Development and Psychopathology

Child development involves both reactive and self-regulatory mechanisms that children develop in conjunction with social norms. A half-century of research has uncovered aspects of the physical basis of attentional networks that produce regulation, and has given us some knowledge of how the social environment may alter them. In this paper, we discuss six forms of developmental plasticity related to aspects of attention. We then focus on effortful or executive aspects of attention, reviewing research on temperamental individual differences and important pathways to normal and pathological development. Pathologies of development may arise when regulatory and reactive systems fail to reach the balance that allows for both self-expression and socially acceptable behavior. It remains a challenge for our society during the next millennium to obtain the information necessary to design systems that allow a successful balance to be realized by the largest possible number of children.

Competent outcomes in late adolescence were examined in relation to adversity over time, antecedent competence and psychosocial resources, in order to investigate the phenomenon of resilience. An urban community sample of 205 (114 females, 90 males; 27% minority) children were recruited in elementary school and followed over 10 years. Multiple methods and informants were utilized to assess three major domains of competence from childhood through adolescence (academic achievement, conduct, and peer social competence), multiple aspects of adversity, and major psychosocial resources. Both variable-centered and person-centered analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized significance of resources for resilience. Better intellectual functioning and parenting resources were associated with good outcomes across competence domains, even in the context of severe, chronic adversity. IQ and parenting appeared to have a specific protective role with respect to antisocial behavior. Resilient adolescents (high adversity, adequate competence across three domains) had much in common with their low-adversity competent peers, including average or better IQ, parenting, and psychological well-being. Resilient individuals differed markedly from their high adversity, maladaptive peers who had few resources and high negative emotionality. Results suggest that IQ and parenting scores are markers of fundamental adaptational systems that protect child development in the context of severe adversity.

Increasing evidence supports the view that the interaction of perinatal exposure to adversity with individual genetic liabilities may increase an individual's vulnerability to the expression of psycho- and physiopathology throughout life. The early environment appears to program some aspects of neurobiological development and, in turn, behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and physiological development. Several rodent and primate models of early adverse experience have been analyzed in this review, including those that “model” maternal separation or loss, abuse or neglect, and social deprivation. Accumulating evidence shows that these early traumatic experiences are associated with long-term alterations in coping style, emotional and behavioral regulation, neuroendocrine responsiveness to stress, social “fitness,” cognitive function, brain morphology, neurochemistry, and expression levels of central nervous system genes that have been related to anxiety and mood disorders. Studies are underway to identify important aspects of adverse early experience, such as (a) the existence of “sensitive periods” during development associated with alterations in particular output systems, (b) the presence of “windows of opportunity” during which targeted interventions (e.g., nurturant parenting or supportive–enriching environment) may prevent or reverse dysfunction, (c) the identity of gene polymorphisms contributing to the individual's variability in vulnerability, and (d) a means to translate the timing of these developmental “sensitive periods” across species.

Past research on peer victimization has focused on maltreatment through overtly aggressive behaviors. Although a relational form of aggression has been identified in recent research, studies of the victims of relational aggression have not yet been conducted. The present research was designed as a first attempt to address this issue. Four goals were pursued (n = 474; third- through sixth-grade children): (a) development of a self-report measure of victimization through relational and overt aggression; (b) assessment of the relation between overt victimization and relational victimization; (c) assessment of gender, grade, and sociometric status group differences in victimization; and (d) evaluation of the relation between victimization and social-psychological adjustment. Results showed that the newly developed victimization measure had favorable psychometric properties and that most of the identified victims were the targets of cither relational or overt aggression, but not both. Further, rejected children were more relationally and overtly victimized than their better accepted peers, and boys were more overtly victimized than girls. Finally, relational victimization, overt victimization, and the lack of prosocial treatment by peers were all significantly related to social-psychological adjustment difficulties (e.g., depression, loneliness).