This study investigated relations between emotionality, emotion regulation, and children's behavioral adaptation in a longitudinal design. Mothers rated emotionality and emotion regulation related to anger, fear, and positive emotions-exuberance for 151 children at age 5 and later at age 6 years 6 months. Emotionality and emotion regulation measures were modestly related. Preschool ratings at age 6 (n = 125), maternal ratings at age 6 years 6 months (n = 133), and elementary school ratings at age 8 (n = 135) of problems and competence were also collected. High anger emotionality and low regulation of positive emotions and exuberance predicted externalizing problem behavior and prosocial behavior. High fear emotionality and low fear regulation predicted internalizing problem behavior. There were few interactive effects of emotionality and regulation.

Relatively little has been written about one group of infants identified with Ainsworth's "Strange Situation" assessment of infant-parent attachment, those classified insecure/ambivalent. Although virtually all samples contain some insecure/ambivalent infants, these infants are uncommon, comprising 7%-15% of most American samples. Recently developed assessments of attachment in children and adults have identified attachment groups of older individuals thought to parallel the insecure/ambivalent infant group. Empirical work in which insecure/ambivalent individuals are examined as a separate group is reviewed within the context of attachment theory, and a coherent picture emerges of the antecedents (relatively low or inconsistent maternal availability; biological vulnerability) and sequelae (limited exploratory competence) of this group. This picture is used as the basis for additional theoretical proposals, and suggestions for future research are presented.

This study examined the prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of spanking and verbal punishment in 2,573 low-income White, African American, and Mexican American toddlers at ages 1, 2, and 3. Both spanking and verbal punishment varied by maternal race/ethnicity. Child fussiness at age 1 predicted spanking and verbal punishment at all three ages. Cross-lagged path analyses indicated that spanking (but not verbal punishment) at age 1 predicted child aggressive behavior problems at age 2 and lower Bayley mental development scores at age 3. Neither child aggressive behavior problems nor Bayley scores predicted later spanking or verbal punishment. In some instances, maternal race/ethnicity and/or emotional responsiveness moderated the effects of spanking and verbal punishment on child outcomes.

In the interest of improving child maltreatment prevention, this prospective, longitudinal, community-based study of 499 mothers and their infants examined (a) direct associations between mothers' experiences of childhood maltreatment and their offspring's maltreatment, and (b) mothers' mental health problems, social isolation, and social information processing patterns (hostile attributions and aggressive response biases) as mediators of these associations. Mothers' childhood physical abuse -but not neglect -directly predicted offspring victimization. This association was mediated by mothers' social isolation and aggressive response biases. Findings are discussed in terms of specific implications for child maltreatment prevention.Child maltreatment is a serious public health problem, most urgently for infants and toddlers. In the United States in 2006, 905,000 children, more than 12 of every 1,000 (1.2%) were identified as victims of abuse or neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2008). Victimization rates among children between birth and age 1 were twice as high (2.4%). Female parents (typically biological mothers), acting alone or with another, perpetrated 64% of child abuse and neglect cases (US DHHS, 2008). The most common pattern of maltreatment (40% of cases) was a child victimized by a female parent acting alone.Child maltreatment not only results in acute physical injuries but also predicts later substance use problems (Kunitz et al., 1998), high-risk sexual behaviors (McCauley et al., 1997;Parillo et al., 2001), aggression and violent crime (Lansford et al., 2007), mental health problems (Cohen, Brown, & Smailes, 2001; Edwards, Holden, Felitti, & Anda, 2003;Widom, DuMont, & Czaja, 2007), and adult relationship problems, including intimate partner violence (Kunitz et al., 1998;Widom, Czaja, & Dutton, 2008). A history of child abuse has been identified as the strongest life-experience predictor of multi-problem behavior in adolescence (Lansford et al., 2002). The earlier in a child's life that maltreatment occurs, the more likely it is to recur, and the greater the physical, psychological, and social costs (Cicchetti & Toth, 1995;Keiley, Howe, Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 2001; US DHHS, 2008).Rigorous developmental science can be brought to bear on the pernicious problem of child maltreatment by examining developmental processes that may underlie the associations between well-documented risk factors and child victimization. In the interest of identifying proximal intervention targets for child maltreatment prevention, this prospective longitudinal study examines (a) mothers' history of childhood maltreatment (physical abuse or neglect) as a risk factor for their child's maltreatment during infancy and toddlerhood, Intergenerational Continuity in the Experience of Child MaltreatmentChild maltreatment is widely viewed as multiply determined. At the same time, scholars and practitioners repeatedly discuss a parent's history of childhood maltreatment as a key risk factor for th...

In this prospective longitudinal study of 574 children followed from age 5 to age 21, the authors examine the links between early physical abuse and violent delinquency and other socially relevant outcomes during late adolescence or early adulthood and the extent to which the child's race and gender moderate these links. Analyses of covariance indicated that individuals who had been physically abused in the first 5 years of life were at greater risk for being arrested as juveniles for violent, nonviolent, and status offenses. Moreover, physically abused youth were less likely to have graduated from high school and more likely to have been fired in the past year, to have been a teen parent, and to have been pregnant or impregnated someone in the past year while not married. These effects were more pronounced for African American than for European American youth and somewhat more pronounced for females than for males.Keywords physical abuse; violence; delinquency; problem behavior; longitudinal Child maltreatment is an urgent public health problem for many reasons, not least of which concern the negative effects of early maltreatment on later social and psychological functioning. Of particular concern is the extent to which early physical abuse leads to later aggression and violence, that is, the extent to which "violence begets violence" (Widom, 1989). Although several studies have linked early maltreatment to later aggression and delinquency (e.g., Smith & Thornberry, 1995;Stouthamer-Loeber, Loeber, Homish, & Wei, 2001), the connection between early physical abuse and adolescent violence, per se, is less clear. In addition, much of the literature on the sequelae of early abuse is beset by methodological limitations such as the use of retrospective reports of childhood maltreatment and samples that confound maltreatment with experience in the child protective services system. In the present study, we use a prospective longitudinal design with a community sample in which abuse was measured through in-depth interviews to examine the links between early NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript physical abuse and violent delinquency and other socially relevant outcomes during late adolescence (at age 18) or early adulthood (at age 21). We also examine the extent to which the child's race and gender moderate these links. Early Physical Abuse and Later Aggression and DelinquencyImportant insight into the links between early physical abuse and later aggression and delinquency has come from a series of longitudinal studies drawing on 676 abused or neglected children, according to substantiated cases recorded from 1967 to 1971, and 520 matched control children drawn from birth records and school records (Widom, 1992(Widom, , 1998. All participants were interviewed between 1989 and 1995 when they were, on average, 29 years old. Participants who had been abused or neglected were 38% more likely than the matched controls to have been arrested for a violent crime (Wi...