Maternal trauma is a complex risk factor that has been linked to adverse child outcomes, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. This study, which included adoptive and biological families, examined the heritable and environmental mechanisms by which maternal trauma and associated depressive symptoms are linked to child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Path analyses were used to analyze data from 541 adoptive mother–adopted child (AM–AC) dyads and 126 biological mother–biological child (BM–BC) dyads; the two family types were linked through the same biological mother. Rearing mother’s trauma was associated with child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in AM–AC and BM–BC dyads, and this association was mediated by rearing mothers’ depressive symptoms, with the exception of biological child externalizing behavior, for which biological mother trauma had a direct influence only. Significant associations between maternal trauma and child behavior in dyads that share only environment (i.e., AM–AC dyads) suggest an environmental mechanism of influence for maternal trauma. Significant associations were also observed between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing and externalizing behavior in dyads that were only genetically related, with no shared environment (i.e., BM–AC dyads), suggesting a heritable pathway of influence via maternal depressive symptoms.

Black students attending historically White institutions of higher education experience racism, racial microaggressions, racial stress, and consequent racial battle fatigue (RBF; Franklin et al., 2014). We examined Black counseling and clinical graduate students’ (BGS) experiences of psychological, physiological, and behavioral RBF across their roles as students in class, advisees, and supervisees and differences in RBF experiences by gender and race. Participants were 57 counseling and clinical graduate students who identified as Monoracial, Biracial, or Multiracial Black. One-way, repeated measures analysis of variance results showed that BGS experienced the highest levels of RBF in their student-in-class role, and those experiences differed for women and men. Results suggest that the RBF framework has utility for measuring and further understanding how BGS’ student role and learning contexts influence their postsecondary experiences and how institutions can develop better supports for this student population.

Sensation seeking is a biological drive to seek out novel or exciting behaviors and has been linked to adolescent risk taking, including aggressive and violent behaviors. Prior research has documented direct associations between sensation seeking and aggression among adolescents, as well as mediation and moderation pathways by which sensation seeking can operate in combination with media violence exposure to increase risk for aggression. Nevertheless, studies examining the relation between sensation seeking and aggression in adolescents have often overlooked the confounding influence of impulsivity—a personality characteristic that tends to be positively correlated with sensation seeking but represents a distinct weakness in top‐down control and may play a more critical role in predicting adolescent aggression. Future research should focus on identifying the unique effects of sensation seeking and impulsivity in predicting adolescent aggression in order to inform the design of more targeted preventive interventions.

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