Time-varying associations between parental closeness, self-esteem, and sexual behavior across adolescence and emerging adulthood.

This study applied the time-varying effect model (TVEM) to data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to explore how self-esteem mediated age-varying associations of closeness to mother and father and their child's sexual behavior through adolescence and emerging adulthood. Paternal closeness is associated with lesser odds of sexual behaviors for both female and male adolescents until age 20, whereas maternal closeness only predicts for female adolescents between ages 13 and 15. Self-esteem mediated the association between mother closeness and multiple partners in male adolescents between ages 14.5 and 16.5. Fathers have an impact on adolescent sexual behavior across adolescence and emerging adulthood, while mothers' roles are more important for female adolescents in early adolescence.

Early adverse childhood experiences and preschoolers' attentional regulation: A latent class analysis.

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) profoundly disrupt preschoolers' attentional regulation development. Different patterns of ACEs may be associated with different attentional regulation outcomes. OBJECTIVE: Drawing from developmental systems theory and attachment theory, this study aimed to identify distinct patterns of early ACEs at age three and examined the associations of these patterns with preschoolers' attentional regulation at age five. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: This study used the two waves of longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4457). METHODS: First, this study applied latent class analysis (LCA) across nine indicators of ACEs at age three. Second, class membership was examined for associations with preschoolers' attentional regulation at age five. RESULTS: LCA identified four latent classes of ACEs: separation (41.2 %), parental incarceration (33 %), family dysfunction (20.8 %), and child abuse (5 %). Children in the child abuse class exhibited lower levels of attentional regulation than those in the family dysfunction class (0.33 standard deviation difference, p < .01) or separation class (0.48 standard deviation difference, p < .001). Children in the parental incarceration class demonstrated lower levels of attentional regulation than those in the separation class (0.63 standard deviation difference, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide implications for the need to prevent early child abuse and incorporate trauma-informed intervention programs to support preschoolers' attentional regulation during school-entry age.