Early unpredictability predicts increased adolescent externalizing behaviors and substance use: A life history perspective.

According to evolutionary life history models, environmental harshness and unpredictability can both promote a fast life history strategy characterized by increased risk taking and enacting short-term, opportunistic behaviors. The current longitudinal study tests whether environmental unpredictability during childhood has stronger effects on risky behavior during adolescence than harshness, and whether there may be an early "sensitive period" during which unpredictability has particularly strong and unique effects on these outcomes. Using data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, prospective assessments of environmental unpredictability (changes in residence, cohabitation, and parental occupation) and harshness (mean socioeconomic status) from birth into adolescence were used to predict self-reported externalizing behaviors and substance use at age 16 (N = 220).

The roles of puberty and age in explaining the diminished effectiveness of parental buffering of HPA reactivity and recovery in adolescence.

Parental support is a powerful regulator of stress and fear responses for infants and children, but recent evidence suggests it may be an ineffective stress buffer for adolescents. The mechanisms underlying this developmental shift are not well-understood. The goal of the present study was to examine the independent and joint contributions of pubertal status and chronological age in explaining this shift.

FKBP5 moderation of depressive symptoms in peer victimized, post-institutionalized children.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether FKBP5 rs1360780 moderates relations between different forms of life stress/adversity (early institutional rearing and peer victimization) and depressive symptoms in adolescents. As reported previously, PI youth were at risk for being victimized by peers. Here, victimization was associated with elevated depressive symptoms.