Early attention bias to threat-related negative emotions may lead children to overestimate dangers in social situations. This study examined its emergence and how it might develop in tandem with a known predictor namely temperamental shyness for toddlers' fear of strangers in 168 Chinese toddlers. Measurable individual differences in such…

Children with a history of behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament face a heightened risk for anxiety disorders and often use control strategies that are less planful. Although these relations have been observed concurrently in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, few studies leverage longitudinal data to examine long-term…

Online parenting interventions hold promise for increasing access to behavioral support for families with low income and who reside in rural areas. The current study evaluates the efficacy of a mobile app-based parenting support program, the Family Check-Up Online (FCU-O) with telehealth coaching support, for parents of children 1.5-5 years old at…

Research Findings: Measuring toddlers' cortisol levels both in childcare and at home and their relation to child- and childcare-related factors may help to identify stress-inducing childcare practices and children who are more vulnerable to stress in childcare. Accordingly, toddlers' (n = 320, 51.2% female, mean age = 26.8 months) cortisol levels…

Maternal input addressed to children after an early hospitalization (EH) was longitudinally compared to maternal input directed to typically developing children (TD), at 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. The data were analyzed with the CHILDES tools for (a) word-tokens (b) word-types (c) Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) and (d) questions in which…

There is scant empirical work on associations between current and past cannabis use in parents of young children. As recreational cannabis use is now legal in nearly half of states in the U.S., cannabis use is becoming more ubiquitous. In the current study, parents of toddler and pre-school age children were randomly assigned to participate in an…

Previous studies suggest that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are more prone to develop sleep problems and sensory reactivity, and these symptoms have an impact on parental mood. The current study examined the sleep problems and atypical sensory behaviour of 48 first-time diagnosed ASD children and the anxiety/depression levels of…

The use of the multiaxial dimensions of the DC:0-5 classification system during the assessment process provides an organizing framework for understanding the impact of family relationships on a child's functioning. In this article, the authors describe an assessment with a high-conflict family and how contrasting the impact of parental conflict…

Early identification of behavioral risk markers for anxiety is essential to optimize long-term outcomes in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. This study analyzed attentional avoidance and its relation to anxiety and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptomatology during social and nonsocial fear conditions in toddlers with fragile X…

The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, a 45-year study of children born into poverty, offers a number of lessons for practitioners. Among these are the potency of early relationship experiences for predicting developmental outcomes and the fate of early experience following developmental change. This article describes the…

The current exploratory study examines the structure and function of social support for mothers of very young children (under 24 months) with a range of disabilities who are receiving Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C early intervention services. The psychological well-being and social networks of 88 mothers in one state…

Despite numerous studies on parenting stress suggesting negative influences on parent-child interactions and children's development, the majority of these studies focus on mothers' parenting stress with little or no acknowledgement of fathers. Using data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, this study examined (1)…

We investigated health-related quality of life in preterm children in association with birth weight, breastfeeding and maternal emotional state. A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 97 mothers of 2-year-old children born below 2500 g. Participants completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and a comprehensive psychological…

This article considers infant and toddler boys' unique susceptibilities to caregiving inadequacies that might lead to trauma in their development. It does so by examining the results of research, which point to three areas where boys are likely to have particular difficulties--their slower developmental timetable, their different relationship with…

Preterm birth consequences may lead to developmental deficits, psychiatric disorders and may also cause parental mental health problems. Our aim was to describe quality of life and internalizing-externalizing behaviours of preterm children at 2 years regarding parental mental health. 112 mothers of preterm children provided the following…