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This study used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 267) to investigate whether abuse and neglect experiences during the first 5 years of life have fading or enduring consequences for social and academic competence over the next 3 decades of life. Experiencing early abuse and neglect was consistently associated with more interpersonal problems and lower academic achievement from childhood through adulthood (32-34 years). The predictive significance of early abuse and neglect was not attributable to the stability of developmental competence over time, nor to abuse and neglect occurring later in childhood. Early abuse and neglect had enduring associations with social (but not academic) competence after controlling for potential demographic confounds and early sensitive caregiving.

A multimethod, multi-informant design was used to examine links among sociodemographic risk, family adversity, parenting quality, and child adjustment in families experiencing homelessness. Participants were 245 homeless parents (Mage = 31.0, 63.6% African American) and their 4- to 6-year-old children (48.6% male). Path analyses revealed unique associations by risk domain: Higher sociodemographic risk predicted more externalizing behavior and poorer teacher-child relationships, whereas higher family adversity predicted more internalizing behavior. Parenting quality was positively associated with peer acceptance and buffered effects of family adversity on internalizing symptoms, consistent with a protective effect. Parenting quality was associated with lower externalizing behavior only when sociodemographic risk was below the sample mean. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The present report used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation to investigate the factor structure and childhood abuse and/or neglect related antecedents of adults’ attachment states of mind in a high-risk sample. Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) were collected when participants were age 26 years (N = 164) and Current Relationship Interviews (CRIs) were collected from participants (N = 116) and their romantic partners when target participants were between ages 20 and 28 years (M = 25.3 years). For both the AAI and the CRI, exploratory factor analyses revealed that (a) attachment state of mind scales loaded on two weakly correlated dimensions reflecting dismissing and preoccupied states of mind and (b) ratings of unresolved discourse loaded on the same factor as indicators of preoccupied states of mind. Experiencing any subtype of abuse and/or neglect, especially during multiple developmental periods, and experiencing multiple subtypes of abuse and/or neglect during childhood were associated with risk for preoccupied (but not dismissing) AAI states of mind regarding childhood relationships with caregivers. Analyses focused on the particular subtypes, and perpetrators indicated that the predictive significance of childhood abuse/neglect for adult's AAI preoccupied states of mind was specific to experiences of abuse (but not neglect) perpetrated by primary caregivers. In addition, experiencing chronic or multiple subtypes of childhood abuse and/or neglect increased risk for dismissing (but not preoccupied) CRI states of mind regarding adult romantic partners.

The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) is a landmark prospective, longitudinal study of human development focused on a sample of mothers experiencing poverty and their firstborn children. Although the MLSRA pioneered a number of important topics in the area of social and emotional development, it began with the more specific goal of examining the antecedents of child maltreatment. From that foundation and for more than 40 years, the study has produced a significant body of research on the origins, sequelae, and measurement of childhood abuse and neglect. The principal objectives of this report are to document the early history of the MLSRA and its contributions to the study of child maltreatment and to review and summarize results from the recently updated childhood abuse and neglect coding of the cohort, with particular emphasis on findings related to adult adjustment. While doing so, we highlight key themes and contributions from Dr Dante Cicchetti’s body of research and developmental psychopathology perspective to the MLSRA, a project launched during his tenure as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.

Research suggests intergenerational links between childhood abuse and neglect and subsequent parenting quality, but little is known about the potential mechanisms underlying intergenerational continuities in parenting. Adult romantic functioning may be one plausible mechanism, given its documented associations with both adverse caregiving in childhood and parenting quality in adulthood. The present study used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation to (a) investigate prospective associations between childhood experiences of abuse and neglect and multiple parenting outcomes in adulthood, and (b) evaluate the degree to which adult romantic functioning mediates those associations. Information regarding childhood abuse and neglect was gathered prospectively from birth through age 17.5 years. Multimethod assessments of romantic functioning were collected repeatedly through early adulthood (ages 20 to 32 years), and parenting quality was assessed as participants assumed a parenting role (ages 21 to 38 years). As expected, childhood abuse and neglect experiences predicted less supportive parenting (observed and interview rated) and higher likelihood of self-reported Child Protective Services involvement. The association with interview-rated supportive parenting was partially mediated by lower romantic competence, whereas the association with Child Protective Services involvement was partially mediated by more relational violence in adult romantic relationships. Implications of these novel prospective findings for research and clinical intervention are discussed.

ObjectivesFew studies have explored the implications of parent socialization of positive emotions in children. Further, when considering outcomes of children, the focus has been primarily on links between parental emotion socialization and maladaptive child outcomes such as psychological distress, rather than adaptive outcomes such as life satisfaction. This study investigated whether recollection of supportive and unsupportive maternal and paternal responses to one’s expressions of positive and negative emotions in childhood was linked with life satisfaction and psychological distress in young adulthood, and consideration of whether parent emotion socialization and young adult outcomes were indirectly associated via young adult emotional experience.Method262 college students completed instruments evaluating parental emotion socialization practices in childhood, emotional experience, life satisfaction, and psychological distress.ResultsFathers’ supportive responses to positive emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with greater young adult life satisfaction through greater young adult positive emotional experience. Fathers’ supportive responses to negative emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with less young adult distress through less young adult negative emotional experience. Mothers’ supportive responses to negative emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with greater young adult life satisfaction through greater young adult positive emotional experience. Finally, fathers’ unsupportive responses to negative emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with greater young adult distress through greater young adult negative emotional experience.ConclusionsThese results, if replicated with prospective longitudinal methodology, suggest that mother and father figures play unique roles in shaping the emotional lives of children, with long-term implications for mental health and well-being.

Growing evidence suggests that emotion socialization may be disrupted by maternal depression. However, little is known about emotion-related parenting by mothers with bipolar disorder or whether affective modeling in early childhood is linked to young adults’ recollections of emotion socialization practices. The current study investigates emotion socialization by mothers with histories of major depression, bipolar disorder, or no mood disorder. Affective modeling was coded from parent–child interactions in early childhood and maternal responses to negative emotions were recollected by young adult offspring (n = 131, 59.5% female, M age = 22.16, SD = 2.58). Multilevel models revealed that maternal bipolar disorder was associated with more neglecting, punishing, and magnifying responses to children's emotions, whereas maternal major depression was associated with more magnifying responses; links between maternal diagnosis and magnifying responses were robust to covariates. Young adult recollections of maternal responses to emotion were predicted by affective modeling in early childhood, providing preliminary validity evidence for the Emotions as a Child Scale. Findings provide novel evidence that major depression and bipolar disorder are associated with altered emotion socialization and that maternal affective modeling in early childhood prospectively predicts young adults’ recollections of emotion socialization in families with and without mood disorder.

Homelessness among children in poverty continues to confront schools, educators, and policymakers with major challenges. This commentary summarizes findings from 2 decades of research on academic risk and resilience in children experiencing homelessness. Recent research corroborates the early conclusion that although children experiencing homelessness share many risks with other disadvantaged children, they fall higher on a continuum of cumulative risk. Research also indicates resilience, with many homeless students succeeding in school. Implications for educational practice, training, research, and policy are discussed, particularly regarding school psychology. Evidence underscores the importance of identification, assessment, and administrative data; outreach and communication to ensure that mandated educational rights of homeless children are met; and coordinating education across schools and systems to provide continuity of services and learning. Early childhood education, screening, and access to quality programs are important for preventing achievement disparities that emerge early and persist among these students. Additional research is needed to inform, improve, and evaluate interventions to mitigate risk and promote school success of students facing homelessness.

Non-suicidal self injury (NSSI) is a transdiagnostic maladaptive behavior that is highly prevalent in adolescence. A greater understanding of the mechanisms leading to NSSI is needed to guide the development of prevention efforts. The current study examined the relationship between maternal socialization of emotions and NSSI behaviors in their children. Female adolescents (N = 90, 12–17 years old) who demonstrated a range of NSSI lifetime episodes from none to very frequent were included in this sample. Maternal responses to their children’s displays of sadness, anger, and happiness were assessed. Principal components analysis was used to categorize items into supportive and unsupportive maternal emotion socialization responses for the three emotions. Adolescents whose mothers reported less supportive maternal responses to child’s expressions of sadness and anger had more lifetime NSSI episodes. Many of these patterns remained when follow-up analyses considered an extreme group approach (e.g., high counts of NSSI versus no NSSI), when analyses focused on specific diagnostic subgroups (e.g., depression and anxiety), and to some extent (socialization of anger) when current NSSI was considered. While the cross-sectional study design prevents causal conclusions, transactional theories raise the possibility that mothers’ emotion socialization may impact offspring NSSI and offspring engagement in NSSI may result in mothers altering their socialization practices to accommodate their child’s unique needs. Future research should employ longitudinal methodology to examine the time course, consider the role of emotion regulation as an explanatory mechanism, and consider intervention methods that may teach effective emotion socialization for parents.