In an 8-year prospective study of 173 girls and their families, the authors tested predictions from J. Belsky, L. Steinberg, and P. Draper's (1991) evolutionary model of individual differences in pubertal timing. This model suggests that more negative-coercive (or less positive-harmonious) family relationships in early childhood provoke earlier reproductive development in adolescence. Consistent with the model, fathers' presence in the home, more time spent by fathers in child care, greater supportiveness in the parental dyad, more father-daughter affection, and more mother-daughter affection, as assessed prior to kindergarten, each predicted later pubertal timing by daughters in 7th grade, The positive dimension of family relationships, rather than the negative dimension, accounted for these relations. In total, the quality of fathers' investment in the family emerged as the most important feature of the proximal family environment relative to daughters' pubertal timing.The onset of pubertal development has typically been viewed as an important marker of the transition into adolescence and is accompanied by major social and cognitive changes (J. J. Conger, 1984;Feldman & Elliot, 1990). Variations in the timing of pubertal maturation-in levels of physical and sexual development of adolescents compared with their same-age peers -have received considerable research attention. The most consistent finding to emerge from the literature is that early onset of puberty in girls is associated with negative health and psychosocial outcomes. In particular, early maturing girls are at greater risk later in life for breast cancer (e.g., Kampert, Whittemore, & Paffenbarger, 1988;Vihko & Apter, 1986) and unhealthy weight gain (e.g., Ness, 1991;Wellens et al., 1992); have higher rates of teenage pregnancy (e.g., Manlove, 1997;Udry & Cliquet, 1982); are more likely to have lowbirthweight babies (Scholl et al., 1989); and tend to show more disturbances in body image, to report more emotional problems such as depression and anxiety, and to engage in more problem behaviors such as alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity (e.g., Caspi & Moffitt, Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Bruce J. Ellis, who is now at the Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand, Electronic mail may be sent to b.eliis@psyc.canterbury.ac.nz. Flannery, Rowe, & Gulley, 1993;Graber, Lewinsohn, Seeley, & Brooks-Gunn, 1997;Mezzich et al., 1997;Susman, Nottleman, Inoff-Germain, Loriaux, & Chrousos, 1985). NIH Public AccessAlthough a good deal is now known about the sequelae of variations in pubertal timing in girls, relatively little is known about the social and psychological antecedents of this variation. Recent theory and data (e.g., Belsky, Steinberg, & Draper, 1991; Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Warren, 1995) have suggested that an individual's experiences during childhood may influence the physiological mechanisms that initiate and control pubertal development. In this ...

This study examined relations among mothers' hostile attribution tendencies regarding their children's ambiguous problem behaviors, mothers' harsh discipline practices, and children's externalizing behavior problems. A community sample of 277 families (19% minority representation) living in three geographic regions of the United States was followed for over 4 years. Mothers' hostile attribution tendencies were assessed during the summer prior to children's entry into kindergarten through their responses to written vignettes. Mothers' harsh discipline practices were assessed concurrently through ratings by interviewers and reports by spouses. Children's externalizing behavior problems were assessed concurrently through written questionnaires by mothers and fathers and in the spring of kindergarten and first, second, and third grades through reports by teachers and peer sociometric nominations. Results of structural equations models demonstrated that mothers' hostile attribution tendencies predicted children's future externalizing behavior problems at school and that a large proportion of this relation was mediated by mothers' harsh discipline practices. These results remained virtually unchanged when controlling for initial levels of children's prekindergarten externalizing behavior problems at home.

This study reports a short-term prospective investigation of the role of peer group victimization in the development of children's behavior problems, at home and in school. Sociometric interviews were utilized to assess aggression, victimization by peers, and peer rejection, for 330 children who were in either the third or fourth grade (approximate mean ages of 8–9 years old). Behavior problems were assessed using standardized behavior checklists completed by mothers and teachers. A follow-up assessment of behavior problems was completed 2 years later, when the children were in either the fifth or sixth grade (approximate mean ages of 10–11 years old). Victimization was both concurrently and prospectively associated with externalizing, attention dysregulation, and immature/dependent behavior. Victimization also predicted increases in these difficulties over time, and incremented the prediction in later behavior problems associated with peer rejection and aggression. The results of this investigation demonstrate that victimization in the peer group is an important predictor of later behavioral maladjustment.

The present study focused on mother-child interaction predictors of initial levels and change in child aggressive and disruptive behavior at school from kindergarten to third grade. Aggression-disruption was measured via annual reports from teachers and peers. Ordinary least-squares regression was used to identify 8 separate child aggression trajectories, 4 for each gender: high initial levels with increases in aggression, high initial levels with decrease in aggression, low initial levels with increases in aggression, and low initial levels with decreases in aggression. Mother-child interaction measures of coercion and nonaffection collected prior to kindergarten were predictive of initial levels of aggression-disruption in kindergarten in both boys and girls. However, boys and girls differed in how coercion and nonaffection predicted change in aggression-disruption across elementary school years. For boys, high coercion and nonaffection were particularly associated with the high-increasing-aggression trajectory, but for girls, high levels of coercion and nonaffection were associated with the high-decreasing-aggression trajectory. This difference is discussed in the context of Patterson et al.'s coercion training theory, and the need for gender-specific theories of aggressive development is noted.

This study is a prospective investigation of the predictive association between early behavior problems (internalizing, externalizing, hyperactivity-impulsiveness, immaturity-dependency) and later victimization in the peer group. Teacher ratings of the behavioral adjustment of 389 kindergarten and 1st-grade children (approximate age range of 5 to 6 years-old) were obtained, using standardized behavior problem checklists. These ratings predicted peer nomination scores for victimization, obtained 3 years later, even after the prediction associated with concurrent behavior problems was statistically controlled. Further analyses suggested that the relation between early behavior problems and later victimization is mediated by peer rejection and moderated by children's dyadic friendships. Behavior problems appear to play an important role in determining victimization within the peer group, although the relevant pathways are complex and influenced by other aspects of children's social adjustment.