The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study (Felitti et al., 1998) has led to an understanding of how exposure to abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction in childhood are related to subsequent physical and mental health problems. These issues are important to consider during the perinatal period, with studies indicating that pregnant women who report adverse experiences in childhood may be at risk of experiencing mental health and substance use problems. This study examined the association of pregnant women’s ACEs with symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and substance use, and examined the potential buffering effect of women’s resilience against the deleterious effects of ACES on mental health and substance use. Women reported on ACES, mental health symptoms, substance use, and resilience when they were screened for participation in a perinatal psychosocial support intervention, which was integrated into obstetrical clinics in a Southern academic medical center. Almost a quarter of the 303 women in this sample reported four or more ACEs, indicating significant risk. Those reporting more overall ACEs also reported more symptoms of depression, posttraumatic stress, and increased risk of tobacco use. Unique effects of specific ACEs subtypes were also found. Women exposed to child maltreatment reported more anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and were at risk for tobacco, cannabis, or opioid use during pregnancy. Women exposed to household dysfunction reported more posttraumatic stress symptoms and were at increased risk of tobacco and alcohol use during pregnancy. Women’s resilience attenuated effects of household dysfunction on posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Evidence supports the distinctions between forms (relational vs. physical) and functions (proactive vs. reactive) of aggression; however, little research has investigated these two subtype frameworks simultaneously or by teacher-report in early childhood. We examined the factor structures, interrelations, and longitudinal associations of teacher-reported forms and functions of aggression in young children. Preschool and kindergarten students (N = 133; ages 3-6 years; 58.6% male) were rated by their teachers during the spring semester and on two subsequent occasions over the following school year (a three-wave cross-sequential design). Bayesian confirmatory factor analyses and path models were estimated, controlling for covariates and cross-classification of students within classrooms. Correlated two-factor models showed acceptable measurement characteristics for both aggression frameworks. Within and between frameworks, aggression subtypes were highly correlated with one another. Physical aggression showed greater stability than, and was a precursor to, relational aggression, whereas both proactive and reactive aggression were stable and bidirectional. All subtypes-especially reactive and physical aggression-were robustly associated with peer rejection but not with academic performance or depressive symptoms. Results suggest that brief, teacher-reported rating scales can be used to measure forms and functions of aggression during early childhood. However, examination of one framework should elicit questions regarding the other (e.g., to what extent are measures of proactive and reactive aggression capturing physical aggression?), and research following a form-by-function approach may be particularly useful. Given their stability and outcomes, physical, reactive, and proactive aggression may be important targets for screening and intervention in early childhood settings.

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Given the developmental importance of the family system, research on child depressive symptoms often examines the impact of parenting practices as either sources of or buffers against depressive symptoms. The current study, operating from a stress-process framework, examined the interactive effects of supportive parenting practices (i.e., mothers' use of positive communication, positive parenting, and parental involvement) and maternal psychological control on mother-and child-reported child depressive symptoms in a community-recruited sample of 9-12 year-olds. Discrepancies between mother-and child-reports of depressive symptoms were also examined. Maternal psychological control was uniquely associated with child-, not mother-, reported depressive symptoms. Parental involvement was uniquely associated with mother-, not child-, reported depressive symptoms. Positive parent-child communication was associated with less child-and mother-reported child depressive symptoms at the bivariate level, but not when unique associations were examined. Positive parenting was unrelated to either report of depressive symptoms. No interaction effects were detected.Implications and future directions are discussed.

Researchers consistently report links between psychological control and adolescent behavior problems, but the processes linking psychological control with behavior problems are unclear. Adolescents’ negative emotional reactions and psychological reactance were tested as potential longitudinal mediators linking parental psychological control with both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Data were collected from a sample of 242 adolescents (M age = 15.4 at Time 1; 50.8% female; 50% white, non‐Hispanic, 18% African American, 16% Hispanic, and 16% of other or multiple ethnicities) at three time points over a 2‐year period. Adolescents self‐reported depressive symptoms, antisocial behavior, negative emotional reactions, and psychological reactance. Adolescents and their parents provided ratings of parental psychological control. Cross‐sectional models replicated patterns previously reported suggesting that negative emotional reactions and reactance mediate between psychological control and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. However, in cross‐lagged panel models, neither negative emotional reactions nor reactance emerged as a mediator between psychological control and internalizing or externalizing problems. In contrast, results suggested that psychological control is an outcome of rather than contributor to, negative emotional reactions. Moreover, the addition of random intercepts to cross‐lagged models indicated that associations between psychological control, emotional and behavioral reactions, and internalizing/externalizing behavior may represent stable trait‐like patterns.

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Ample research suggests that delinquency, depressive symptoms, and peer substance use are common risk factors associated with adolescent substance use. However, the factors that may help to buffer the deleterious effects of these risk factors on adolescent substance use, such as hope, have yet to be examined. The current study evaluated hope as a moderator of the associations between these common risk factors and frequency of substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana) in a sample of Latino high school students (Mage = 16.14years, SD = 1.30; 55% female). Findings indicated that the influence of delinquency on frequency of tobacco and marijuana use depended on levels of hope, with delinquency only positively associated with frequency of use when levels of hope were low. Additionally, hope moderated the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use, such that depressive symptoms were only positively associated with frequency of alcohol use when levels of hope were low. Results and their implications for intervention are reviewed.