Miglena Y. Ivanova

To advance our understanding of the social and emotional development of minoritized youth in new destination areas, we examined whether same-day links between positive interactions with friends and mood vary by two contextual factors—(a) the racial–ethnic composition of adolescents’ close friends, and (b) the quality of parent–adolescent interactions—among Black and Latiné adolescents living in United States. Data were obtained from two daily diary studies, one of 36 Black adolescents (44% male; 11 to 17 years old; M = 13.65, SD = 2.29), and one of 21 Latiné adolescents (52% male; 11 to 14 years old; M = 12.76, SD = 1.00). Across 10 school days, youth completed afternoon reports of positive interactions with friends and bedtime reports of mood and positive parent–youth interactions; the race–ethnicity of the friend group were assessed at baseline. Multilevel models separated day-level from person-level effects and tested moderation by the racial–ethnic composition of friends and parent–youth interactions. For Black adolescents with few same-race friends (0 to 1 out of max 3), when youth reported more positive friend interactions, they reported lower positive mood. The opposite was true for Black youth with more same-race friends; when youth reported more positive friend interactions, they reported more positive mood at the end of the day. Among Black youth with higher mean levels of positive parent interactions, when youth reported more positive friend interactions, they reported lower negative mood. Results from the analysis of Latiné youth did not support study hypotheses. Findings extend cultural–ecological–transactional frameworks of development by showing that the short-term emotional yield of supportive interactions with friends hinges on contextual vulnerabilities and assets, such as peer group composition and family relationship quality, especially for Black youth.

Evidence of internalizing (INT)-to-externalizing (EXT) directional effects (e.g., acting out/masked depression hypotheses) has been commonly found in older youth. However, this relationship may still be present but fluctuate more dynamically during early development, a period of significant cognitive and self-regulatory changes. Moreover, dynamic codevelopment has not been well studied in samples at elevated risk, including those due to prenatal cocaine exposure. There is some evidence that prenatal cocaine exposure increases risk for EXT, but findings have been mixed. One possible explanation may be that INT may codevelop with EXT in higher-risk contexts, and most studies do not consider codevelopment of these problems. We utilized time-varying effect modeling to investigate the age-varying effect of INT on concurrent EXT across early childhood (1.5–6.5 years) and whether associations varied as a function of sex and prenatal cocaine exposure. The sample was primarily low-income and Black ( N = 198; 49% males; 74% Black; 71% receiving federal assistance), oversampled for prenatal cocaine exposure using a case-control design. Results identified the strongest regression effect of INT on EXT during the toddlerhood/preschool period (2.5–4.5 years), especially for male children. No differences were observed by cocaine exposure. Findings suggest that INT problems are most strongly associated with increased EXT difficulties at earlier ages, which may be a sensitive period during which targeting INT may potentially prevent long-term co-occurring problems.

Although prior work indicates that exposure to multiple family risk factors negatively impacts adjustment in childhood and adolescence, few studies have examined whether children in high-risk families transition in and out of adversity during early childhood and whether patterns of change matter for adjustment in adolescence. Using data from a sample of 216 caregiver-child dyads participating in a study of prenatal cocaine exposure (116 exposed and 100 non-exposed; 50.9% girls), we used latent transition analysis to identify distinct profiles of early exposure to caregiver substance use (SU) and SU-related familial risk (caregiver psychological distress, exposure to violence, harshness, and low sensitivity) and the association between these profiles and adolescent well-being (i.e., hope, happiness, and life satisfaction). Assessments occurred when children were 13, 24, 36, and 48 months and during kindergarten (M_months = 66.16, SD = 4.47) and early adolescence (M_years = 13.26, SD = 0.88). Caregivers self-identified as 72.09% Black, 15.81% White, 10.23% Hispanic/Latinx, 1.40% other, and 0.47% American Indian. Four profiles of varying levels of exposure to caregiver SU and SU-related risks were identified from infancy to kindergarten: SU/family risks, no SU/low family risks, SU/negative parenting, and SU/low family risks. Most children stayed in the same profile (64.2%), while the rest transitioned between profiles. Children exposed to caregiver SU and family adversity had lower positive outcomes in adolescence. Stable membership in the SU/family risks profile had significant maladaptive consequences on adolescent well-being. Implications for research and the design of tailored interventions to promote well-being among at-risk youth are discussed.

Background This study examined transactional associations among maternal depression, maternal sensitivity, and child engagement in the context of a low-income, diverse sample with maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) as a moderator of these transactions. Methods A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to investigate within- and between-family variability from infancy to toddlerhood. The sample included 247 mother–child dyads (47% girls; 51% African-American; 178 MSDP, 69 non-MSDP). Assessments were conducted once during each trimester of pregnancy and at 2, 9, 16, and 24 months of child ages. Results Between-family associations revealed that children exposed to higher levels of sensitive parenting across time had higher behavioral engagement from infancy to toddlerhood. At the within-family level, increased sensitive parenting at 9 months was predictive of increased child engagement at 16 months which in turn predicted increases in sensitive parenting at 24 months. Increased maternal depression was concurrently associated with lower maternal sensitivity at 2 months and lower child engagement at 16 months. Contrary to hypotheses, changes in maternal depression were not associated to changes in parenting or child engagement. These associations did not vary between prenatally smoking and nonsmoking mothers. However, there was significantly higher stability in maternal depression across time among nonsmoking mothers compared to those in the MSDP group. Additionally, increased maternal depression was related to lower-than-expected child engagement at 9 months only for the nonsmoking group. Conclusions Results highlight transactional processes at the within-family level and the importance of timing for parent and child effects on transactional processes.