Over the last 2 centuries there has been a rapid increase in the proportion of children who grow up in cities. However, relatively little work has explored in detail the physiological and cognitive pathways through which city life may affect early development. To assess this, we observed a cohort of infants growing up in diverse settings across…

Postnatal maternal depression is associated with poorer child emotional and behavioral functioning, but it is unclear whether this occurs following brief episodes or only with persistent depression. Little research has examined the relation between postnatal anxiety and child outcomes. The present study examined the role of postnatal major…

Objective: To chart the emergence of precursors and early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autistic traits in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a prospective longitudinal cohort study of the surviving offspring of 14,541 pregnant women from southwestern England with an expected delivery date between April 1991 and…

The current study tested whether the purely amodal cue of contingency elicits orientation following behavior in 8-month-old infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with automated objects without human features that did or did not react contingently to the infants' fixations recorded by an eye tracker. We found that an object's occasional…

A longitudinal study was made of women and their first-born children who have different employment and day care experiences during the child's first three years of life. Specific aims of the study were (1) to gain full account of the history and experience of women who return to full-time employment while their first child is still young and of…

Part of a longitudinal study of women and their first-born children who have different employment and day care experiences during the children's first three years of life, this study focuses on the socioemotional development of children at 18 months of age, who had received at least nine months of continuous day care. Particular attention is given…

Interaction between mother and first-born child before and after the birth of a second child was studied in 41 families, using home observations and interview techniques. (MP)

This study was designed to answer the following three questions: (1) Are infants' first words always context-bound when they are initially acquired? (2) Do mothers use infants' first words in a context-bound manner when interacting with their infants? (3) What relationship, if any, exists between infants' initial use of early words and mothers'…