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Children's early experiences have potential to shape their development through early childhood, middle childhood, and into adolescence. Family structure at birth and material hardship may offer insight into how children's health and well‐being are shaped within their family of origin. The current paper examined (a) the association between family structure at birth and material hardship 1‐year post‐birth and (b) the differential impact of race on the associations between family structure and material hardship. We further explored the association between family structure and material hardship on self‐reported health in (a) middle childhood and (b) adolescence. Using the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing dataset, an ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and structural equation path models (SEM) were used to examine associations between family structure, material hardship, and health outcomes (body mass index [BMI], anxiety, and suicidal ideation). Results indicated that family structure predicted material hardship at 1‐year until maternal characteristics were taken into account. Race/ethnicity did not moderate the association. Also, family structure at birth was indirectly associated with youth anxiety through material hardship but did not account for BMI or sucidical ideation. Social supports and state policies should prioritize maternal health access and ensure families are able to meet their basic needs to mitigate children's health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review and set of five meta-analyses synthesized the results of prospective longitudinal publications on childhood and/or adolescent social withdrawal as a predictor of adult psychosocial adjustment. Meta-analyses were conducted with results for five adult outcomes from 31 publications derived from 14 longitudinal samples and a combined sample size of 19,806 adults (50% women, M = 38.88 years, 83% White) with childhood and/or adolescent ( ≤ 16 years) histories of social withdrawal and their offspring (N = 175). Dependency among publications derived from the same longitudinal samples was explicitly modeled in meta-analyses with clustering. Meta-analytic results support childhood and/or adolescent social withdrawal as a medium-sized risk factor for adult social anxiety and intergenerational difficulties in mothers and their offspring (both p < 0.0001); a small-size risk factor for delayed adult developmental milestones (p < 0.05), adult social withdrawal (p < 0.0001), other anxiety (p < 0.05), and depression (p < 0.01); and a small-size protective factor against adult substance use (p < 0.01). However, meta-analytic results did not support childhood and/or adolescent social withdrawal as a predictor of physical health, likely due to the heterogeneous nature of the investigated health outcomes. Consistent with a Developmental Science Model, results are interpreted as supporting interpersonal mechanisms (missing out, interpersonal stress, and poor relationship quality) and developmental cascades (cross domain-influences) in socially withdrawn children's life-course development. Because evidence for intergenerational difficulties was based on a single longitudinal sample, confidence in intergenerational effects would be increased by replication in other samples. Heterogeneity among effect sizes included in most meta-analyses suggests that the relation between childhood and/or adolescent social withdrawal and adult outcomes is likely to be moderated by other factors. Future directions in this area of research are discussed.

IntroductionSalivary bioscience has found increased utilization within pediatric research, given the non-invasive nature of self-collecting saliva for measuring biological markers. With this growth in pediatric utility, more understanding is needed of how social-contextual factors, such as socioeconomic factors or status (SES), influence salivary bioscience in large multi-site studies. Socioeconomic factors have been shown to influence non-salivary analyte levels across childhood and adolescent development. However, less is understood about relationships between these socioeconomic factors and salivary collection methodological variables (e.g., time of saliva collection from waking, time of day of saliva collection, physical activity prior to saliva collection, and caffeine intake prior to saliva collection). Variability in salivary methodological variables between participants may impact the levels of analytes measured in a salivary sample, thus serving as a potential mechanism for non-random systematic biases in analytes.MethodsOur objective is to examine relationships between socioeconomic factors and salivary bioscience methodological variables within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study© cohort of children aged 9-10 years old (n = 10,567 participants with saliva samples).ResultsWe observed significant associations between household socioeconomic factors (poverty status, education) and salivary collection methodological variables (time since waking, time of day of sampling, physical activity, and caffeine intake). Moreover, lower levels of household poverty and education were significantly associated with more sources of potential bias in salivary collection methodological variables (e.g., longer times since waking, collections later in the day, higher odds of caffeine consumption, and lower odds of physical activity). Consistent associations were not observed with neighborhood socioeconomic factors and salivary methodological variables.DiscussionPrevious literature demonstrates associations between collection methodological variables and measurements of salivary analyte levels, particularly with analytes that are more sensitive to circadian rhythms, pH levels, or rigorous physical activity. Our novel findings suggest that unintended distortions in measured salivary analyte values, potentially resulting from the non-random systematic biases in salivary methodology, need to be intentionally incorporated into analyses and interpretation of results. This is particularly salient for future studies interested in examining underlying mechanisms of childhood socioeconomic health inequities in future analyses.

Eating disorders have early origins, and there could be a continuum between childhood eating behaviors, such as overeating, and long-term disordered eating, but this remains to be shown. BMI, desire for thinness and peer victimization could influence this continuum, but their interactions are unknown. To fill this gap, the study used data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (N = 1511; 52% girls), in which 30.9% of youth presented a trajectory associated with high disordered eating from 12 to 20 years. The results support an indirect association between overeating at age 5 and disordered eating trajectories, with different mediation processes observed between boys and girls. The findings underscore the importance of promoting healthy body images and eating behaviors among youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Childhood obesity can affect both physical and mental health. Body-size misperception may lead to a lack of motivation to make healthy changes or to engage in unhealthy weight loss behaviors, increasing the possibility for obese children to become obese adults. To estimate the frequency of body-size misperception among children and adolescents, we conducted a cross-sectional study within another study on eating disorders in youth in Greece (National Institute of Educational Policy, act no. 04/2018). Between January and December 2019, two trained assistants visited 83 primary and secondary schools of the Region of Western Greece and interviewed 3504 children aged 10–16 years (CL 99%) and performed anthropometric measurements. Among the 3504 surveyed children, 1097 were overweight, including 424 obese, and 51 were underweight. The "perceived" BMI was not computed in 875 children (25%), who did not state their weight or height and were classified as non-responders. Weight bias was inversely related to BMI, the obese and overweight non-obese children underestimated their weight, while the underweight children overestimated it. Conversely, height bias was positively related to BMI bias. BMI bias was not related to sex, age, parental education, or place of residence. In conclusion, our study lends robust support to the existing evidence on unrealistic body images among overweight children and adolescents. Prompt recognition of such misperceptions may help in increasing motivation towards healthier eating habits, systematic physical activity, and weight-control interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionSalivary bioscience has found increased utilization within pediatric research, given the non-invasive nature of self-collecting saliva for measuring biological markers. With this growth in pediatric utility, more understanding is needed of how social-contextual factors, such as socioeconomic factors or status (SES), influence salivary bioscience in large multi-site studies. Socioeconomic factors have been shown to influence non-salivary analyte levels across childhood and adolescent development. However, less is understood about relationships between these socioeconomic factors and salivary collection methodological variables (e.g., time of saliva collection from waking, time of day of saliva collection, physical activity prior to saliva collection, and caffeine intake prior to saliva collection). Variability in salivary methodological variables between participants may impact the levels of analytes measured in a salivary sample, thus serving as a potential mechanism for non-random systematic biases in analytes.MethodsOur objective is to examine relationships between socioeconomic factors and salivary bioscience methodological variables within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study© cohort of children aged 9–10 years old (n = 10,567 participants with saliva samples).ResultsWe observed significant associations between household socioeconomic factors (poverty status, education) and salivary collection methodological variables (time since waking, time of day of sampling, physical activity, and caffeine intake). Moreover, lower levels of household poverty and education were significantly associated with more sources of potential bias in salivary collection methodological variables (e.g., longer times since waking, collections later in the day, higher odds of caffeine consumption, and lower odds of physical activity). Consistent associations were not observed with neighborhood socioeconomic factors and salivary methodological variables.DiscussionPrevious literature demonstrates associations between collection methodological variables and measurements of salivary analyte levels, particularly with analytes that are more sensitive to circadian rhythms, pH levels, or rigorous physical activity. Our novel findings suggest that unintended distortions in measured salivary analyte values, potentially resulting from the non-random systematic biases in salivary methodology, need to be intentionally incorporated into analyses and interpretation of results. This is particularly salient for future studies interested in examining underlying mechanisms of childhood socioeconomic health inequities in future analyses.

Psychological assessment process involves administration, scoring, interpretation, and report writing. In addition to the human resource, time, and effort required for the training, the assessment process itself requires significant time and effort on the part of trained professionals. This automatically translates into the cost, which sometimes can be significant. Given the significantly limited number of trained psychologists who are in clinical practice in India compared to the extent of the population of the country, the amount of assessment work can take away precious time from the intervention services. On the other hand, a significant number of psychological assessment tests used in India are generally old with outdated norms, are poorly standardized, and are not keeping pace with the global development. Given these issues, mental health profession on the whole, as well as the clients/patients can question the validity of the psychological assessments or some specific assessments. This article tries to discuss some of the issues related to the validity of the psychological assessments in general and in specific domains, such as ability, achievement, and psychopathology. In addition to mentioned issues, the article also tries to suggest possible measures to overcome those limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: No study has examined whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were related to value priorities and commitment to values during adolescence. We investigated the association between ACEs by age 15 and personal values during adolescence using cross‐sectional data from community adult samples in Japan. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional panel study with retrospective assessments. We measured whether the participants experienced childhood victimization of physical abuse, neglect, or parental divorce by the age of 15 years. We also assessed personal value priorities and commitment to values of the participants during adolescence. Analysis of covariance was conducted to compare mean scores of personal priorities and commitment to values between participants with ACEs and those without ACEs. Results: A total of 2463 participants were included in analysis. The participants reported ACEs by the age of 15 years of 5.1% for physical abuse, 1.8% for neglect, and 2.2% for parental divorce. Having any of the ACEs was significantly associated with lower perceived importance in personal values of avoiding causing trouble (P < 0.0001), and of cherishing family and friends (P < 0.0001). There was no significant association between ACEs and commitment to values. Conclusions: The study suggested that ACEs by age 15 years were associated with lower perceived importance in value priorities on avoiding causing trouble and cherishing people in close relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support has been found for the intergenerational transmission of risk from maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to child outcomes. Less research has focused on longitudinal psychosocial pathways that account for this transmission. In the current study, path analysis examined mediating pathways (i.e., maternal adult attachment insecurity, romantic relationship functioning, and maternal anxiety and depression symptoms) in the association between maternal ACEs and internalizing and externalizing concerns among their child at eight years of age. Participants included 1,994 mother-child dyads from a prospective longitudinal cohort sample. Maternal ACEs were significantly associated directly with child internalizing concerns (β = .06, p = .025) and indirectly via both maternal attachment anxiety and avoidance, lower romantic relationship functioning, and depression, (β = .002, p = .006; β = .003, p = .005, respectively). Maternal ACEs were directly associated with child externalizing concerns (β = .06, p = .018) and indirectly via both maternal attachment anxiety and avoidance, lower romantic relationship functioning, and depression, (β = .001, p = .008; β = .002, p = .010, respectively). This study identified several maternal risk factors that have implications for downstream internalizing and externalizing concerns among their children., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: The Cognitive Battery of the National Institutes of Health Toolbox (NIH-TB) is a collection of assessments that have been adapted and normed for administration across the lifespan and is increasingly used in large-scale population-level research. However, despite increasing adoption in longitudinal investigations of neurocognitive development, and growing recommendations that the Toolbox be used in clinical applications, little is known about the long-term temporal stability of the NIH-TB, particularly in youth. Methods: The present study examined the long-term temporal reliability of the NIH-TB in a large cohort of youth (9–15 years-old) recruited across two data collection sites. Participants were invited to complete testing annually for 3 years. Results: Reliability was generally low-to-moderate, with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging between 0.31 and 0.76 for the full sample. There were multiple significant differences between sites, with one site generally exhibiting stronger temporal stability than the other. Conclusions: Reliability of the NIH-TB Cognitive Battery was lower than expected given early work examining shorter test-retest intervals. Moreover, there were very few instances of tests meeting stability requirements for use in research; none of the tests exhibited adequate reliability for use in clinical applications. Reliability is paramount to establishing the validity of the tool, thus the constructs assessed by the NIH-TB may vary over time in youth. We recommend further refinement of the NIH-TB Cognitive Battery and its norming procedures for children before further adoption as a neuropsychological assessment. We also urge researchers who have already employed the NIH-TB in their studies to interpret their results with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children and youth whose lives intersect with child welfare systems are amongst the most vulnerable paediatric populations. Despite the increased rates of chronic conditions, these children and youth often experience unmet health care needs.Objectives: To examine patterns of health care utilization from birth for children and youth in the care of a child welfare authority.Methods: This retrospective matched cohort design study examined children/youth aged 0-18 who had visited a paediatric tertiary care facility from 2016 April 1 to 2017 March 31 and had "social worker" documented as their guardian. A control cohort was matched based on age and sex. Primary outcomes of interest included primary health care, emergency, outpatient, and inpatient visits. Visits for immunizations, physiological development, well-baby checks, mental health, and oral health were also examined.Results: A total of 200 cases and 200 controls were included in our cohort. No statistically significant differences were found between primary care visits, well-baby checks, inpatient admissions, outpatient mental health visits, or immunizations for children in care in comparison to their controls. There was a significant difference in oral health visits, lack of physiological development, and emergency department visits for children in care when compared to their controls.Conclusions: Our study revealed disparities in health care utilization amongst children in the care of child welfare in comparison to those who are not, highlighting the need for improved practice, policy, and research initiatives. A collaborative data collection/sharing system is needed to identify and track the health care of this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative self-efficacy has emerged as one of the most striking constructs in education. Yet, instruments to assess it in children and adolescents are scant. This article introduces the CASES, a new creative self-efficacy scale designed to address this concern. The process of development and initial validation of the scale are presented herein. Following the items’ conception, exploratory, and confirmatory factorial analysis was performed. The final structure comprises nine items, evenly distributed by three factors: fluency, elaboration, and personality. Preliminary reliability and validity analysis display good psychometric properties, highlighting CASES as a potentially relevant addition to the creative self-efficacy assessment instruments array. Designed for children and adolescents (ages 3 to 16), it can uphold a developmental approach of creative self-efficacy, with potential implications within educational settings. Thus, it might be of interest for parents, educators, educational psychologists, researchers, and policymakers involved in designing curricula and interventions to nurture and enhance creative potential.

Childhood obesity can affect both physical and mental health. Body-size misperception may lead to a lack of motivation to make healthy changes or to engage in unhealthy weight loss behaviors, increasing the possibility for obese children to become obese adults. To estimate the frequency of body-size misperception among children and adolescents, we conducted a cross-sectional study within another study on eating disorders in youth in Greece (National Institute of Educational Policy, act no. 04/2018). Between January and December 2019, two trained assistants visited 83 primary and secondary schools of the Region of Western Greece and interviewed 3504 children aged 10–16 years (CL 99%) and performed anthropometric measurements. Among the 3504 surveyed children, 1097 were overweight, including 424 obese, and 51 were underweight. The “perceived” BMI was not computed in 875 children (25%), who did not state their weight or height and were classified as non-responders. Weight bias was inversely related to BMI, the obese and overweight non-obese children underestimated their weight, while the underweight children overestimated it. Conversely, height bias was positively related to BMI bias. BMI bias was not related to sex, age, parental education, or place of residence. In conclusion, our study lends robust support to the existing evidence on unrealistic body images among overweight children and adolescents. Prompt recognition of such misperceptions may help in increasing motivation towards healthier eating habits, systematic physical activity, and weight-control interventions.

The Asenze cohort is set in South Africa, a middle-income country impacted by one of the highest global rates of people living with HIV/AIDS and high levels of socioeconomic inequality. This longitudinal population-based cohort of children and their primary caregivers assesses household and caregiver functioning, child health, social well-being, and neuro-development from childhood through adolescence. Almost 1,600 children born at the peak of the human immunodeficiency virus epidemic (2003-2005) were followed (with their primary caregivers) in 3 waves, between 2008 and 2021, at average ages of 5, 7, and 16. Wave 3 is currently underway, having assessed over 1,100 of the original wave 1 children. Wave 4 begins in 2022. The study, with a dyadic structure, uses a broad range of measures, validated in South Africa or recommended for global use, that address physical, social and neuro-development in childhood and adolescence, and the social, health, and psychological status of children’s primary caregivers. The Asenze study deepens our understanding of childhood physical, cognitive, and social abilities and/or disabilities, including risk-taking behaviors, and biological, environmental, and social determinants of health. We anticipate the findings will contribute to the development of community-informed interventions to promote well-being in this South African population and elsewhere.

The Asenze cohort is set in South Africa, a middle-income country impacted by one of the highest global rates of people living with HIV/AIDS and high levels of socioeconomic inequality. This longitudinal population-based cohort of children and their primary caregivers assesses household and caregiver functioning, child health, social well-being, and neuro-development from childhood through adolescence. Almost 1,600 children born at the peak of the human immunodeficiency virus epidemic (2003-2005) were followed (with their primary caregivers) in 3 waves, between 2008 and 2021, at average ages of 5, 7, and 16. Wave 3 is currently underway, having assessed over 1,100 of the original wave 1 children. Wave 4 begins in 2022. The study, with a dyadic structure, uses a broad range of measures, validated in South Africa or recommended for global use, that address physical, social and neuro-development in childhood and adolescence, and the social, health, and psychological status of children's primary caregivers. The Asenze study deepens our understanding of childhood physical, cognitive, and social abilities and/or disabilities, including risk-taking behaviors, and biological, environmental, and social determinants of health. We anticipate the findings will contribute to the development of community-informed interventions to promote well-being in this South African population and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gratitude, as a moral virtue, emphasizes reciprocity and interpersonal relations; its development involves cognitive abilities, moral understandings, and socially learned expectations. This paper aimed to explore ethnic variation in the expression of gratitude among 595 children and adolescents aged 7 to 14 (mean age = 9.71, SD = 2.17) in the United States (European Americans, Brazilians, Hispanics, and African Americans) and the association between gratitude and participants' wishes and age. Results indicated that Brazilians and Hispanics were more likely to use verbal (e.g., "thank you") than concrete gratitude (reciprocation without considering the benefactor's needs) than were African Americans. Older participants were less likely to express concrete than verbal and connective gratitude (reciprocation considering the benefactor's needs). Hedonistic wishes were linked to a greater likelihood of expressing verbal than connective gratitude for Brazilians compared to Hispanics. Self-oriented wishes were linked to a greater likelihood of expressing connective than verbal gratitude for Brazilians and African Americans compared to Hispanics. African Americans were less likely to express verbal than concrete gratitude when expressing self-oriented wishes than were Hispanics. This study provides evidence of developmental and cultural aspects of gratitude expression and calls attention to within-society variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children who are victims of an early violent atmosphere or early relational trauma will often, even in adulthood, tend to behave violently towards others, or become victims of violence, or freeze and later develop the tendency towards self-injury, in particular in later adolescence. In adulthood, they can be accident-prone, engage in constant violent physical abuse, threaten with or actually commit suicide. In this article we will focus on the impact of violence that children experience from the earliest age, on how it affects their development, and is transmitted to adulthood as well as to younger generations, since violence is imprinted in the deepest organic fibres of every individual.

Humans differ in their capacity for integrating perceived events and related actions. The “Theory of event coding” (TEC) conceptualizes how stimuli and actions are cognitively bound into a common functional representation (or “code”), known as the “event file”. To date, however, the neural processes underlying the development of event file coding mechanisms across age are largely unclear. We investigated age-related neural changes of event file coding from late childhood to early adulthood, using EEG signal decompositions methods. We included a group of healthy participants (n = 91) between 10 and 30 years, performing an event file paradigm. Results of this study revealed age-related effects on event file coding processes both at the behavioural and the neurophysiological level. Performance accuracy data showed that event file unbinding und rebinding processes become more efficient from late childhood to early adulthood. These behavioural effects are reflected by age-related effects in two neurophysiological subprocesses associated with the superior parietal cortex (BA7) as revealed in the analyses using EEG signal decomposition. The first process entails mapping and association processes between stimulus and response; whereas, the second comprises inhibitory control subprocesses subserving the selection of the relevant motor programme amongst competing response options.

Nearly thirty years ago, we invited a consortium of esteemed researchers to contribute to a volume entitled Family–Peer Relations: Modes of Linkage that provided a state-of-the-science appraisal of theory and research within the newly emerging discipline of family–peer relations. The volume’s first chapter was titled, “Themes and Theories: Perspectives on Processes in Family–Peer Relationships”, and its primary aims were to identify the processes in the family system that were posited to have a bearing on children’s development in the peer system (and vice versa), characterize potential mechanisms of linkage, describe extant lines of investigation, appraise empirical accomplishments, and identify issues in need of further investigation. Here, nearly thirty years hence, we are pleased to have the opportunity to reappraise the theory and research on family–peer relations. In this article, we revisit the primary objectives that were addressed in our previously published “Themes and Theories” chapter but do so with the express purpose of evaluating the discipline’s progress. Likewise, we also revisit our prior roadmap and associated calls-to-action to update these entities in light of past accomplishments, current limitations, and pressing sociocultural issues and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performing a goal-directed movement consists of a chain of complex preparatory mechanisms. Such planning especially requires integration (or binding) of various action features, a process that has been conceptualized in the "theory of event coding." Theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that these processes are subject to developmental effects from adolescence to adulthood. The aim of the present study was to investigate age-related modulations in action feature binding processes and to shed light on underlying neurophysiological development from preadolescence to early adulthood. We examined a group of healthy participants (n = 61) between 10 and 30 yr of age, who performed a task that requires a series of bimanual response selections in an embedded paradigm. For an in-depth analysis of the underlying neural correlates, we applied EEG signal decomposition together with source localization analyses. Behavioral results across the whole group did not show binding effects in reaction times but in intraindividual response variability. From age 10 to 30 yr, there was a decrease in reaction times and reaction time variability but no age-related effect in action file binding. The latter were corroborated by Bayesian data analyses. On the brain level, the developmental effects on response selection were associated with activation modulations in the superior parietal cortex (BA7). The results show that mechanisms of action execution and speed, but not those of action feature binding, are subject to age-related changes between the age of 10 and 30 yr. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Different aspects of an action need to be integrated to allow smooth unfolding of behavior. We examine developmental effects in these processes and show that mechanisms of action execution and speed, but not those of action feature binding, are subject to age-related changes between the age of 10 and 30 yr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author explores the use of electronic devices when they enter the treatment room in child and adolescent psychoanalytic therapies. Smolen demonstrates through the clinical material of two adolescent patients, how electronic devices enter the treatments in a pathological and malignant way. She continues to demonstrate through the treatments of another adolescent and a latency child how the use of devices acted as transitional objects and allowed both children to progress in their treatments, however she continues to question the optimal use of such devices in these treatments. Smolen finishes by demonstrating how a young child used the electronic device to communicate difficulties with separation and how she was able to work through these conflicts and move on to more age appropriate play. Finally, Smolen demonstrated how by prohibiting such devices and working with parents her patient was able to access his creativity and ability to play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant progress in research on the treatment and prevention of psychological, behavioral, and health problems, the translation of this knowledge into population-wide benefit remains limited. This paper reviews the state of America's children and families, highlighting the influence of stressful contextual and social conditions on child and family well-being and the concentration of disadvantage in numerous neighborhoods and communities throughout the nation. It then briefly reviews the progress that has been made in pinpointing policies that can reduce stressful contextual conditions such as poverty, discrimination, and the marketing of unhealthful foods and substances. It also describes numerous family and school interventions that have proven benefit in preventing psychological and behavioral problems as diverse as tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; depression; antisocial behavior; academic failure; obesity prevention; and early childbearing. We argue that progress in translating existing knowledge into widespread benefit will require a nationwide effort to intervene comprehensively in neighborhoods and communities of concentrated disadvantage. We present a strategic plan for how such an effort could be organized. The first step in this organizing would be the creation of a broad and diverse coalition of organizations concerned with advancing public health and well-being. Such a coalition could increase public support both for the policies needed to focus on these disadvantaged areas and the research needed to incrementally improve our ability to help these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly thirty years ago, we invited a consortium of esteemed researchers to contribute to a volume entitled Family–Peer Relations: Modes of Linkage that provided a state-of-the-science appraisal of theory and research within the newly emerging discipline of family–peer relations. The volume’s first chapter was titled, “Themes and Theories: Perspectives on Processes in Family–Peer Relationships”, and its primary aims were to identify the processes in the family system that were posited to have a bearing on children’s development in the peer system (and vice versa), characterize potential mechanisms of linkage, describe extant lines of investigation, appraise empirical accomplishments, and identify issues in need of further investigation. Here, nearly thirty years hence, we are pleased to have the opportunity to reappraise the theory and research on family–peer relations. In this article, we revisit the primary objectives that were addressed in our previously published “Themes and Theories” chapter but do so with the express purpose of evaluating the discipline’s progress. Likewise, we also revisit our prior roadmap and associated calls-to-action to update these entities in light of past accomplishments, current limitations, and pressing sociocultural issues and concerns.

Abstract We examined social class (measured by attendance in public or private schools), gender, and age-related variations in the expression of wishes and gratitude of 430 7- to 14-year-olds (181 male, 62.1% from public schools). Chi-square analysis indicated that students from private schools expressed significantly more social-oriented wishes and connective gratitude, whereas those from public schools expressed significantly more self-oriented wishes. Girls in the public schools expressed significantly more self-oriented wishes and verbal gratitude than did boys. Regression analysis (curve estimation) indicated that verbal gratitude, self- and social oriented wishes increased and concrete gratitude decreased significantly with age, but connective gratitude tended to increase. These findings support the idea that gratitude and wish types involve the development of cognitive aspects, such as taking others into account and thinking about the future, but it is also influenced by the social contexts in which children live, such as their social class.

Background: The incidence of self-harm in young people in primary care is increasing dramatically, and many young people who self-harm visit their GP surgery as a first point of contact for help.Objective: To explore with young people, GPs and practice nurses (PNs): (i) why young people present with self-harm to primary care and (ii) whether young people, GPs and PNs can take steps to have more helpful consultations about self-harm in GP surgeries that include self-help materials developed by young people being used to support such consultations to take place.Methods: Participatory action research with GPs, PNs and young people employed mixed methods to collect statistical and narrative data. Statistics from 285 young people's medical records were captured, including more detailed analyses of a random sample of 75 of these records. A series of 24 focus groups with a total of 45 GPs, PNs and young people, with an average number of eight participants in each group, was conducted. Statistical data were subject to descriptive and inferential analyses, and thematic analysis was applied to the transcripts from the focus groups.Results and Conclusion: The type of self-harm young people presented with influenced whether they would see a GP or PN. While self-help materials were welcomed and deemed helpful, young people, GPs and PNs were ambivalent about using these in short consultations where time was an overriding constraint. More research is needed on the feasibility of adopting self-help assisted interventions in GP surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Prenatal substance use is increasing and is a major public health concern due to its impact on women's health and child development. Prior studies demonstrate an association between prenatal substance use and deficits in children's physical, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional development. Many studies, however, have significant methodological limitations that hinder our understanding of the impact of substance use on child development. The goal of this review is to describe the risks of prenatal substance use on child development among studies that have overcome major study limitations to inform the development of targeted interventions to improve child health. Methods: Studies investigating the relationship between prenatal substance use and its impact on child development are identified. Studies employing a prospective, longitudinal study design with appropriate comparison groups and methods accounting for potentially confounding variables are reviewed. Results: Prenatal tobacco or alcohol use has the most well-established adverse impact on child development, including an increased risk for behavioral problems and deficits in academic performance, resulting in significant functional impairment. Prenatal marijuana use is associated with deficits in executive and intellectual functioning among school-age children and adolescents. Prenatal opioid use and child development findings are conflicting, but treatment with opioid agonist therapy for opioid use disorder (e.g., methadone or buprenorphine) does not appear to have a negative impact on child growth, cognition, language abilities, sensory processing, or temperament. Prenatal amphetamine and cocaine use may have a negative impact on child development, but effects, in part, are mediated by childhood environment and adversity. Conclusions: Preventative efforts in women's health are needed to reduce substance use and unplanned pregnancies. Early interventions for children exposed to substances are needed as well as interventions targeting the myriad of issues that co-occur with substance use, including poverty, mental health problems, and childhood adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language is the most frequently compromised area of development in English-speaking neglected children, particularly the morphosyntactic component of language. This is very worrisome given its central role in academic success and social participation. No previous study has examined the morphosyntactic skills of French-speaking neglected children, despite the morphological richness of French. This study aimed to fill this gap. Forty-four neglected (mean age = 48.32 months, SD = 0.45) and 92 non-neglected (mean age = 48.07 months, SD = 0.24) French-speaking children participated. Measures of morphosyntactic skills were derived from a sample of spontaneous language collected during standardized semistructured play and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts software (2012). Four morphosyntactic indicators were compared using analyses of variance and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests: the mean length of utterances (MLU), verbal inflections, word-level errors, and omission errors. The results indicate that 25.6% of the neglected children presented clinically significant morphosyntactic difficulties, as evidenced by a significantly shorter MLU (M = 5.60, SD = 1.13; M = 6.90, SD = 1.30), fewer verbal inflections, and more frequent word omission errors compared to their non-neglected peers. The results confirm that French-speaking neglected children present many morphosyntactic difficulties. This study argues for sustained speech–language services for these children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goals of this study were twofold: (1) to compare the pragmatic language skills (i.e., social communication skills) of 42-month-old neglected children with those of same-aged non-neglected children and (2) to measure the prevalence of pragmatic difficulties among the neglected children. The study sample was composed of 45 neglected and 95 non-neglected 42-month-old French-speaking children. The Language Use Inventory: French (LUI-French) was completed with all parents. This measure, comprised of 159 scored items divided into 10 subscales, was used to assess the children's pragmatic skills. The 10th percentile on the LUI-French (95% confidence interval) was used to identify children with pragmatic difficulties. The neglected children had lower scores than the non-neglected children on all 10 dimensions of pragmatics evaluated (p <.01), as well as lower LUI-French Total Scores (p <.001). The effect sizes of these differences varied between 0.84 and 2.78. Forty-four percent of the neglected children presented significant pragmatic difficulties compared to 4.2% of their non-neglected peers (p <.001). It can be concluded that exposure to neglect significantly compromises children's pragmatic skills. These results support the need for interventions geared toward neglected children and their families to support the early development of their pragmatic skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of animal-assisted therapy delivered as an adjunct to standard-of-care intensive family preservation services, compared with usual care alone. Method: Families referred by Child Protective Services (M child age = 6 years ± 4; M parent age = 32 years ± 8.26) were individually randomized to experimental (n = 14) or control (n = 14) intervention. Family functioning outcomes were measured using the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale for Reunification. Results: All four targeted family functioning outcomes were significantly increased for participants who received animal-assisted therapy as an adjunct to intensive family preservation services (n = 14) with medium to large effect sizes. These improvements were sustained in two of the subscales through discharge. No significant differences were measured for the distal clinical outcome of disposition of children at discharge. Conclusions: Findings suggest that adding animal-assisted therapy as an adjunct can improve evidence-based clinical interventions aimed at enhancing the caregiving contexts of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined maternal depressive symptoms, social support, parenting, and adult attachment as mediators explaining the relation between maternal childhood maltreatment and child behavior in offspring. We assessed a community sample of 96 mother–child dyads. At child age 16 months, mothers self-reported maltreatment history, adult attachment, depressive symptoms, and social support, and maternal sensitivity was assessed via 2 hr of direct behavioral observation. Maternal reports of child behavior were collected at 5 years. Single and parallel mediation models were constructed. Only maternal depressive symptoms mediated the relation between maternal maltreatment history and children’s internalizing problems. Maternal sensitivity emerged as a suppressor variable. With respect to the relation between maternal maltreatment history and children’s externalizing problems, when entered singly, maternal depressive symptoms, social support, and avoidant attachment emerged as mediators. When examined in parallel, only maternal depressive symptoms and avoidant attachment accounted for unique mediating variance. Findings have implications with respect to important maternal factors that might be targeted to reduce the probability of maladaptive child behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating emotions well is critical for promoting social and emotional health among children and adolescents. Parents play a prominent role in how children develop emotion regulation. In 2007, Morris et al. proposed a tripartite model suggesting that parents influence children's emotion regulation through three mechanisms: children's observation of parents' emotion regulation, emotion-related parenting practices, and the emotional climate of the family. Over the past decade, we have conducted many studies that support this model, which we summarize here along with other research related to parenting and emotion regulation. We also discuss recent research on the effects of parenting on the neural circuitry involved in emotion regulation and highlight potential directions for research. Finally, we suggest how this research can aid prevention and intervention efforts to help families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's and adolescents' cognitive abilities, social adaptation, and externalizing behaviors are broadly associated with each other at the bivariate level; however, the direction, ordering, and uniqueness of these associations have yet to be identified. Developmental cascade models are particularly well-suited to (1) discern unique pathways among psychological domains and (2) model stability in and covariation among constructs, allowing for conservative tests of longitudinal associations. The current study aimed to identify specific cascade effects among children's cognitive abilities, social adaptation, and externalizing behaviors, beginning in preschool and extending through adolescence. Children (46.2 % female) and mothers ( N = 351 families) provided data when children were 4, 10, and 14 years old. Cascade effects highlighted significant stability in these domains. Unique longitudinal associations were identified between (1) age-10 cognitive abilities and age-14 social adaptation, (2) age-4 social adaptation and age-10 externalizing behavior, and (3) age-10 externalizing behavior and age-14 social adaptation. These findings suggest that children's social adaptation in preschool and externalizing behavior in middle childhood may be ideal intervention targets to enhance adolescent well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners and researchers alike face the challenge that different sources report inconsistent information regarding child maltreatment. The present study capitalizes on concordance and discordance between different sources and probes applicability of a multisource approach to data from three perspectives on maltreatment—Child Protection Services (CPS) records, caregivers, and children. The sample comprised 686 participants in early childhood (3- to 8-year-olds; n = 275) or late childhood/adolescence (9- to 16-year-olds; n = 411), 161 from two CPS sites and 525 from the community oversampled for psychosocial risk. We established three components within a factor-analytic approach: the shared variance between sources on presence of maltreatment (convergence), nonshared variance resulting from the child’s own perspective, and the caregiver versus CPS perspective. The shared variance between sources was the strongest predictor of caregiver- and self-reported child symptoms. Child perspective and caregiver versus CPS perspective mainly added predictive strength of symptoms in late childhood/adolescence over and above convergence in the case of emotional maltreatment, lack of supervision, and physical abuse. By contrast, convergence almost fully accounted for child symptoms for failure to provide. Our results suggest consistent information from different sources reporting on maltreatment is, on average, the best indicator of child risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Salivary bioscience has found increased utilization within pediatric research, given the non-invasive nature of self-collecting saliva for measuring biological markers. With this growth in pediatric utility, more understanding is needed of how social-contextual factors, such as socioeconomic factors or status (SES), influence salivary bioscience in large multi-site studies. Socioeconomic factors have been shown to influence non-salivary analyte levels across childhood and adolescent development. However, less is understood about relationships between these socioeconomic factors and salivary collection methodological variables (e.g., time of saliva collection from waking, time of day of saliva collection, physical activity prior to saliva collection, and caffeine intake prior to saliva collection). Variability in salivary methodological variables between participants may impact the levels of analytes measured in a salivary sample, thus serving as a potential mechanism for non-random systematic biases in analytes., Methods: Our objective is to examine relationships between socioeconomic factors and salivary bioscience methodological variables within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study© cohort of children aged 9-10 years old ( n  = 10,567 participants with saliva samples)., Results: We observed significant associations between household socioeconomic factors (poverty status, education) and salivary collection methodological variables (time since waking, time of day of sampling, physical activity, and caffeine intake). Moreover, lower levels of household poverty and education were significantly associated with more sources of potential bias in salivary collection methodological variables (e.g., longer times since waking, collections later in the day, higher odds of caffeine consumption, and lower odds of physical activity). Consistent associations were not observed with neighborhood socioeconomic factors and salivary methodological variables., Discussion: Previous literature demonstrates associations between collection methodological variables and measurements of salivary analyte levels, particularly with analytes that are more sensitive to circadian rhythms, pH levels, or rigorous physical activity. Our novel findings suggest that unintended distortions in measured salivary analyte values, potentially resulting from the non-random systematic biases in salivary methodology, need to be intentionally incorporated into analyses and interpretation of results. This is particularly salient for future studies interested in examining underlying mechanisms of childhood socioeconomic health inequities in future analyses., Competing Interests: 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. The handling editor MG declared past co-authorships with the author KU., (Copyright © 2023 Mariko and Uban.)