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Background: Preterm birth is associated with lower neurocognitive performance. However, whether children's neurodevelopment improves with longer gestations within the full-term range (37-41 weeks) is unclear. Given the high rate of obstetric intervention in the USA, it is critical to determine whether long-term outcomes differ for children delivered at each week of term., Methods: This secondary analysis included 39 199 live-born singleton children of women who were admitted to the hospital in spontaneous labour from the US Collaborative Perinatal Project (1959-76). At each week of term gestation, we evaluated development at 8 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 4 years using the Stanford-Binet IQ (SBIQ) domains and 7 years using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC) and Wide-Range Achievement Tests (WRAT)., Results: Children's neurocognitive performance improved with each week of gestation from 37 weeks, peaking at 40 or 41 weeks. Relative to those delivered at 40 weeks, children had lower neurocognitive scores at 37 and 38 weeks for all assessments except SBIQ and WISC Performance IQ. Children delivered at 39 weeks had lower Bayley Mental (β = -1.18; confidence interval -1.77, -0.58) and Psychomotor (β = -1.18; confidence interval -1.90, -0.46) scores. Results were similar for within-family analyses comparing siblings, with the addition of lower WRAT scores at 39 weeks., Conclusions: The improvement in development scores across assessment periods indicates that each week up to 40 or 41 weeks of gestation is important for short- and long-term cognitive development, suggesting 40-41 weeks may be the ideal delivery window for optimal neurodevelopmental outcomes., (© The Author(s) 2021; all rights reserved. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association.)

Play during childhood is essential to growth and learning. Little is known about whether categories of toys moderate play behaviors at different ages, or how children interact with toys that are simple, appropriate, or complex for their developmental level. Two hundred and forty-three children between the ages of 1 and 8 years, divided into four age groups, played with toys that were targeted to their age group as well as toys aimed at one age group younger and older. Toys fell into nine different categories. Whether children fully utilized each toy was evaluated. Analyses examined how children's utilization of toys was affected by the age-appropriateness of the toy, the category of toy, and the child's age. Considering all age groups and toys, children were less likely to fully utilize toys targeted toward older children than age-appropriate toys, but this effect was moderated by the toy category and the child's age.

Objective: To test three competing models of the nature and structure of maternal parenting practices with infants in U.S. national and multiple international samples. The three models were a one-factor dimensional model, a multi-factor style model, and a hybrid two-factor/six-domain model. Undertaking this evaluation of parenting with national and international samples permits a wide yet judicious analysis of culture-common versus culture-specific models of maternal parenting practices with young infants., Method: Basic caregiving practices of primiparous mothers with their 5-month-old infants during naturalistic interactions at home in nine different cultures were videorecorded, microcoded, and analyzed. Individual practices were organized into nurture, physical, social, didactic, material, and language domains., Results: In Study 1 using a U.S. national sample ( N = 360), analyses of the structure of mothers' parenting practices yielded a best-fitting two-factor/six-domain structure. In Study 2, using a 9-nation sample ( N = 653), the two-factor/six-domain structure was largely replicated and partial metric invariance achieved., Conclusions: Mothers' parenting in the middle of the first year of their infant's life is commonly structured and adapted to the universal needs and developmental tasks of infants' surviving and thriving., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest Disclosures Each author signed a form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No authors reported any financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described.

In the present study, we investigated the ways in which the ideographic goal descriptions and goal appraisals of European American high school seniors reflect potentials for intentional self-development during emerging adulthood (EA), a lifespan phase characterized by increasing levels of freedom and decreasing age-graded, socially sanctioned developmental norms. Additionally, we investigated whether variation in participants' goal appraisals and the motivational qualities emergent in their goal descriptions would predict variation in dimensions of identity development, both concurrently at age 18 and prospectively at age 23. Results of an exploratory, mixed method analysis of participants' ( N  = 129, 56.6% male, M age  = 18.24, SD = 0.37) goal data revealed diversity in education and work goals, strong potentials for intentional self-development reflected across goal appraisals, and more nuanced reflections of intentional self-development across the motivational qualities emergent in goal descriptions. Results partially supported the hypothesis that goal appraisals and motivational qualities that reflect potentials for intentional self-development would predict kindred processes of identity development across the first five years of EA. These findings contribute to a nascent empirical literature focused on the interrelationship of goal and identity constructs during EA and suggest new avenues for future research., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10804-021-09386-0., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that if parents choose to introduce juice, they wait until ≥12 months, citing concerns of obesity and dental caries., Objectives: We sought to identify correlates of early juice introduction (<6 months) and determine whether early introduction establishes a pattern of sugary beverage intake in childhood., Methods: Upstate KIDS is a prospective birth cohort study with follow-up through 7 years (n = 4989). The age of juice introduction was assessed from responses on periodic questionnaires from 4-18 months and categorized as <6,  6 to <12, and ≥12 months. Sociodemographic information was reported using vital records or maternal questionnaires. At 24, 30, and 36 months and 7 years, mothers reported their child's regular juice, soda, water, and milk intakes. The analysis was restricted to singletons and 1 randomly selected twin from each pair with information on juice introduction (n = 4067). We assessed associations of sociodemographic correlates with juice introduction using Cox proportional hazard models. The relations of juice introduction with beverage intake were evaluated using Poisson or logistic regression for adjusted risk ratios (aRR) or ORs, adjusting for sociodemographic covariates and total beverage intake., Results: Of the mothers, 25% and 74% introduced juice prior to 6 and 12 months, respectively. Younger maternal age; black or Hispanic race/ethnicity; lower educational attainment; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children participation (yes); smoking during pregnancy; a higher pre-pregnancy BMI; a lower household income; and living in a townhouse/condominium or mobile home were associated with earlier juice introduction. Earlier juice introduction was related to a higher childhood juice intake, any soda intake, and lower water intake, holding total beverage intake constant [aRR, 1.5 (95% CI: 1.3-1.7; P-trend < 0.0001); adjusted OR 1.6 (95% CI: 1.0-2.4; P-trend = 0.01); aRR 0.9 (95% CI: 0.8-0.9; P-trend < 0.0001), respectively]., Conclusions: Markers of lower socioeconomic status are strongly associated with earlier juice introduction, which, in turn, relates to sugary beverage intake in childhood, potentially replacing water., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition 2021.)

Background: Limited data exist about the potential developmental delays in appropriately grown twins; furthermore, twins may be at higher risk of developmental delay than singletons. Small-for-gestational age is a risk factor for developmental delay and is based on singleton birthweight references, which may misclassify small-for-gestational age in a subset of appropriately grown twins., Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the risk of developmental delay in twins classified as small-for-gestational age according to the twin and singleton birthweight references (<10th percentile)., Study Design: In a birth cohort (2008-2010) of twins (n=1790) and singletons (n=3829) where parents completed Ages & Stages Questionnaires for child development between 4 and 36 months, we used a US population-based birthweight reference to categorize singletons and twins as small-for-gestational age. Uncertain small-for-gestational age twins were defined as small-for-gestational age by a singleton reference (<10th percentile) and not by a twin reference, and twin-reference small-for-gestational age twins were defined as small-for-gestational age by a twin reference. Adjusted generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate the odds of failure on any Ages & Stages Questionnaires domain and on each of the 5 domains (fine motor, gross motor, communication, personal-social, and problem-solving domains); random intercepts accounted for repeated measures and twin clustering., Results: Compared with non-small-for-gestational age twins (>10th percentile), uncertain small-for-gestational age twins did not have higher odds of Ages & Stages Questionnaires failure (adjusted odds ratio, 1.28; 95% confidence interval, 0.91-1.80). Compared with non-small-for-gestational age singletons, both twin-reference and uncertain small-for-gestational age twins had higher odds of Ages & Stages Questionnaires failure, with the highest risk conferred to twin-reference small-for-gestational age twins (twin-reference adjusted odds ratio, 3.14 [95% confidence interval, 1.94-5.10]; uncertain adjusted odds ratio, 2.35 [95% confidence interval, 1.69-3.26]; P<.01 for trend). Results remained consistent when limiting analyses to term births (≥37 weeks' gestation)., Conclusion: Although a singleton reference may overestimate small-for-gestational age in twins, the findings indicated that a singleton birthweight reference may be appropriate for twins because it identifies more twins at risk of developmental delay than a twin reference., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

A central concern of family psychology and developmental science is assessing the stability or instability (i.e., relative standing) of family-level constructs across time. Almost exclusively, such constructs have heretofore been unitary variables. Using a longitudinal design, for the first time, this study traces the developmental stability of the dyadic construct of mother-child relationship quality from infancy to adolescence. Multiple age-appropriate measures converging on the construct of relationship quality were assessed in 375 mother-child dyads at 4 times: 5 months and 4, 10, and 14 years. Mother-child relationship quality showed stability (βs = .18-.53) in all families together, in families with girls and boys, and when family socioeconomic status was controlled. Consistent patterns of relationship quality are developmentally significant in themselves, convert to broader behavioral tendencies in children, and guide more effective intervention designs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are persistent organic pollutants which may alter prenatal development, potentially through epigenetic modifications. Prior studies examining PFOS/PFOA and DNA methylation have relatively few subjects (n < 200) and inconsistent results. We examined relations of PFOA/PFOS with DNA methylation among 597 neonates in the Upstate KIDS cohort study. PFOA/PFOS were quantified in newborn dried blood spots (DBS) using high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. DNA methylation was measured using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip with DNA extracted from DBS. Robust linear regression was used to examine the associations of PFOA/PFOS with DNA methylation at individual CpG sites. Covariates included sample plate, estimated cell type, epigenetically derived ancestry, infant sex and plurality, indicators of maternal socioeconomic status, and prior pregnancy loss. In supplemental analysis, we restricted the analysis to 2242 CpG sites previously identified as Correlated Regions of Systemic Interindividual Variation (CoRSIVs) which include metastable epialleles. At FDR<0.05, PFOA concentration >90th percentile was related to DNA methylation at cg15557840, near SCRT2, SRXN1; PFOS>90th percentile was related to 2 CpG sites in a sex-specific manner (cg19039925 in GVIN1 in boys and cg05754408 in ZNF26 in girls). When analysis was restricted to CoRSIVs, log-scaled, continuous PFOS concentration was related to DNA methylation at cg03278866 within PTBP1. In conclusion, there was limited evidence of an association between high concentrations of PFOA/PFOS and DNA methylation in newborn DBS in the Upstate KIDS cohort. These findings merit replication in populations with a higher median concentration of PFOA/PFOS., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Attention is the gateway to perceptual, cognitive, and socioemotional development in humans. We observed 104 5-month-old term and preterm infants and their mothers in social interactions to address three questions about the role of maturation in orienting and responding to attention. We used a fine-grained coding system to allow parallel comparisons across infant and maternal orienting, and sequential analysis to evaluate infant and maternal responding to attention. Orienting and responding to attention differed for attention to people versus objects, as did the relations between maturity and attention. We conclude that maturity contributes to orienting and responding to attention and that orienting and responding to attention are specific rather than homogenous. We discuss the implications of these conclusions for future studies of how attention influences cognitive and communicative development., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To identify homogenous depressive symptom trajectories over the postpartum period and the demographic and perinatal factors linked to different trajectories., Methods: Mothers ( N = 4866) were recruited for Upstate KIDS, a population-based birth cohort study, and provided assessments of depressive symptoms at 4, 12, 24, and 36 months postpartum. Maternal demographic and perinatal conditions were obtained from vital records and/or maternal report., Results: Four depression trajectories were identified: low-stable (74.7%), characterized by low symptoms at all waves; low-increasing (8.2%), characterized by initially low but increasing symptoms; medium-decreasing (12.6%), characterized by initially moderate but remitting symptoms; and high-persistent (4.5%), characterized by high symptoms at all waves. Compared with the high-persistent group, older mothers (maximum odds ratio [OR] of the 3 comparisons: 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05 to 1.15) or those with college education (maximum OR: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.36 to 4.68) were more likely to be in all other symptom groups, and mothers who had a history of mood disorder (minimum OR: 0.07; 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.10) or gestational diabetes mellitus diagnosis (minimum OR: 0.23; 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.68) were less likely to be in other symptom groups. Infertility treatment, multiple births, prepregnancy BMI, gestational hypertension, and infant sex were not differentially associated with depressive symptom trajectories., Conclusions: One-quarter of mothers in a population-based birth cohort had elevated depressive symptoms in 3 years postpartum. Screening for maternal depression beyond the postpartum period may be warranted, particularly after mood and diabetic disorders., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2020 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

The transaction of children's core language skill and their home learning environment was assessed across 5 waves from infancy (15 months) up to adolescence (11 years) in 1,751 low-socioeconomic status families. Child core language skill and the quality of the home learning environment were each stable across waves, and the two covaried at each wave. Over and above these stabilities and concurrent correlations, and net child social competence and maternal education, higher quality stimulation and support in the home learning environment at each wave advanced children's core language skill at each subsequent wave, and reciprocally children with more advanced core language skill at each wave stimulated a higher quality home learning environment at each subsequent wave. These transactions were robust across child gender, ethnicity, birth order, and developmental risk. This bidirectionality shows that children consistently affect their environments from infancy to adolescence and underscores that the home learning environment is a worthy intervention target for improving core language skill in children regardless of age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Monitoring violence against women and children, and understanding risk factors and consequences of such violence, are key parts of the action plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015., Objective: We examined how men's and women's views about the acceptability of husband-to-wife violence are related within households and how views about the acceptability of husband-to-wife violence are related to beliefs in the necessity of using corporal punishment to rear children and to reported use of corporal punishment with children., Participants and Setting: We used nationally representative samples of men and women in 37,641 households in 21 low- and middle-income countries that participated in UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey., Methods: We conducted a series of logistic regression models, controlling for clustering within country, with outcomes of whether participants believe corporal punishment is necessary in childrearing, and whether a child in their household experienced corporal punishment in the last month., Results: In 46 % of households, men, women, or both men and women believed husbands are justified in hitting their wives. Children in households in which both men and women believe husbands are justified in hitting their wives had 1.83 times the odds of experiencing corporal punishment as children in households in which neither men nor women believe husbands are justified in hitting their wives (95 % CI: 1.12, 2.97)., Conclusions: Working toward the realization of SDG 5 and SDG 16 involving prevention of violence against women and children, respectively, should be complementary undertakings., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Variations in parenting across large populations have rarely been described. It also remains unclear which specific domains of parenting are important for which specific offspring developmental outcomes. This study describes different domains of early parenting behaviours and their genetic heritability, then determines the extent to which specific domains of parenting are associated with later offspring outcomes. Parenting behaviours (birth to 3 years) were extracted from self-reported questionnaires administered to 12,358 mothers from the UK-based birth cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and modelled as a latent factor using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Genetic heritability and correlations between parenting factors were estimated using genome-wide complex trait analysis. Three parenting factors were derived: parental enjoyment, conflictual relationships and stimulation; all showed low genetic heritability. There was no evidence of association between parental enjoyment and offspring behavioural disorders and depressed mood. Stimulation was associated with better English grades (standardised β = 0.195, p < 0.001) and enjoyment was negatively associated with English grades (β = - 0.244, p =  < 0.001). Conflictual relationships were associated with higher risk of offspring behavioural disorders (β = 0.228, p = 0.010) and depressed mood (β = 0.077, p = 0.005). Higher enjoyment reduced the association between conflict and behavioural problems (interaction term β = 0.113, p < 0.001). We found evidence for predictive specificity of early parenting domains for offspring outcomes in adolescence. Early stimulation, unlike enjoyment, promoted later educational achievement. Conflictual relationships were associated with greater risk of behavioural problems, buffered by increased enjoyment. These findings hold implications for parenting interventions, guiding their focus according to the specificity of parenting domains and their long-term outcomes in children.

Theory of Mind (ToM) and the structure of intelligence were investigated in 115 4-year-olds. Specifically, we asked whether children's intelligence involves both general and specific aspects and whether standard ToM measures of false belief can serve as indicators of social intelligence. Psychometric intelligence and children's domain-specific understanding of number concepts and of mental states (false belief) were measured in the laboratory; communication and social skills were assessed through mothers' report. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed poor fit for a one-factor model, but good fit for a model with three correlated factors, suggesting that children's intelligence involves both general and specific aspects. Numerate-spatial and verbal intelligence were correlated (.70), and social intelligence correlated to a stronger degree with verbal (.66) than with numerate-spatial intelligence (.37). Laboratory assessment of false belief and mothers' reports about children's social skills loaded on a single factor, pointing to real-world consequences of ToM abilities. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The structure of intelligence in 4-year-olds comprises domain-general and domain-specific dimensions. Some domain-specific dimensions are numerate-spatial, verbal, and social intelligence. What does this study add? Theory of Mind emerges as an aspect of children's social intelligence. Social intelligence (including Theory of Mind) is related to children's numerate-spatial abilities., (© 2020 The Authors. British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

Purpose of Review: Technological advances have allowed dried blood spots (DBS) to be utilized for various measurements, helpful in population-based studies. The following is a review of the literature highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of DBS and describing their use in multiple areas of research., Recent Findings: DBS can track pollutant exposure to understand their impact on health. DBS can also be used for (epi-)genetic studies, to measure clinical biomarkers, and to monitor drug adherence. Advantages of DBS include being minimally invasive, requiring low blood volume, and being cost-effective to collect, transport, and store. Disadvantages of DBS include the hematocrit effect, which is related to the viscosity of the blood affecting its spread on to the filter paper, causing a major source of error when assessing concentrations, and the possibility of low DNA volume. Numerous uses for DBS make them an important source of biomaterial but they require additional validation for accuracy and reproducibility.

Drawing stimulus from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, this multicultural study examined relations between men's versus women's remembrances of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection in childhood and their current level of loneliness, as mediated by adults' self-reported psychological maladjustment. Adults (N = 899) from five nations (Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States) responded to the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire-short form for mothers and fathers, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire-short form, and the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Loneliness Scale. Adults' remembrances of maternal and paternal rejection in childhood significantly and independently predicted feelings of loneliness but remembered paternal rejection was more strongly related to these feelings than were remembrances of maternal rejection. Psychological maladjustment fully mediated the effect of remembered maternal rejection but only partially mediated the effect of remembered paternal rejection on loneliness. There were no significant differences in these results across the five countries or genders. Overall, the results suggest that adults' remembrances of parental rejection in childhood-along with the theoretically expected development of psychological maladjustment-are likely to be associated panculturally with the experience of loneliness in adulthood., (© 2019 International Union of Psychological Science.)

The experience of motherhood is one of the most salient events in a woman's life. Motherhood is associated with a series of neurophysiological, psychological, and behavioral changes that allow women to better adapt to their new role as mothers. Infants communicate their needs and physiological states mainly through salient emotional expressions, and maternal responses to infant signals are critical for infant survival and development. In this study, we investigated the whole brain functional response to emotional infant faces in 20 new mothers and 22 nulliparous women during functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. New mothers showed higher brain activation in regions involved in infant facial expression processing and empathic and mentalizing networks than nulliparous women. Furthermore, magnitudes of the activation of the left parahippocampal gyrus and the left fusiform gyrus, recruited during facial expression processing, were positively correlated with empathic concern (EC) scores in new mothers when viewing emotional (happy-sad) faces contrasted to neutral faces. Taken together, these results indicate that the experience of being a mother affects human brain responses in visual and social cognitive brain areas and in brain areas associated with theory-of-mind related and empathic processing.

Loneliness is a significant public health issue that affects young adults. This investigation drew from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory to understand how remembrances of parental rejection contributed to psychological maladjustment and loneliness in Bangladeshi college students (N = 300; 50% female). Students reported their remembrances of mothers' and fathers' acceptance-rejection, their current psychological maladjustment, and loneliness. Remembrances of rejection by parents in childhood were associated with psychological maladjustment (hostility/aggression, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional unresponsiveness, emotional instability, and negative worldview) for young adult men and women. Psychological maladjustment, in turn, was associated with feelings of loneliness in young adulthood for young men, but not women. Remembrances of parental rejection were also associated with greater hostility and aggression over and above general psychological functioning among both men and women. Findings are discussed in the context of different social and structural features of young adulthood for women and men in Bangladesh., (Published 2019. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.)

Children frequently play with toys purchased by their parents, yet little is known about the how these toys are selected by parents. Mothers with children from 0-12 years of age filled out a survey about their toy purchasing habits. Results revealed that the most common place mothers sought out information about toys was online, and mothers most frequently found the manufacturers' suggested age only somewhat accurate. Further analyses demonstrated that mothers who bought their toys from different sources (i.e., online, stores, secondhand) considered dissimilar items before purchasing a toy for their child and obtained information in distinct ways. In contrast, regardless of where mothers purchased toys, they regarded the manufacturers' suggested age in the same way. This study is one of the few to examine parental toy selection patterns, providing useful knowledge for understanding how to reach parents and provide them information they desire when selecting toys for their children.

Consistency in the order of individuals in a group across substantial lengths of time- stability -is a central concept in developmental science for several reasons. Stability underscores the meaningfulness of individual differences in psychological phenomena; stability informs about the origins, nature, and overall developmental course of psychological phenomena; stability signals individual status and so affects the environment, experience, and development; stability has both theoretical and clinical implications for individual functioning; and stability helps to establish that a measure constitutes a consequential individual-differences metric. In this three-wave prospective longitudinal study ( N s = 40 infants and mothers), we examined stabilities of individual variation in multiple infant behaviors and maternal responses to them across infant ages 10, 14, and 21 months. Medium to large effect size stabilities in infant behaviors and maternal responses emerged, but both betray substantial amounts of unshared variance. Documenting the ontogenetic trajectories of infant behaviors and maternal responses helps to elucidate the nature and structure of early human development., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest with regard to the funding sources for this study.