Developmental Models and Mechanisms for Understanding the Effects of Early Experiences on Psychological Development

Abstract

Understanding how and why early exposure to stress may have lasting effects on behavior and biology is fundamental to developmental study of psychopathology. Significant progress in this area has been made since the previous volume, in terms of the quality and quantity of findings and the types of research targets. This chapter reviews illustrative and intriguing findings in this large and diverse area of study. Key sections of the chapter aim to outline and differentiate leading developmental models for testing hypotheses concerning early experience and psychological development; to identify leading mechanisms that may account for a carrying forward of effects in development; to articulate methodological challenges for clinical and translational research for current and future investigation; to review select model systems and research paradigms that have risen to prominence in this area; to discuss intervention studies that have shaped the early experience debate and in clinical and public contexts; and to target future directions for clinical and translational research. Although evidence from animal studies plays a prominent role, research findings from human studies are particularly emphasized.

Latent trajectories of internalizing symptoms from preschool to school age: A multi-informant study in a high-risk sample

“…Similar to the finding obtained in our study, these have been found to predict depression and anxiety in childhood and adolescence (e.g., Bufferd et al, 2014;Edwards et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2003;Luby et al, 2006) as well as membership of trajectory classes characterized by high internalizing symptoms (Weeks et al, 2014). Beyond this, our results support the notion that specifically early life events of loss/separation are risk factors for increasing or chronic internalizing symptoms (O'Connor, 2016), which, in turn, could be used to identify children at risk for an unfavorable development early on.…”

“…A number of studies report that stressful life events (e.g., loss of/separation from a significant person, transitions, and accidents) predict depression and anxiety both in childhood (Bufferd et al, 2014;Edwards, Rapee, & Kennedy, 2010;Furniss, Beyer, & Müller, 2009;Luby, Belden, & Spitznagel, 2006;Scheuer et al, 2016) and in adolescence (Kim, Conger, Elder, & Lorenz, 2003). Developmental studies offer strong support that stressful life events, especially in the first years of life, can exert protracted effects (for a review, see O'Connor, 2016). Similarly, the presence of maltreatment in early childhood has been highlighted as one of the most detrimental risk factors for an individual's psychosocial development (Cicchetti & Toth, 2015;Teicher & Samson, 2013).…”

“…Children in the first years of life may have a limited ability to cope with these kinds of stressful life events as they rely strongly on their caregiver's support in times of high arousal (Bowlby, 1980;Nolte, Guiney, Fonagy, Mayes, & Luyten, 2011). In addition, studies on early institutional care have shown that exposure to deprivation associated with the loss of/separation from a significant person often has detrimental effects for the child's psychological development (for a review, see O'Connor, 2016;Zeanah, Gunnar, McCall, Kreppner, & Fox, 2011).…”

Commentary: The dynamic panel model: a promising approach to clarify sources of influence in developmental psychopathology – a commentary on Wichstrøm et al. (2017)

“…life events). Among others, this issue overlaps with the core theoretical distinctions between early developmental programming vis-a-vis the influence of current context or cumulative stress (O'Connor, 2016) as well as the nature-nurture debate. For example, an ongoing line of inquiry within attachment research focuses on whether long-term effects of early maternal sensitivity on psychopathology persist mainly when quality of caregiving exhibits continuity or whether effects of early maternal sensitivity prevail even after taking concurrent caregiving contexts into account (see Fearon, Groh, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van Ijzendoorn, & Roisman, 2016).…”

“…To tackle such questions, it is of great importance to conduct research beginning in early childhood where evidence for sensitive windows of development is considerable (O'Connor, ). In our laboratory, we have contributed to a growing evidence base showing that various preschool risk factors, ranging from parental psychopathology and peer victimization to temperamental factors and HPA axis dysregulation, are both concurrently and longitudinally related to patterns of internalizing symptoms and disorders (e.g.…”