There may be a cumulative effect of social and environmental risk factors which lead to chronic, elevated levels of stress. Constant elevations of maternal stress hormones during pregnancy disrupt developing fetal brain chemistry and architecture, resulting in later memory and learning deficiencies. While we know that the quality of the fetal environment and the timing of exposure to a variety of substances are critical for developmental and health outcomes, little is known about the consequences of maternal cumulative risk on the fetus and later cognitive development. With data from the Nurse Family Partnership Elmira Sample, this work investigates whether maternal cumulative risk during pregnancy predicts IQ in 3 and 4 year olds, without and with postnatal influences. The role that birth outcomes play as mediators of this relationship is also explored. Finally, moderation effects and cumulative genetic risk of five polymorphisms of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene are examined. Increased maternal cumulative risk during pregnancy was negatively associated with IQ at ages 3 and 4 with and without the inclusion of postnatal controls. Birth outcomes partially mediated this relationship to a small extent. GR rs6198 G and rs6190 G alleles infer risk while rs6198 A alleles serve as protective factors with respect to the association of maternal cumulative risk during pregnancy and IQ in young children. This study contributes insights on the cumulative effects of chronic social and environmental stressors that may lead to increased levels of maternal stress hormones during pregnancy and poor cognitive outcomes in young children in the presence of specific glucocorticoid receptor single nucleotide polymorphisms. Application of findings to early intervention programming and policy is discussed.

Adolescence is the time when humans begin utilizing mating strategies (e.g., flirting, fighting or rumor spreading about competitors) to attract and keep mates. Consistent empirical evidence shows that some adolescent boys are on a developmental pathway in which they utilize aggression and risky behaviors in their mating strategies, but there is little research on adolescent girls' use of aggression and risk-taking in mating. This study hypothesized that ethnically diverse, young adolescent girls nominated consistently as flirters were also more likely to be nominated as aggressive and report higher levels of risk taking behaviors (e.g., drug use, delinquency) than girls not nominated as flirters. This study assessed mating effort via a new approach: peer-report of flirting behavior, which is dissimilar to previous studies that asked participants to report on their mating effort behaviors or report on peers who were not participants in the study. It is proposed that flirting behavior will increase yearly from 6th to 8th grade, coinciding with the start of puberty. It is also predicted that consistent flirters will endorse dating more frequently, as mating behavior and mate success are strongly linked in the literature. This study also investigated the relationship between attractiveness, which is an aspect of mate value, and mating effort. Researchers have found that mating effort and mate value increase one's mating success and they are positively correlated. Also, this study analyzed the relationship between adolescents' familial adversity and their mating effort as previous research found that familial adversity has a causal influence on teenage sexual risk taking behaviors, earlier start of puberty, and earlier sexual debut. Sixth graders in two large middle schools in a low income, ethnically diverse, northeastern school district were followed for three years for a larger longitudinal study. This study uses data from a subsample of 190 adolescent girls with complete data for 7th and 8th grades. Measures were administered in language arts or social studies classes during the fall of each year. Measures included a peer-report of flirtatiousness and aggressive behavior via the Revised Class Play (Masten, Morrison, & Pelligrini, 1985), self-report of dating frequency, and self-report of risk taking behaviors including substance and alcohol use (Winters, 1992) and delinquency (Elliot, Huizinga, & Ageton, 1985). Attractiveness was assessed via peer-report ratings of yearbook photos and self-reports of body image and appearance satisfaction (Cash, 2000). Adverse familial background was measured as self-report of psychological aggression from parents (Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore, & Runyan, 1998) and living arrangements in 6th grade.

While much research has suggested that emotional experiences change dramatically over the lifespan, less is known about what underlies these changes at a mechanistic level. Specifically, it is unclear whether age predicts differences in bottom-up reactivity to emotional events, or in the ability to exert top-down control over emotional responses. The present studies sought to address these gaps in the literature. Studies 1 and 2 compared the behavioral and neural correlates, respectively, of emotional reactivity to and regulation of emotional responses to social and non-social aversive stimuli in individuals aged 10-22. Study 1 additionally examined the interaction between individual differences in sensitivity to social rejection and age and how this impacts regulation of emotional responses to social stimuli. Across these studies, age predicted differences in neural and behavioral correlates of regulation but not reactivity. Study 3 broadened the sample age range to include children as young as 6 years and obtained results that were generally consistent with those of Studies 1-2. Study 4 examined the generalizability of the findings from Studies 1-3 by examining reactivity and regulation of appetitive, rather than aversive, responses in participants ranging from 6-22 years. Behavioral indices of reactivity and regulation correlated with age in Study 4, but neural effects of age were only found for regulation. Data from Study 4 additionally suggested links between the neural correlates of regulation of craving and body mass index.

Previous research suggests that the home environment explains up to one half of the association between poverty and low cognitive skills. Building on this research, this study provides a more nuanced analysis of the family processes through which socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with children's academic outcomes by: 1) including maternal education and family income as predictors of parenting and children's academic skills, and 2) separating the home environment into parental investments of time and materials. Data are drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K; n=20,582). Structural equation modeling is used to examine the extent to which these parental investments mediate associations between markers of SES and children's reading and math achievement. Models also test for moderation of the productivity of parental investments. Results indicate that SES is associated with children's school success via a pathway in which maternal education influences the extent to which parents invest in learning materials for their children, and these learning materials in turn foster development of early literacy and numeracy skills. Parental time has an unexpected negative association with children's achievement, which is explained in supplemental models. Family income and maternal education also moderate the productivity of parental investments, such that the negative effect of time and the positive effect of materials are magnified in more advantaged households. Findings suggest that the following interventions may be worthwhile policy priorities: 1) support for low-SES mothers' pursuit of further education, and/or 2) provision of learning materials for children in disadvantaged families.

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the differences between isolated and non-isolated victims of peer victimization (PV) in middle school, in order to better understand the diverse mechanisms underlying the development of PV and to apply such knowledge to intervention programs for different types of victims. To meet this purpose, two research questions (RQ) were proposed. The first RQ examined how the relationship between self-reported PV and its risk factors/concurrent correlates (individual characteristics, such as peer-reported aggression, shyness, as well as self-reported internalizing problems and social skills, and patterns in peer relationships, such as peer-reported rejection by boys/girls and likelihood of having a mutually liked peer) are different depending on the level of peer-rated isolation in the 7th grade. The second RQ investigated factors associated with a decrease in peer victimization in the following year (8th grade), and examined whether such factors are different for isolated victims and non-isolated victims. To address these research questions, secondary analyses were conducted on the data gathered by Brassard and colleagues in 3-year longitudinal survey conducted with the entire cohort of students in two middle schools in a lower income, racially heterogeneous urban school district. Participants were 640 students whose PV and isolation data in the 7th grade were available. PV was measured using the Social Experience Questionnaire (Crick & Glotpeter, 1996). Isolation was calculated based on peer nomination on an item, "play alone," from the Revised Class Play (Masten, Morison, & Pellegrini, 1985). The results of the analyses indicated that non-isolated victims were not as different from isolated victims as expected. However, isolated victims and non-isolated victims were found to be two distinct groups of victims confronted with different challenges. Isolated victims, specifically isolated victimized boys, had poorer peer relationship patterns, including higher rejection by boys and girls, and lower likelihood of having a mutually-liked peer, while non-isolated victims suffered more from internalizing problems. Meanwhile, some similarities were found between these two types of victims; both of them are less shy and have fewer social skills compared to the non-victimized counterparts. PV was not significantly related to aggression for either isolated participants or non-isolated participants. This study also identified possible individual characteristics that are related to a decrease in PV in a following year. Shyness was associated with escape from victimization for both non-isolated victims and isolated victims as was low internalizing problems for isolated victims. These findings have implications for practices in school and clinical settings, including the importance of social skill training as an attempt to prevent adolescents from suffering from PV, and prioritization of clinical services for isolated victims to reduce their internalizing problems. This study also suggested some directions for future studies, including comparing isolated victims and non-isolated victims in more diverse aspects of peer relationships (e.g., popularity and friends' characteristics) , a more comprehensive analysis for the relationship between shyness and PV, and the identification of social skills that are beneficial for different types of victims.

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This study investigated the effects of family structure on 13-18 year-old adolescents in Saudi Arabia. Comparisons were made between adolescents from polygamous and monogamous families in psychological well-being (self-esteem, satisfaction with life, depression), bullying and victimization. A series of investigations assessed the effects of family structure and several demographic variables on adolescents’ psychological well-being and behaviour. Also, the mediating role of parent-adolescent relationships measured by parent-adolescent bonding and father availability was investigated. A systematic review of previous research established that few studies had investigated mediating variables, such as demographic variables. In the first study, comparisons were made between 98 adolescents from polygamous and monogamous families. Results found that adolescents from polygamous families reported more problems in their psychological well-being, bullying and victimization than adolescents from monogamous families. The aim of the second study was to establish the validity of the Parental Bonding Instrument for use with adolescents in Saudi Arabia. The parental bonding instrument was validated for use in Saudi society with 301 participants aged 13-18 years. Results found that the ‘care’ dimension of the parental bonding instrument was valid for use in Saudi Arabia but the ‘overprotection’ dimension was not considered to be culturally valid because of different cultural patterns found in Saudi culture. The third study compared 266 adolescents from polygamous and monogamous families using the validated parental bonding instrument. The results found that adolescents in polygynous families reported lower ‘care’ scores than those in monogamous families. Also, comparisons by age group and gender found no effects of age or gender for father care, mother care, self-esteem, satisfaction with life, bullying or victimisation. A significant difference was found between age groups for depression. The fourth study was conducted with 500 adolescents using structural equation modelling to test the role of the parent-adolescent relationship measured by parental bonding on adolescent self-esteem, satisfaction with life, depression, bullying and victimisation. For polygamous families, parental care was a significant mediating variable between adolescent outcomes and the family variables of father availability and the position of the mother as the first or later wife. For monogamous families, although parental care predicted adolescent outcomes, family variables did not affect parental care. The fifth study was a qualitative analysis of interviews with 30 adolescents and 10 teachers on perceptions of father fairness, family functioning, attitudes toward polygamous marriage and academic achievement. Problems reported for polygamous families were lack of father fairness and family cohesion, emotional and behavioural problems, and poor academic achievement. In conclusion, this thesis is the first study to investigate the effects of polygamous family structure on adolescents in Saudi society and the first to provide a culturally validated measure of adolescent-parent attachment relationships. It was found that polygamy affects adolescent psychological well-being and behaviour, also adolescents’ perceptions of parental care and the fairness with which they feel that their father treats them have important effects on their relationship with their parents, their sense of well-being and their behaviour. The findings will be valuable for educators, counsellors and psychologists in Saudi Arabia.

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