Resources

This article reports findings from rapid reviews of the literature on climate change and families. Findings include extensive evidence on links between climate change and adverse physical and mental health outcomes, emerging evidence on associations with child developmental outcomes, as well as nascent evidence that climate change may be associated with outcomes for the family system as a whole.

A systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes evidence on the effectiveness of digital peer support interventions for enhancing physical and mental health in healthy individuals rather than those diagnosed with a clinical condition.

Guided by interpersonal acceptance–rejection theory, this study examined whether associations between recollections of parental acceptance in childhood and adults’ marital adjustment were mediated by self-differentiation, depression, and anxiety.

This paper explores the extent to which medical cannabis users differ from recreational cannabis users and whether medical use is associated with ACEs, poor health, or disability.

Hostile attribution bias (HAB) and hostile rumination (HR) are cognitive vulnerabilities associated with multiple forms of psychological maladjustment among diverse youth. This study longitudinally examined whether HR mediates the relation of HAB to aggression, anxiety, and depression symptoms in a sample of adolescents from three countries.

Inequalities in the distribution of wealth among families with children may have deleterious health consequences, especially for adolescent children. This review discusses what is known about wealth-related inequalities in adolescent physical health and proposes four psychosocial mechanisms that may explain how wealth shapes adolescent physical health.

This study examined the relation between pandemic-related stressors and mental health among young people (YP) in India during two time points in the waning phase of the pandemic.

This report reviews and analyzes sources published from 2019 to 2024 to investigate the complex dynamics of the intersecting trends of urbanization, migration, and family. Six critical areas in need of policy recommendations have been identified: family-friendly policies, gender-responsive and child-sensitive legislation, affordable housing and inclusive infrastructure, comprehensive urban planning, sustainable urban growth through effective family planning,
and comprehensive healthcare services for immigrants.

The purpose of this report is to synthesize current scientific knowledge on the potential impacts of climate change on individual family members and the family system as a whole, and to identify policies and interventions that promote their resilience and well-being.

This report describes six major demographic trends: declining fertility, changing partnering patterns, reductions in early childhood and maternal mortality, a burgeoning youth population, changes in child marriage rates, and a growing aging population.

Given the widespread use of technology, it is crucial to explore its impact on individuals worldwide, with a particular focus on families. Using a rapid review, this report discusses various aspects of technology and its impact on family members, highlighting the most recent findings.

Our analyses showed that Fast Track’s improvements to interpersonal and intrapersonal skills in childhood served as catalysts for better life outcomes at age 31. Our findings inform understanding of how a childhood preventive intervention can improve adjustment and behaviors into established adulthood.

This study examined children’s mothers’, fathers’ and other caregivers’ socioemotional parenting practices in 159,959 families with 3- to 4-year-olds from 51 low-and-middle income countries. Mothers engaged in the most socioemotional caregiving practices, followed by other caregivers and then fathers.

This chapter introduces the methods of design, measurement, and analysis that
make developmental science a scientific discipline capable of answering questions
about how and why human individuals develop.

The present qualitative study explored home visiting providers’ perceptions of the behaviors they use to promote enrollment and engagement and reduced attrition for families. Implications suggest that workforce structure and training include behavioral strategies to improve enrollment, engagement, and retention in programs to promote program and familial success.

Picky eating commonly co-occurs with disruptive behaviors in young children. This study found that parent child interaction therapy decreased picky eating.

This study uses data from the Baby’s First Years randomized control trial to identify the causal impact of unconditional cash transfers on maternal reports of early childhood development.

Vaping is one of the most common forms of substance use among adolescents. Social influences play a key role in the decision to use substances and frequency of use during adolescence, and vaping is no exception. Using a sample of 891 adolescents, we explored whether the frequency of vaping nicotine and the frequency of vaping marijuana at age 17 were related to concurrent reports of resistance to peer influence, perceptions of friends vaping, and perceptions of classmates vaping.

This study examined the relation between schools’ color-evasive versus multicultural diversity ideologies, school characteristics, and adolescent development.

Examination of whether cultural values, conformity and parenting behaviours were related to child adjustment in middle childhood in the United States.

This brief outlines the findings from “How adolescents’ lives were disrupted over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal investigation in 12 cultural groups in 9 nations from March 2020 to July 2022” in the journal Development and Psychopathology. The authors investigate the extent to which adolescents’ lives were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the factors that caused these disruptions.

Can positive transitions into young adulthood at age 25 prevent problematic substance use at age 31, even in the context of childhood adverse family environments, conduct problems, and adolescent substance use? The authors lean on John Schulenberg’s developmental framework to examine this question.

The goal of this study was to examine how multimedia/simulation training and weekly communities of practice related to virtual telepresence robotic consultation influenced consultants’ and childcare staff uptake of the virtual robotic telepresence consultation approach and their acceptance of this technology.

A recent American Psychological Association Summit provided an urgent call to transform psychological science and practice away from a solely individual-level focus to become accountable for population-level impact on health and mental health. This article summarizes key points from the Summit.

This book explores the primary psychological process leading aggressive children to grow into dysfunctional adults: a defensive mindset. This book provides insights that defensive mindset might also explain dysfunction in other realms, including school culture, parenting, marriage, the workplace, intergroup relationships, politics, and international relations.

This study—the first randomized controlled trial of early childhood poverty reduction in the United States—investigates how increased economic resources affect 1,000 low-income US mothers’ breastfeeding, child-care, and employment practices and the ability to meet their intentions for these practices in the first year of their infant’s life.

Overall, families reported high levels of need during home visits, and community connections were facilitated for 57% of visited families. Significant differences in need profiles between whites and minoritized groups were revealed, reflecting both disparity and uniqueness.

Overall, our study helps to inform understanding of the developmental course and
prognosis of impulsivity, as well as adding to collaborative efforts linking data across multiple studies to better inform understanding of
developmental processes.

This study investigated how individualism, collectivism and conformity are associated with parenting and child adjustment among 10-year-old children from 13 cultural groups in nine countries. Being connected to an interdependent, cohesive group appears to relate to parenting and children’s adjustment.

Longitudinal studies following children from early life through mid-adulthood show that physical abuse in the first five years of life leads children to adopt a defensive mindset that, in turn, cascades into long-term outcomes of externalizing psychopathology, incarceration, and dysfunction.

Using data from a quasi-random natural experiment of a large family cash transfer among an American Indian tribe in rural North Carolina, this paper examines whether a positive disruption in socioeconomic status during childhood improves birthing person/perinatal outcomes when they become parents themselves.

Researchers examined whether the Fast Track mental health intervention delivered to individuals in childhood decreased mental health problems and the need for health services among the children of these individuals. They found children of Fast Track participants used fewer general inpatient services and fewer inpatient or outpatient mental health services.

Traditional Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has demonstrated efficacy via telehealth in randomized controlled trials. The current study extends this research by examining community-based effectiveness of time-limited telehealth PCIT, comparing intake and posttreatment child behavior and caregiver skills for both telehealth and in-person PCIT.

In this study, primary care medical records were reviewed for children ages 3 to 17 with a subspecialty sexual abuse (SA) evaluation to assess factors associated with documentation of SA history and mental health management by the primary care provider.

This systematic review and meta-analysis examined associations of three types of ACEs (abuse, neglect, and household dysfunctions) with experiential (emotional quality of momentary and everyday experiences) and reflective (judgments about life satisfaction, sense of meaning, and ability to pursue goals that can include and extend beyond the self) facets of emotional well-being (EWB) and educational achievement.

Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture individuals’ basic understanding of what sort of world this is. How do children develop beliefs about the nature of the world?

This study explored the association between relative age and the persistence of ADHD diagnosis at older ages. Contrary to some expectations, children who were younger when they started kindergarten are as likely as children who were older to have a stable ADHD diagnosis.

The current study evaluated the overall effectiveness of an 18-week model of PCIT and examined predictors of retention and treatment outcomes. Participants included predominantly racially, ethnically, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse children aged two to eight years, and their caregivers.

Low income can lead to limited choice of and access to contraception. This study examined whether an unconditional cash transfer (UCT) impacts contraceptive use, including increased satisfaction with and reduced barriers to preferred methods, for individuals with low income. Receipt of monthly UCTs did not impact contraception methods, perceived barriers to use, or satisfaction.

In spite of the laudable efforts of psychological scientists to create evidence-based interventions and the tireless work of psychological professionals to implement these programs, we have not moved the needle on improving the population mental health (and overall health) and well-being of our nation’s children. In answer to this challenge, psychological scientists have begun to model three approaches to population mental health that could be emulated by the field: bottom-up scaling, top-down community-level interventions, and systems transformation.

Among children experiencing poverty, a monthly cash gift affected healthy food intake, but not health or sleep.

Findings from this study suggest that, among families experiencing low economic resources, maternal reports of stress are associated with differences in patterns of infant resting brain activity during the first year of life.

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) minimizes recall burden and maximizes ecological validity and has emerged as a valuable tool. However, EMA has yet to be reliably utilized in young children. The present study evaluates the performance of a developmentally appropriate EMA smartphone app for young children ages 4–10.

Health care systems are increasingly prioritizing food insecurity interventions to improve health, but it is unclear how health systems collaborate with other sectors that are addressing food insecurity. This study evaluated existing collaborations and explore opportunities for further cross-sector engagement.

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred an economic downturn that may have eroded population mental health, especially for renters and homeowners at risk of housing loss. Findings show that individuals who reported difficulty keeping up with rent or mortgage had increased anxiety and depression risks but that state eviction/foreclosure bans weakened these associations.

African American students often encounter racial microaggressions when attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Experiencing racial microaggressions can negatively affect African American students’ feelings of belonging to the campus community. Racial microaggressions can also affect students’ physical and emotional stability.

This study demonstrates how data- and theory-driven methods can be integrated to identify the most important preadolescent risk factors in predicting adolescent mental health.

Assignment to Family Connects, a short-term home visiting program, was associated with improvements in population-level self-reported scores of positive parenting 2 years post-intervention.

This brief, published in partnership with the Hunt Institute, describes the state of school-aged children’s health and healthcare access in the U.S., summarizes research on the link between children’s health and educational performance, and presents examples and models of school-based healthcare along with summaries of the existing evidence on their effectiveness.

The authors performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of ACE exposure on Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) levels – a neural biomarker involved in childhood and adult neurogenesis and long-term memory formation.

This study broadens the traditional focus on income as the primary measure of economic deprivation by providing the first analysis of wealth deprivation, or net worth poverty (NWP), and adult health.

School-based telemedicine clinics (SBTCs) provide students with access to healthcare during the regular school day through private videoconferencing with a healthcare provider. SBTC access reduces the likelihood that a student is chronically absent and reduces the number of days absent.

Parent and child endorsement of reactive aggression both predict the emergence of child aggression, but they are rarely studied together and in longitudinal contexts. The present study does so by examining the unique predictive effects of parent and child endorsement of reactive aggression at age 8 on child aggression at age 9 in 1456 children from 13 cultural groups in 9 nations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, workers not identifying as White non-Hispanic in our sample were more likely to get laid off than White workers. However, these workers were less likely than White workers to receive unemployment insurance at all. Among those who were laid off, these workers and White workers experienced similar increases in material and mental health difficulties and similar gains when they received unemployment insurance.

This article presents data on the positive association of having a child maltreatment evaluation with subsequent acute health care utilization among children from birth to age three.

In Parenting and Child Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Drew Rothenberg and Susannah Zietz’s chapter, Child Growth, National Development, and Early Childhood Development in 51 Low-and Middle-Income Countries, considers the effects of multiple bioecological systems on child growth and development.

This study demonstrates that a universal approach to early family intervention can have positive population impact while also reducing disparities in outcomes.

This study examined whether a key set of adolescent and early adulthood risk factors predicts problematic alcohol, cannabis, and other substance use in established adulthood. Externalizing behaviors and prior substance use in early adulthood were consistent predictors of problematic alcohol and cannabis misuse in established adulthood across samples.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected American families and children, including through the closure or change in the nature of their care and school settings. For all families, care or school disruptions were related to worse child behavior, more negative parental mood, and increased likelihood of losing temper and punishment.

Longitudinal data from the Parenting Across Cultures study of children, mothers, and fathers in 12 cultural groups in nine countries were used to understand predictors of compliance with COVID-19 mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy. Findings suggest the importance of bolstering confidence in government responses to future human ecosystem disruptions, perhaps through consistent, clear, non-partisan messaging and transparency in acknowledging limitations and admitting mistakes to inspire compliance with government and public health recommendations.

Behavioral economics (BE) combines economics with social psychology and cognitive decision-making to offer a broader framework for understanding factors that affect people’s decisions and actions. It provides a way to examine how decisions can be shaped not only by information and costs but by how choices are designed, as well as the context and circumstances of the moment in which decisions are made.

In this paper the authors study the effects of three large, nearly-simultaneous coal-fired power plant closures on school absences in Chicago. They find that the closures resulted in a 6 percent reduction in absenteeism in nearby schools relative to those farther away following the closures.

We conducted a scoping literature review and key informant interviews of child maltreatment experts to (1) document the existing research evidence on the performance of EHR-based child abuse screens (EHR-CA-S) and clinical decision support systems (EHR-CA-CDSS )and (2) examine clinical perspectives regarding the use of such tools and factors that affect uptake. We find that current evidence does not support adoption of a particular CA-S or CA-CDSS and that further refinement of these tools is necessary.

Data from the Baby’s First Years study, a randomized control trial, show that a predictable, monthly unconditional cash transfer given to low-income families may have a causal impact on infant brain activity.

The pandemic profoundly affected American children with disruptions to their schooling and daily care. A new study found that service sector workers who had a young child reported disruption on 24 percent of days in fall 2020. The disruptions were more common in remote learning and had a negative impact on children’s behavior and on parenting mood and behavior.

Using a sample of 1338 families from 12 cultural groups in 9 nations, we examined whether retrospectively remembered Generation 1 (G1) parent rejecting behaviors were passed to Generation 2 (G2 parents), whether such intergenerational transmission led to higher Generation 3 (G3 child) externalizing and internalizing behavior at age 13, and whether such intergenerational transmission could be interrupted by parent participation in parenting programs or family income increases of > 5%.

Analyses were based on a 20+ year prospective, community-representative study of 1420 children, who were assessed up to 8 times during childhood (ages 9–16; 6674 observations) about access to guns in their home.

Beth Gifford, Megan Golonka and Kelly Evans wrote a chapter of the book, Children with Incarceratead Mothers Separation, Loss, and Reunification. The chapter summarized findings of their study that examined the timing of mother’s incarceration in relation to her children’s involvement with social services, contributory factors leading to foster care placement, and foster care discharge outcomes.

Women face unique logistical and financial barriers to health care access.

This article investigates the effects of coal-fired power plant closures on zip code–level rates of emergency department visits for asthma-related conditions among 0- to 4-year-old children in Chicago, Illinois. Findings demonstrate that closing coal-fired power plants can lead to improvements in the respiratory health of young children.

Key Takeaways: Harsher immigration law enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leads to decreased use of prenatal care for foreign-born mothers and declines in birth weight. The uptick in ICE activities under the Trump administration may have long-lasting, harmful effects on U.S.-born citizens. Sheriffs and local governments should terminate their 287(g) agreements with ICE…

Lower family income during childhood is related to increased rates of adolescent depression, though the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood.

Clearance rates for nonfatal shootings, especially cases involving gang- and drug-related violence, are disturbingly low in many US cities.

We examine how increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities impacted newborn health and prenatal care utilization in North Carolina around the time Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act was first being implemented within the state.

Family science has long considered the ways in which parents’ experiences in the workplace can affect families.

Social and emotional development was in peril prior to the pandemic. After this time apart, it will take systematic, intentional, and intensive efforts to get social and emotional learning back on track.

Just one in ten nonfatal shootings in Chicago lead to an arrest.

In response to police killings of Black people and the ensuing protests that took place in communities across the country in 2020, media coverage in North Carolina and in much of the nation this past year has focused heavily on instances of police violence and the protests and counterprotests that have since occurred throughout the…

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 has changed American society in ways that are difficult to capture in a timely manner.

Zika virus epidemics have potential large-scale population effects. Controlled studies of mice and nonhuman primates indicate that Zika affects fecundity, raising concerns about miscarriage in human populations.

This Brief Will Cover Emotional and Mental Health Support for Teachers. Survey data from N.C. teachers on their concerns about returning to school in the fall. Recommended strategies for helping school administrators promote wellness among school staff upon their return. Re-envisioning the Way Students and Schools Interact. Recommended practices for promoting relationship building among teachers,…

This brief provides an overview of the various channels through which COVID-19 has affected the lives of children and families, and proposes 4 key actions to help communities heal and build stronger, equitable systems: Create a “new” public health system centered upon a universal approach to care with a focus on equity. Invest in early…

Katie Rosanbalm wrote the opening chapter of a book entitled, Alleviating the Educational Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. The book is a collection of approaches to trauma-informed education based on school-university-community collaborations. Rosanbalm’s chapter summarizes the literature on why trauma-informed strategies are important to academic success and describes the specifics of the Resilience and Learning Model. It concludes with preliminary qualitative findings from pilot schools.

This policy brief focuses on how necessary responses to the COVID-19 pandemic alter the health and social service landscape for children and families, particularly those who were already vulnerable, and offers policy guidance.

This brief provides an overview of key ways in which COVID-19 has impacted working families, as drawn from our study’s survey analysis. 1. Drastic Reductions in Work Hours and Increase in Job Loss 2. Harmed Well-Being of Both Parents and Their Children 3. Policy Supports Not Reaching Families 4. Employer-Provided Benefits Reaching Some Families

Fire has long served as a tool in agriculture, but the practice’s link with economic activity has made its health consequences difficult to study.

Policy feedback scholarship has focused on how laws and their implementation affect either organizations (e.g., their resources, priorities, political opportunities, or incentive structures) or individuals (e.g., their civic skills and resources or their psychological orientations toward the state).

Policy makers, practitioners, and researchers have emphasized the importance of supportive relationships between staff and parents in early childhood education settings and schools.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is an important intervention for prevention and treatment of obesity and food insecurity, but participation has dropped among eligible populations from 2009 to 2015.

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the potential of an innovative high school neuroscience-based health course for implementation feasibility and impact on student outcomes.

Saint-Eloi Cadely et al. found longitudinal patterns for the perpetration of both psychological and physical intimate partner violence (IPV), including actively and minimally aggressive patterns.

This is the third in a series of four inter-related reports titled Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress.

This report builds on the previous report in this series, Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation from an Applied Developmental Perspective, which describes a theoretical framework that is utilized in the present review of empirical ecological, biological, and developmental studies.

This is the first in a series of four inter-related reports titled Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress, with subtitles specifying the focus of each report.

According to the North Carolina (N.C.) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, approximately 18,000 adults and 1,000 children in Durham County abused or were addicted to illegal drugs, prescription medications, or alcohol in 2012(1). Substance abuse not only impacts the individual and his/her family, but also the community.

This report summarizes preliminary findings associated with the MHOP program that began in Durham County in January of 2011.

The impact of substance use and addiction surrounds us and affects every aspect of our Durham community.