Explicating Child-Driven Patterns of Parent-Child Responsivity in Fragile Families: A Longitudinal Approach

Community Threat, Positive Parenting, and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging: Longitudinal Links from Childhood to Adolescence

Early Life Adversity (ELA) has been linked to accelerated epigenetic aging. While positive parenting is hypothesized to buffer the detrimental effects of ELA on child development, its role in mitigating epigenetic age acceleration remains unclear. Data from 2,039 children (49.7% female) in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) were included in the current study (46.7% Black, 26.5% Hispanic, 19% White non-Hispanic). Home and community threat and observed parenting were measured from ages 3 to 9. Salivary epigenetic age acceleration was measured at ages 9 and 15. Positive parenting reduces the pace of epigenetic aging in low, but not high, community-threat environments. Interventions across home and community environments may be necessary to prevent ELA's biological embedding.

Parental sensitivity and family conversation: A naturalistic longitudinal study with both mothers and fathers across three time-points in early infancy

Parental verbal sensitivity is known to promote child language skills, but few studies have considered: (a) links between global (i.e., verbal, behavioral, and affective) measures of parental sensitivity and infant-initiated conversations, an important precursor to language development; (b) whether maternal and paternal sensitivity show similar links with infant-initiated conversation; or (c) the transactional role of infant conversation for later parental sensitivity. Addressing these gaps, this study of 186 British first-time parents (93 families) examines the developmental dynamics between parental sensitivity and infant communication across the first year of life. We explore; (i) the role of maternal and paternal sensitivity (assessed during structured home observations at 4 months post-partum) for parent-infant conversational interactions at 7 months (indexed by day-long naturalistic recordings), and (ii) whether these mother-infant and father-infant conversations at 7 months shape maternal and paternal sensitivity at 14 months (also assessed via structured home observations). For both male and female infants, maternal (but not paternal) sensitivity at 4 months predicted infant vocalisations and conversational initiation at 7-months. By contrast, neither index of infant talk predicted maternal or paternal sensitivity at 14 months. Together these findings refine understanding of theoretical models of social development and suggest new possibilities for future research.

An 'embedded brain' approach to understanding antisocial behaviour

Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an 'essentialist' framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain and cognitive development in a relational context. This approach, which we call the study of the 'embedded brain', is needed to fully understand how risk for ASB arises during development. Concentrated efforts are required to develop and unify methods to achieve this approach and reap the benefits for improved prevention and intervention of ASB.

Maternal Mental Health and Children's Problem Behaviours: A Bi-directional Relationship?

Transactional theory and the coercive family process model have illustrated how the parent-child relationship is reciprocal. Emerging research using advanced statistical methods has examined these theories, but further investigations are necessary. In this study, we utilised linked health data on maternal mental health disorders and explored their relationship with child problem behaviours via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for over 13 years. We accessed data from the Millennium Cohort Study, linked to anonymised individual-level population-scale health and administrative data within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We used Bayesian Structural Equation Modelling, specifically Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models, to analyse the relationships between mothers and their children. We then explored these models with the addition of time-invariant covariates. We found that a mother's mental health was strongly associated over time, as were children's problem behaviours. We found mixed evidence for bi-directional relationships, with only emotional problems showing bi-directional associations in mid to late childhood. Only child-to-mother pathways were identified for the overall problem behaviour score and peer problems; no associations were found for conduct problems or hyperactivity. All models had strong between-effects and clear socioeconomic and sex differences. We encourage the use of whole family-based support for mental health and problem behaviours, and recommend that socioeconomic, sex and wider differences should be considered as factors in tailoring family-based interventions and support.

Growing up amid conflict: Implications of the Developmental Peacebuilding Model

Worldwide, 420 million children are affected by conflict and over half of all children experience violence every year. Thus, youth are unarguably affected by war and settings of persisting societal violence. Despite often being conceptualized as either powerless victims or violent perpetrators, recent advances in research and international policy recognize young people as key change agents in transforming adverse settings into positive environments. Framed by the Developmental Peacebuilding Model, this paper focuses on predictors, outcomes and intervention points within the family for youth peacebuilding. Recent advances of family-based interventions in diverse, non-WEIRD samples will be highlighted. Rooted in existing knowledge, we conclude with concrete suggestions on how to use secondary data to investigate youth peacebuilding across the globe.

Rethinking Responsive Feeding: Insights from Bangladesh

Young children’s growth is influenced by food and feeding behavior. Responsive feeding has been shown to promote healthy growth and development, to prevent under- and overfeeding, and to encourage children’s self-regulation. However, most measures of responsive feeding do not incorporate bidirectional mother-infant responsivity or early learning principles and have not been validated against observations. To overcome these gaps, we laid the groundwork for a responsive feeding measure based on a community sample of 67 mothers and their 6–18-month-old children in Bangladesh. Children were weighed and measured. Mothers reported on their child’s dietary intake and responded to a 38-item responsive feeding questionnaire developed through a 2-phase Delphi procedure. Based on a video-recorded feeding observation, mother-child dyads were categorized into proximal (43%) and distal (57%) responsivity groups. Using stepwise logistic regression, a 9-item model from the responsive feeding questionnaire had excellent fit (AUC = 0.93), sensitivity (90%), specificity (89%), positive predictive value (87%), and negative predictive value (93%). Proximal responsivity was characterized by maternal concerns about children’s dietary intake. Distal responsivity was characterized by maternal perception of children’s happy mood during feeding. Findings support responsive feeding as modulating between proximal and distal responsivity, promoting autonomy, self-regulation, and enabling children to acquire and practice healthy eating behaviors.