Postpartum romantic attachment and constructiveness: The protective effects of a conflict communication intervention for parents' relationship functioning over one year.

Parent relationship functioning has a well-documented influence on children's early socioemotional development as early as infancy. Postpartum parenting is also a critically vulnerable period for relationships and often results in relationship decline. We investigated the effects of a rigorous, psycho-educational conflict communication intervention for supporting parents' relationship functioning in terms of self-reported romantic attachment and observed conflict constructiveness. Using latent growth curve models, we evaluated the change in romantic attachment and constructiveness among 202 mother-father couples from 6 to 18 months postpartum. We further tested a comparison of the effects of the Conflict Intervention (CI) versus the control group and the Conflict Intervention paired with an additional parent sensitivity intervention (anyCI) versus the control group. Results indicated romantic attachment and observed constructiveness decreased over the 1-year period; this decline was partially mitigated for fathers participating in the intervention(s), wherein fathers who received the Conflict Intervention showed less decline in observed conflict constructiveness over time. Moreover, compared with those in the control condition, mothers who received the Conflict Intervention reported lower attachment security at 18 months postpartum. These results underscore the importance of including perspectives from both mothers and fathers when investigating intervention effects and considering the impact of combining interventions for parents. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: A randomized control trial of a conflict intervention including mothers and fathers demonstrates protective effects for fathers' constructiveness between 6 and 18 months postpartum but was not protective for mothers. Parenting experience, whether parents were transitioning to parenthood or had older children, did not significantly predict romantic attachment or behavioral constructiveness trajectories. Interparental romantic attachment and constructiveness declined only slightly postpartum. Effects of the intervention were reduced when the intervention was combined with a second intervention.

Long-term effects of a preventive intervention on multiple components of adolescents' emotional insecurity.

A gap in research on family interventions is the understanding of long-term effects on hypothesized mechanisms of effect regarding children's processes of responding to family stressors. This study assessed the long-term effects of an intervention designed to improve interparental and family conflict resolution on adolescents' emotional insecurity about interparental conflict. Emotional insecurity about interparental conflict has long been linked with adolescents' risk for adjustment problems. These findings have motivated the development of several family-based preventive interventions, one of which is the focus of this study. A community sample of 225 adolescents and their parents participated in an RCT-based study of an intervention designed to reduce adolescent's emotional insecurity about interparental conflict. The intervention's effect on patterns of change in adolescents', mothers', and fathers' reports of the three components of adolescents' emotional insecurity (emotional reactivity, behavioral dysregulation, and cognitive representations) from posttest through the 3-year follow-up were examined using multilevel modeling. Results suggested that the intervention predicted immediate (pre to posttest) and long-term linear decreases in emotional reactivity, as well as long-term quadratic change in behavioral dysregulation. These findings support the beneficial effects of a brief intervention on multiple components of emotional security. The results also underscore the importance of considering the potential of long-term (including nonlinear) patterns of change that may occur as a function of family-based interventions, as well as that the impact of family-based interventions may vary as a function of reporter and component of emotional insecurity.

Interparental conflict and adolescent emotional security across family structures.

This study investigated whether interparental conflict was differentially related to forms of emotional security (i.e., family, interparental, parent-child) and whether forms of emotional security were differentially associated with mental health problems for adolescents in married versus divorced/separated families. Participants were 1032 adolescents (ages 10-15; 51% male, 49% female; 82% non-Hispanic White, 9% Black/African American, 5% Hispanic, 2% Asian or Pacific Islander, 2% Native American) recruited from a public school in a middle-class suburb of a United States metropolitan area. We used multiple group multivariate path analysis to assess (1) associations between interparental conflict and multiple measures of emotional insecurity (i.e., family, interparental, and parent-child), (2) associations between measures of emotional insecurity and internalizing and externalizing problems, and (3) moderation effects of parent-child relationships. The patterns of association were similar across family structures. A high-quality parent-child relationship did not mitigate the harmful effects of interparental conflict on emotional insecurity or mental health problems. Findings suggest that regardless of family structure, emotional security across multiple family systems may be a critical target for intervention to prevent youth mental health problems, in addition to interventions that reduce conflict and improve parent-child relationships.

Infant externalizing behavior and parent depressive symptoms: Prospective predictors of parental pandemic related distress.

Understanding predictors and effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a top-priority in research endeavors. The impact of COVID-19 on all components of family life and mental health cannot be overstated. This study emphasizes the need to investigate predictors of parents' responses to disaster by conceptualizing the depth of the impact of the pandemic using Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Systems Model. We evaluate parents of infants as the center of the microsystem and discuss the importance of parents' responses to the pandemic for children's development. Specifically, utilizing a prospective design involving a sample of 105 infant-mother-father triads, we test the predictive effects of mothers' and fathers' mental health and infant externalizing behavior assessed prior to the pandemic when infants were 16-months on later pandemic related distress (PRD) approximately 1 year later. Results indicate that for both mothers and fathers, more depressive symptoms during their child's infancy predicted more PRD. Although mothers' reports of more child externalizing behavior significantly predicted more PRD, fathers' reports of externalizing were strongly, positively correlated with their concurrent depressive symptoms but not directly related to PRD. We demonstrate the importance of pre-existing mental health and parents' perceptions of their children's behavior as early as 16 months, in coping with disaster.

A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Mother-Child Attachment and Externalizing Trajectories in Boys and Girls.

In clinically referred children, boys and those with disorganized mother-child attachments tend to show the most maladaptive externalizing trajectories; however, additional research is necessary to test whether these findings hold in a community sample. Therefore, 235 community children (106 boys) were followed from ages 6 to 15 years across six time points. Multiple-group linear growth curves with mother-child attachment as a time-invariant covariate were fit to the data to explore externalizing trajectories for boys and girls. Results showed that boys had higher initial externalizing levels than girls, and children generally experienced a decline in symptoms over time. No significant trajectory differences were found for girls, and boys with different attachment classifications did not differ on their initial externalizing levels; however, boys with avoidant attachments (with resistant attachments trending) experienced a steeper decline in externalizing symptoms longitudinally. Implications for intervention and prevention are discussed.

The Vestiges of Childhood Interparental Conflict: Adolescent Sensitization to Recent Interparental Conflict.

This study examined whether childhood interparental conflict moderated the mediational pathway involving adolescent exposure to interparental conflict, their negative emotional reactivity to family conflict, and their psychological problems in a sample of 235 children (Mage  = 6 years). Significant moderated-mediation findings indicated that the mediational path among Wave 4 interparental conflict during adolescence, change in youth negative reactivity (Waves 4-5), and their psychological problems (Waves 4-6) was significant for teens who experienced low, rather than high, levels of childhood interparental conflict (Waves 1-3). Supporting the stress sensitization model, analyses showed that adolescents exposed to high interparental conflict during childhood evidenced greater increases in negative reactivity than their peers when recent parental conflicts were mild.

Relations Among Father's Presence, Family Conflict, and Adolescent Adjustment in Northern Ireland.

Burgeoning evidence identifies the influence of fathers and, relatedly, fathers in the family context (e.g., family conflict), on adolescent adjustment. However, little is known about the significance of fathers' presence in contexts of environmental risk. In a unique social-political context of economic and sociopolitical adversity, this study examined relations between adolescent adjustment, fathers' presence, and family conflict in families in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Based on responses from 999 adolescents (M = 12.18 years; SD = 1.82) and their mothers, participating from 2006 to 2012, fathers' presence was linked with reduced internalizing symptoms, and family conflict was related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. The discussion considers the implications for understanding family dynamics related to adolescent adjustment in contexts of environmental adversity.

Configurations of mother-child and father-child attachment as predictors of internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems: An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis.

An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children's attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis to assess whether early attachment networks with mothers and fathers are associated with children's internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. Following a pre-registered protocol, data from 9 studies and 1,097 children (mean age: 28.67 months) with attachment classifications to both mothers and fathers were included in analyses. We used a linear mixed effects analysis to assess differences in children's internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems as assessed via the average of both maternal and paternal reports based on whether children had two, one, or no insecure (or disorganized) attachments. Results indicated that children with an insecure attachment relationship with one or both parents were at higher risk for elevated internalizing behavioral problems compared with children who were securely attached to both parents. Children whose attachment relationships with both parents were classified as disorganized had more externalizing behavioral problems compared to children with either one or no disorganized attachment relationship with their parents. Across attachment classification networks and behavioral problems, findings suggest (a) an increased vulnerability to behavioral problems when children have insecure or disorganized attachment to both parents, and (b) that mother-child and father-child attachment relationships may not differ in the roles they play in children's development of internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems.

Reduced Autobiographical Memory Specificity Among Maltreated Preschoolers: The Indirect Effect of Neglect Through Maternal Reminiscing.

Maternal reminiscing and preschoolers' (M = 5.00 years, SD = 1.11) autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) were examined among abusive (n = 24), neglecting (n = 78), emotionally maltreating (n = 32), and demographically similar nonmaltreating families (n = 74). Neglect was negatively associated with child AMS and the quantity of maternal elaborations. In a moderated mediation model, neglect was negatively associated with the quantity of maternal elaborations, which was positively associated with AMS when mothers reminisced in a coherent and sensitive manner (i.e., affective quality). In the context of high maternal affective quality, maternal elaborative quantity accounted for reduced AMS among neglected preschoolers. The findings extend observations of reduced AMS to neglected preschoolers and inform theoretical models of autobiographical memory development.

The interplay of polygenic plasticity and adrenocortical activity as sources of variability in pathways among family adversity, youth emotional reactivity, and psychological problems.

This study examined the interplay between a polygenic composite and cortisol activity as moderators of the mediational pathway among family adversity, youth negative emotional reactivity to family conflict, and their psychological problems. The longitudinal design contained three annual measurement occasions with 279 adolescents (Mean age = 13.0 years) and their parents. Latent difference score analyses indicated that observational ratings of adversity in interparental and parent-child interactions at Wave 1 predicted increases in a multimethod, multi-informant assessment of youth negative emotional reactivity to family conflict from Waves 1 to 2. Changes in youth negative emotional reactivity, in turn, predicted increases in a multi-informant (i.e., parents, adolescent, and teacher) assessment of psychological problems from Waves 1 to 3. Consistent with differential susceptibility theory, the association between family adversity and negative emotional reactivity was stronger for adolescents who carried more sensitivity alleles in a polygenic composite consisting of 5-HTTLPR, DRD4 VNTR, and BDNF polymorphisms. Analyses of adolescent cortisol in the period surrounding a family disagreement task at Wave 1 revealed that overall cortisol output, rather than cortisol reactivity, served as an endophenotype of the polygenic composite. Overall cortisol output was specifically associated with polygenic plasticity and moderated the association between family adversity and youth negative emotional reactivity in the same for better or for worse manner as the genetic composite. Finally, moderator-mediated-moderation analyses indicated that the moderating role of the polygenic plasticity composite was mediated by the moderating role of adolescent cortisol output in the association between family adversity and their emotional reactivity.

Children's Vulnerability to Interparental Conflict: The Protective Role of Sibling Relationship Quality.

This study tested whether the strength of the mediational pathway involving interparental conflict, adolescent emotional insecurity, and their psychological problems depended on the quality of their sibling relationships. Using a multimethod approach, 236 adolescents (Mage  = 12.6 years) and their parents participated in three annual measurement occasions. Tests of moderated mediation revealed that indirect paths among interparental conflict, insecurity, and psychological problems were significant for teens with low, but not high, quality bonds with siblings. High-quality (i.e., strong) sibling relationships conferred protection by neutralizing interparental conflict as a precursor of increases in adolescent insecurity. Results did not vary as a function of the valence of sibling relationship properties, adolescent sex, or gender and age compositions of the dyad.

Emotional insecurity as a mediator of the moderating role of dopamine genes in the association between interparental conflict and youth externalizing problems.

This study tested whether the association between interparental conflict and adolescent externalizing symptoms was moderated by a polygenic composite indexing low dopamine activity (i.e., 7-repeat allele of DRD4; Val alleles of COMT; 10-repeat variants of DAT1) in a sample of seventh-grade adolescents (Mean age = 13.0 years) and their parents. Using a longitudinal, autoregressive design, observational assessments of interparental conflict at Wave 1 predicted increases in a multi-informant measurement of youth externalizing symptoms 2 years later at Wave 3 only for children who were high on the hypodopaminergic composite. Moderation was expressed in a "for better" or "for worse" form hypothesized by differential susceptibility theory. Thus, children high on the dopaminergic composite experienced more externalizing problems than their peers when faced with more destructive conflicts but also fewer externalizing problems when exposed to more constructive interparental conflicts. Mediated moderation findings indicated that adolescent reports of their emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship partially explained the greater genetic susceptibility experienced by these children. More specifically, the dopamine composite moderated the association between Wave 1 interparental conflict and emotional insecurity 1 year later at Wave 2 in the same "for better" or "for worse" pattern as externalizing symptoms. Adolescent insecurity at Wave 2, in turn, predicted their greater externalizing symptoms 1 year later at Wave 3. Post hoc analyses further revealed that the 7-repeat allele of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene was the primary source of plasticity in the polygenic composite. Results are discussed as to how they advance process-oriented Gene x Environment models of emotion regulation.

Examining Bidirectional Pathways Between Exposure to Political Violence and Adolescent Adjustment in Northern Ireland.

Research on social ecologies of political violence has been largely confined to cross-sectional tests of the impact of political violence on child adjustment, limiting perspectives on more nuanced causal pathways, including tests of reciprocal relations between exposure to political violence and child adjustment. Based on a four-wave longitudinal study, this research breaks new ground in assessing bidirectional relations between exposure to political violence in the form of experience with sectarian antisocial behavior and adolescents' adjustment problems. The study included 999 mother-adolescent dyads selected from working-class neighborhoods in Belfast ranked in the bottom quartile in terms of social deprivation in Northern Ireland, with approximately 35-40 families recruited to participate from each neighborhood. Across the four annual waves of data, adolescents (52% female) were 12.18 (SD = 1.82), 13.24 (SD = 1.83), 13.62 (SD = 1.99), and 14.66 (SD = 1.96) years old. Cross-lagged path models were tested through R package lavaan with full information maximum likelihood. Reflecting a reciprocal pathway, adjustment problems related to higher reports of experience with sectarian antisocial behavior 1 year later. Boys' experience with sectarian antisocial behavior related to greater adjustment problems 1 year later, but this reciprocal path did hold for the girls. These findings offer promising directions toward better modeling of dynamic relations between exposure to political violence and adolescent adjustment over time.

Harsh Parenting and Serotonin Transporter and BDNF Val66Met Polymorphisms as Predictors of Adolescent Depressive Symptoms.

Depressive symptoms are prevalent and rise during adolescence. The present study is a prospective investigation of environmental and genetic factors that contribute to the growth in depressive symptoms and the frequency of heightened symptoms during adolescence. Participants included 206 mother-father-adolescent triads (M age at Time 1 = 13.06 years, SD = .51, 52% female). Harsh parenting was observationally assessed during a family conflict paradigm. DNA was extracted from saliva samples and genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR and BDNF Val66Met polymorphisms. Adolescents provide self-reports of depressive symptoms annually across early adolescence. The results reveal Gene × Environment interactions as predictors of adolescent depressive symptom trajectories in the context of harsh parenting as an environmental risk factor. A BDNF Val66Met × Harsh Parenting interaction predicted the rise in depressive symptoms across a 3-year period, whereas a 5-HTTLPR × Harsh Parenting interaction predicted greater frequency in elevated depressive symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of unique genetic and environmental influences in the development and course of heightened depressive symptoms during adolescence.

Neighborhood Effects of Intergroup Contact on Change in Youth Intergroup Bias.

Intergroup contact plays a critical role in the reduction of prejudice; however, there is limited research examining the multiple ways through which contact can impact trajectories of development for adolescents in divided societies. Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine individual- and context-level effects of intergroup contact on change in intergroup bias through adolescence. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze five waves of data from 933 youth (M age = 15.5, SD = 4.03; range: 10-20 years old; 52% female) living in 38 neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The results suggest that youth increase in bias with age. Adolescents with more frequent intergroup contact increase more quickly, and those who report higher quality of contact increase more slowly. Both frequency and quality of contact at the neighborhood level predicted slower increases in bias across adolescence. The results add to a growing literature that combines social and developmental approaches to understanding how intergroup processes and intergroup divide impact youth development of intergroup attitudes and behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of both individual experiences and the context of intergroup contact for youth development in divided contexts.

The mediating roles of cortisol reactivity and executive functioning difficulties in the pathways between childhood histories of emotional insecurity and adolescent school problems.

This study tested a hypothesized cascade in which children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship increase their school problems by altering children's cortisol reactivity to stress and their executive functioning. Participants included 235 families. The first of five measurement occasions occurred when the children were in kindergarten (M age = 6 years), and they were followed through the transition to high school. The results indicated that children's histories of insecure representations of the interparental relationship during the early school years were associated with executive functioning difficulties in adolescence (M age = 14 years). This in turn predicted subsequent increases in school adjustment difficulties 1 year later. In addition, elevated cortisol reactivity to interadult conflict mediated the association between early histories of insecurity and subsequent executive function problems in adolescence.

Developmental and social-ecological perspectives on children, political violence, and armed conflict.

An increasing number of researchers and policymakers have been moved to study and intervene in the lives of children affected by violent conflicts (Masten, 2014). According to a United Nations Children's Fund (2009) report, over 1 billion children under the age of 18 are growing up in regions where acts of political violence and armed conflict are, as Ladds and Cairns (1996, p. 15) put it, "a common occurrence-a fact of life." In recent years, the United Nations Children's Fund, advocacy and human rights groups, journalists, and researchers have drawn public attention to the high rates of child casualties in these regions, and to the plights of those children still caught in the crossfire. It has thus become clear that both the challenges and the stakes are higher than ever to promote the safety and well-being of affected children around the world (Masten & Narayan, 2012; Tol, Jordans, Kohrt, Betancourt, & Komproe, 2012).

Emotional insecurity about the community: A dynamic, within-person mediator of child adjustment in contexts of political violence.

Over 1 billion children worldwide are exposed to political violence and armed conflict. The current conclusions are qualified by limited longitudinal research testing sophisticated process-oriented explanatory models for child adjustment outcomes. In this study, consistent with a developmental psychopathology perspective emphasizing the value of process-oriented longitudinal study of child adjustment in developmental and social-ecological contexts, we tested emotional insecurity about the community as a dynamic, within-person mediating process for relations between sectarian community violence and child adjustment. Specifically, this study explored children's emotional insecurity at a person-oriented level of analysis assessed over 5 consecutive years, with child gender examined as a moderator of indirect effects between sectarian community violence and child adjustment. In the context of a five-wave longitudinal research design, participants included 928 mother-child dyads in Belfast (453 boys, 475 girls) drawn from socially deprived, ethnically homogenous areas that had experienced political violence. Youth ranged in age from 10 to 20 years and were 13.24 (SD = 1.83) years old on average at the initial time point. Greater insecurity about the community measured over multiple time points mediated relations between sectarian community violence and youth's total adjustment problems. The pathway from sectarian community violence to emotional insecurity about the community was moderated by child gender, with relations to emotional insecurity about the community stronger for girls than for boys. The results suggest that ameliorating children's insecurity about community in contexts of political violence is an important goal toward improving adolescents' well-being and adjustment. These results are discussed in terms of their translational research implications, consistent with a developmental psychopathology model for the interface between basic and intervention research.

Conducting longitudinal, process-oriented research with conflict-affected youth: Solving the inevitable challenges.

The reader might get the impression that the four projects described in this Special Section proceeded in a systematic and predictable way. Of course, those of us engaged in each research project encountered pitfalls and challenges along the way. A main goal of this Special Section is to provide pathways and encouragement for those who may be interested in advancing high-quality research on this topic. In this paper, we describe a set of practical and ethical challenges that we encountered in conducting our longitudinal, process-oriented, and translational research with conflict-affected youth, and we illustrate how problems can be solved with the goal of maintaining the internal and external validity of the research designs. We are hopeful that by describing the challenges of our work, and how we overcame them, which are seldom treated in this or any other literature on research on child development in high-risk contexts, we can offer a realistic and encouraging picture of conducting methodologically sound research in conflict-affected contexts.

Distinguishing Attachment and Affiliation in Early Adolescents' Narrative Descriptions of Their Best Friendship.

This study was designed to test for specificity in the relationship between individual friendship provisions and adjustment across early adolescence. Using a narrative procedure, attachment (i.e., accessing care) and affiliation (i.e., forming cooperative partnerships) were found to be distinct functional themes organizing 293 adolescents' (Mage  = 13) internal representations of their best friendship across three annual measurement occasions. Longitudinal, cross-lag analyses revealed a unique transactional relationship between friendship affiliation and greater social competence over time, controlling for friendship stability, maternal relationship quality, socioeconomic status, and gender. By contrast, friendship attachment predicted fewer subsequent internalizing symptoms from ages 14 to 15. Together, findings point to the importance of understanding individual differences in the content of adolescents' internal representations of friendship.