The overall goal of this study is to introduce latent class analysis (LCA) as an alternative approach to latent subgroup analysis. Traditionally, subgroup analysis aims to determine whether individuals respond differently to a treatment based on one or more measured characteristics. LCA provides a way to identify a small set of underlying subgroups characterized by multiple dimensions which could, in turn, be used to examine differential treatment effects. This approach can help to address methodological challenges that arise in subgroup analysis, including a high Type I error rate, low statistical power, and limitations in examining higher-order interactions. An empirical example draws on N=1,900 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. Six characteristics (household poverty, single-parent status, peer cigarette use, peer alcohol use, neighborhood unemployment, and neighborhood poverty) are used to identify five latent subgroups: Low Risk, Peer Risk, Economic Risk, Household & Peer Risk, and Multi-Contextual Risk. Two approaches for examining differential treatment effects are demonstrated using a simulated outcome: 1) a classify-analyze approach and, 2) a model-based approach based on a reparameterization of the LCA with covariates model. Such approaches can facilitate targeting future intervention resources to subgroups that promise to show the maximum treatment response.

Youth in underserved, urban communities are at risk for a range of negative outcomes related to stress, including social-emotional difficulties, behavior problems, and poor academic performance. Mindfulness-based approaches may improve adjustment among chronically stressed and disadvantaged youth by enhancing self-regulatory capacities. This paper reports findings from a pilot randomized controlled trial assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a school-based mindfulness and yoga intervention. Four urban public schools were randomized to an intervention or wait-list control condition (n=97 fourth and fifth graders, 60.8% female). It was hypothesized that the 12-week intervention would reduce involuntary stress responses and improve mental health outcomes and social adjustment. Stress responses, depressive symptoms, and peer relations were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Findings suggest the intervention was attractive to students, teachers, and school administrators and that it had a positive impact on problematic responses to stress including rumination, intrusive thoughts, and emotional arousal.

Executive function (EF) skills are integral components of young children's growing competence, but little is known about the role of early family context and experiences in their development. We examined how demographic and familial risks during infancy predicted EF competence at 36 months in a large, predominantly low-income sample of non-urban families from Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Using latent class analysis, six ecological risk profiles best captured the diverse experiences of these families. Profiles with various combinations of family structure, income, and psychosocial risks were differentially related to EF. Much of the influence of early risks on later EF appears to be transmitted through quality of parent-child interactions during infancy. Findings suggest that early family environments may prove to be especially fruitful contexts for the promotion of EF development.

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This study identified profiles of 13 risk factors across child, family, school, and neighborhood domains in a diverse sample of children in kindergarten from 4 US locations (n = 750; 45% minority). It then examined the relation of those early risk profiles to externalizing problems, school failure, and low academic achievement in Grade 5. A person-centered approach, latent class analysis, revealed four unique risk profiles, which varied considerably across urban African American, urban white, and rural white children. Profiles characterized by several risks that cut across multiple domains conferred the highest risk for negative outcomes. Compared to a variablecentered approach, such as a cumulative risk index, these findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the early precursors to negative outcomes. For example, results suggested that urban children in single-parent homes that have few other risk factors (i.e., show at least average parenting warmth and consistency and report relatively low stress and high social support) are at quite low risk for externalizing problems, but at relatively high risk for poor grades and low academic achievement. These findings provide important information for refining and targeting preventive interventions to groups of children who share particular constellations of risk factors. KeywordsMultiple risks; risk profiles; person-centered; latent class analysis; child behavior problems Children live within multiple contexts, including the family, the school, and the neighborhood, and characteristics of those contexts contribute to the development of competence or adjustment problems (Bronfrenbrenner, 1979;Cicchetti, 1993). Although it can be useful to examine the role of individual risk factors, they seldom operate in isolation (Cicchetti, 1993). In fact, they often are highly related both within and across ecological levels (e.g., child, family, school, and neighborhood). Findings from numerous longitudinal studies support the value of a holistic/ecological approach to examining the multiple risk factors associated with children's future adjustment problems (Gorman-Smith, Tolan, & Henry, 2000;Greenberg, et al., 1999;Greenberg, Speltz, DeKlyen, & Jones, 2001;Keller, Spieker, & Gilchrist, 2005;Rutter, 1979;Sameroff & Seifer, 1990).This study assumed such a multivariate approach, in which children's characteristics and outcomes are influenced by factors including the social context of their family, the nature of NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript interactions they have with their parents, the quality of their neighborhoods, their experiences with their teachers and classmates, and the climate of their schools. Although we know that each of those factors is contributory, it is less clear how all of those factors interact to lead toward or deflect children from specific outcomes. The beginning of elementary school and the beginning of middle school represent two critical developmental time periods during which the transition in conte...