Adverse experiences throughout development confer risk for a multitude of negative long-term outcomes, but the processes via which these experiences are neurobiologically embedded are still unclear. Adolescence provides an opportunity to understand how these experiences impact the brain's rapidly changing structure. Two models are central to…

Although abuse and neglect in the early years of life have been reliably linked to poor mental health outcomes in childhood, only a few studies have examined whether the predictive significance of childhood abuse and neglect endures for symptoms of psychopathology into adulthood. Here we examined to what extent prospectively assessed child abuse…

Mind-mindedness is associated with positive developmental outcomes. However, much of the literature uses mostly White, middle to high socioeconomic status (SES) samples despite evidence that the benefits of mind-mindedness may vary based on degree of social risk. Additionally, few studies have examined relations between mind-mindedness and…

The current investigation reports the results of a randomized controlled trial of a brief, relational intervention for maltreated preschool-aged children and their mothers, called Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET). RET facilitates elaborative and emotionally supportive parent-child communication, which is an essential component of the…

Memory, suggestibility, stress arousal, and trauma-related psychopathology were examined in 328 3- to 16-year-olds involved in forensic investigations of abuse and neglect. Children's memory and suggestibility were assessed for a medical examination and venipuncture. Being older and scoring higher in cognitive functioning were related to fewer…

The authors assessed the effectiveness of a home visitation program in enhancing the early parenting history of infants born at medical risk--a population that is at risk for mistreatment. A randomized clinical trial design was used to compare the effects of a cognitively based extension of the Healthy Start home visitation program (HV+) with a…

Effects of maltreatment were examined in three domains suggested by attachment theory: relationships with novel adults, effectance motivation, and cognitive maturity. Three samples of four- to eight-year-old children were studied: 93 maltreated children, 67 demographically matched nonmaltreated childen, and 30 nonmaltreated middle-class children.

Assessed the impact of different forms of maltreatment on the socioemotional development of 70 children aged 5-7 years in a day camp. Maltreated children scored lower than the comparison group on self-esteem and prosocial measures and higher on withdrawn behavior ratings. (RJC)

Examined the communicative behavior of 40 maltreated and nonmaltreated 31-month-old toddlers and their mothers. Results revealed that maltreated toddlers followed a pattern of shorter mean length of utterance, less descriptive speech, and proportionally less relevant speech. (RJC)

Compared narrative representations from low SES maltreated and nonmaltreated preschoolers. Found that maltreated preschoolers portrayed parents and children as responding less often than did nonmaltreated preschoolers, yet portrayed themselves as stepping into the story more often to relieve children's distress. Abused children portrayed the most…

Fifty-six 12-month-old infants, (10 maltreated infants; 18 nonmaltreated, high-risk infants; and 28 matched low-income controls) were videotaped at home with their mothers for 40 minutes and were observed two weeks later in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Maltreating mothers could be discriminated by uninformed coders from nonmaltreating mothers.…

Maternal attributions and child neonatal status at birth were assessed as predictors of infant maltreatment (harsh parenting and safety neglect). The population included low-income, low-education families who were primarily Hispanic. Child maltreatment during the 1st year of life (N = 73) was predicted by neonatal status (low Apgar scores, preterm…

Two experiments assessed recognition of emotion among physically abused and neglected preschoolers. Results showed that neglected children had more difficulty discriminating emotional expressions that control or abused children. Abused children displayed response bias for angry facial expressions. Control children viewed discrete emotions as…