The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of millions of people around the globe and some of the unprecedent emerged disruptions, are likely to have been particularly challenging for young children (e.g., school closures, social distancing measures, movement restrictions). Studying the impact of such extraordinary circumstances on their well-being is crucial to identify processes leading to risk and resilience. To better understand how Spanish children have adapted to the stressful disruptions resulting from the pandemic outbreak, we examined the effects of child coping and its interactions with contextual stressors (pandemic and family related) on child adjustment, incorporating in our analysis a developmental perspective. Data was collected in April 2020, through parent-reports, during the acute phase of the pandemic and, temporarily coinciding with the mandatory national quarantine period imposed by the Spanish Government. A sample of 1,123 Spanish children (50% girls) aged 3 to 12 (Mage = 7.26; SD = 2.39) participated in the study. Results showed differences in the use of specific strategies by children in different age groups (i.e., 3–6, 7–9 and 10–12-year-olds). Despite the uncontrollable nature of the pandemic-related stressors, child disengagement coping was distinctively associated to negative outcomes (i.e., higher levels of behavioral and emotional difficulties), whereas engagement coping predicted psychosocial adjustment across all age groups. Moreover, interactively with child coping, parent fear of the future and parent dispositional resilience appear as relevant contextual factors to predict both negative and positive outcomes, but their effects seem to be age dependent, suggesting a higher contextual vulnerability for younger children. These findings might have implications for identifying individual and contextual risk and informing potential preventive interventions aimed to reduce the impact of future pandemic outbreaks on children of different ages.

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Research into co-occurrent internalizing and externalizing problems during childhood is flourishing. In particular, investigation on the association between anxiety and externalizing problems has yielded mixed findings, focused mainly on the issue of which problem might precede the other, and what role anxiety plays with respect to externalizing problems. Relatively little attention has been paid to the developmental patterns of these behaviors from early childhood, despite the potential of such knowledge to fully delineate etiological models of co-occurrence. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal association of anxiety and externalizing problems in a community sample of preschoolers (ELISA Project; N = 2,341; 48.2% girls), by identifying empirically derived profiles and then describing their change and stability through the use of Latent Transition Analysis. Gender differences were explored. Four different profiles were identified: “typically developing”, “mainly anxious”, “modestly externalizing” and “co-occurrent”. Membership in these profile groups showed high stability over a two-year period. However, children in the “co-occurrent” profile group were the most likely to show changes, predominantly towards “modestly externalizing”. Furthermore, a significant gender difference for transitions towards the “co-occurrent” profile group was found, with girls showing less likelihood of being assigned to such profile. These findings show that it is possible to identify an early persistent course of co-occurrent anxiety and externalizing problems, as well as observe changes in co-occurrence towards a simpler externalizing behavioral expression. Further research should explore predictors of group membership and changes in membership, that are malleable and therefore open to preventative intervention.

Research continues to work towards a full understanding of the early risk factors and mechanisms underlying the co-occurrence of externalizing and internalizing problems. There is increasing evidence of negative emotionality predicting the co-occurring forms of these problems over childhood. This feature may show substantial stability along development; however, negative emotionality might also vary depending on child characteristics, environment, and the developmental stage. The present study aimed to examine the patterns of stability and change of negative emotionality from preschool to school years, and to identify which of these patterns lead to different behavioral profiles of externalizing and internalizing problems during school years. A total of 1,293 preschoolers from 4 to 6 years (M = 4.64; SD = .67; 50.2 % girls) were followed-up for two years using parent-reported data, within the frame of the ELISA Project. Latent profile and transition analyses were conducted. The overall results revealed a primarily stability pattern of negative emotionality, and to a lesser extent some change towards a less intense emotional expression after follow-up. Results also showed particular developmental patterns of negative emotionality for the different behavioral profiles identified. Children with co-occurrent externalizing and internalizing problems displayed greater rates of transition towards a high negative emotionality expression. These findings were explained in light of individual differences during the development of temperamental characteristics, which may be the result of an interplay among biological and ecological factors

Modern societies devise sexual violence as a social problem. Legal psychologists highlight the importance of identifying those variables that increase the likelihood of violent behaviour occursrisk factors-and those variables that increase their opposition to have deviant behaviours-protective factors-. For these reasons, the objective of this work is to study moral identity and moral disengagement as variables strongly related to violent behaviour, in a sample of institutionalized men (sexual offenders and intimate partner batterers) and in a sample of community men to analyse the differences between them. The sample was composed of 91 convicted and 133 community participants who voluntarily completed The Self-Importance of Moral Identity Scale and The Propensity to Moral Disengagement Scale. Variance analysis, bivariate correlations and hierarchical regressions were performed in order to analyse the differences in each of the variables between groups; to test the relationships between study variables, and to find out which mechanisms of moral disengagement are associated with both factors of moral identity in each group. Results show significant differences between groups in both factors of moral identity (internalization F (1, 224) = 20.72, p <.001; and symbolization F (1, 224) = 14.52, p <. 001). Bivariate correlations showed relationship only between symbolization and moral disengagement in institutionalized participants and lastly, different mechanisms of moral disengagement were associated with both factors of moral identity in each group. Finally, the practical implications of these results were discussed to improve the psychological interventions with sexual offenders and intimate partner batterers.