Exposure to community adversities and violence can be associated with a cascade of neurocognitive, mental health, and behavioral challenges among urban adolescents. Influenced by the bio-ecological framework, this study examines if problems with executive functioning (EF) exacerbate the relation between exposure to community adversity and violence…

Latent class analysis and multigroup mediation were used with 8,860 families in Chile to identify risk groups varying in socioeconomic status, family structure, and maternal depression, to determine whether profiles differed in children's development of externalizing problems (EP) from 35 to 61 months, and maternal parenting that predicted EP.…

This research brief draws upon the fall 2019 data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2019. FACES provides information at the national level about Head Start programs, centers, and classrooms as well as the children and families that Head Start serves. Head Start is a national program that helps young children from…

Growing evidence suggests that exposure to early-life adversity poses risk to youth development, with impaired mental health a central concern. This population-representative study of adolescent students (n = 11,222) investigates the effects of two key forms of early adversity--victimization and poverty--on adolescent mental health in a step-wise…

Previous methodological approaches have not been flexible enough to model the heterogeneity of depressive symptoms or to identify variations between prototypical trajectories conditional on risk and protective factors. The current study examined latent class trajectories of depressive symptoms using data from 3,819 respondents of the Adolescent…

Residing in high-risk urban neighborhoods has a significant impact on the optimal psychosocial development of adolescent African American males. Living in these environments often increases exposure to economic distress and attendance at under-resourced schools, which may diminish opportunities for successful life outcomes. This qualitative…

Context: Emerging research indicates parental educational attainment is not always stable over time, particularly among young adults with lower levels of income and educational attainment. Though increases in postsecondary education are often highlighted as a route to greater earnings among higher-income students, it is unclear whether increases…

Poverty-associated chronic stress is a serious threat not only to a mother's mental health but also to maternal functioning. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that a mother's brain undergoes dynamic changes to support her transition to parenthood, including better emotion regulation and heightened sensitivity to infants. However, we propose that…

The authors were invited to teach clinical social work in the Palestinian West Bank. In order to teach, we designed a study exploring how 65 Palestinian social work students described the psychological and social effects of working under occupation. Students described social stressors of poverty, unemployment, lack of infrastructure, violence,…

Home visiting (HV) programs serve women at high risk for developing postpartum depression because of factors such as poverty and low social support. Depression poses serious threats not only to mother-child attachment and healthy infant development but also to women's ability to engage with HV services and supports. The Mothers and Babies (MB)…

According to UNICEF, 13.3 million children (0-17 years) worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Nearly 12 million of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, with other children who have been severely impacted by the AIDS pandemic, these orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) are at higher risk of missing out on schooling,…

This review essay talks about two books on disability. One message above all others jumps out of from these two books: namely, the failure of human society to adequately respond to the needs of their fellow citizens who are disabled. The combined authorship of over 40 scholars across the two books and their 24 chapters conclude that disability,…

This study explored how neighborhood characteristics may relate to African American adolescents' internalizing symptoms via adolescents' social support and perceptions of neighborhood cohesion. Participants included 571 urban, African American adolescents (52% female; "M" age = 17.8). A multilevel path analysis testing both direct and…

The MOM Program is a randomized, controlled trial of an intervention to promote mothers' care for the health and development of their children, including accessing early intervention (EI) services. Study aims were to determine whether, relative to controls, this intervention increased receipt of and referral to EI services. Mothers (N = 302)…

The physical, social, and economic health and well-being of adults and society are strongly influenced by experiences in early childhood. The most cost-efficient time to build foundational skills, to assure the healthy development of all young children, to break the cycle of disadvantage for vulnerable children, and to prevent achievement and…