Children's executive functioning and health behaviors across pediatric life stages and ecological contexts.

Executive functioning (EF) has been linked to chronic disease risk in children. Health behaviors are thought to partially explain this association. The current cross-sectional study evaluated specific domains of EF and varied health behaviors in three pediatric life stages.

Demographic Correlates of Autism: How Do Associations Compare Between Diagnosis and a Quantitative Trait Measure?

Prevalence of autism diagnosis has historically differed by demographic factors. Using data from 8224 participants drawn from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, we examined relationships between demographic factors and parent-reported autism-related traits as captured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS; T score > 65) and compared these to relations with parent-reported clinician diagnosis of ASD, in generalized linear mixed effects regression analyses. Results suggested lower odds of autism diagnosis, but not of SRS T > 65, for non-Hispanic Black children (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.

Lability in parent-child warmth and hostility and adolescent externalizing behaviors.

Both longer term developmental changes (increases in hostility, decreases in warmth) and lability (year-to-year fluctuations) in parent-child relationship quality across childhood and adolescence have been linked to adolescent externalizing behaviors. Using a prospective longitudinal study of 561 children who were adopted into nonrelative families at birth (57% male, 56% White, 19% multiracial, 13% Black, 11% Hispanic) where parental warmth and hostility reflect environmental influences or child-evoked reactions, we examined associations between parent-child relationship measures and externalizing behaviors at age 11 and across adolescence (i.e.

Intergenerational transmission of comorbid internalizing and externalizing psychopathology at age 11: Evidence from an adoption design for general transmission of comorbidity rather than homotypic transmission.

Psychopathology is intergenerationally transmitted through both genetic and environmental mechanisms via heterotypic (cross-domain), homotypic (domain-specific), and general (e.g., "p-factor") pathways.

Neighborhood Food Access in Early Life and Trajectories of Child Body Mass Index and Obesity.

Importance: Limited access to healthy foods, resulting from residence in neighborhoods with low food access, is a public health concern. The contribution of this exposure in early life to child obesity remains uncertain.

Objective: To examine associations of neighborhood food access during pregnancy or early childhood with child body mass index (BMI) and obesity risk.

Early risk for child externalising symptoms: Examining genetic, prenatal, temperamental and parental influences.

This study utilized the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 561 adoptive children; 57.2% male, 55.3% White), a study of children adopted at birth, to examine heritable (birth parent psychopathology) and prenatal risk (prenatal maternal distress and smoking during pregnancy), infant negative affectivity, adoptive parent over-reactivity and warmth as independent predictors of childhood externalizing symptoms.

Stronger color evasive racial ideologies predict lower likelihood of open adoption placement with same-sex couples.

Although the adoption rate among same-sex couples has been increasing, limited research has focused on factors influencing decision making related to placing children with such couples, particularly from the standpoint of birth mothers. Additionally, there is a gap in the literature regarding how biases may influence birth mothers' decision to place their child with a same-sex couple. This study sought to examine the association between birth mothers' racial ideologies and their decision to voluntarily place their children with same-sex couples ( = 29) or mother-father couples ( = 354) during the adoption process.

Integrating the family stress model within a longitudinal sibling-adoption study of adolescent externalizing behavior.

Using a sample of linked adopted children, adoptive and birth parents (N = 561), and biological siblings residing in the birth parent home (N = 191), we examined the role of genetics within family stress processes. We tested parental hostility (7 years) as a mediator of the associations between socioeconomic strain and rearing parent psychopathology (4 years) and adolescent externalizing behaviors (11 years) in adoptive and biological parent homes. Next, we examined parent social support (4 years) as a moderator of paths from socioeconomic strain and parent psychopathology to parental hostility.

Evocative effects on the early caregiving environment of genetic factors underlying the development of intellectual and academic ability.

This study examined gene-environment correlation (rGE) in intellectual and academic development in 561 U.S.-based adoptees (57% male; 56% non-Latinx White, 19% multiracial, 13% Black or African American, 11% Latinx) and their birth and adoptive parents between 2003 and 2017.

The effects of illicit drug use during pregnancy and parental hostility on problem behaviors in school-aged children over and above genetic influences.

Previous work has examined the impact of prenatal illicit drug use (PDU) on children's problem behaviors. However, many PDU-related risk factors, including genetic and rearing environmental risks, can also influence offspring's problem behaviors, thus confounding PDU, genetic, and rearing environmental influences. This study aimed to (a) identify effects of PDU on school-aged children's problem behaviors, including both externalizing and internalizing behaviors at Age 7, after controlling genetic and specific rearing environmental (e.

The Detection of Environmental Influences on Academic Achievement Appears to Depend on the Analytic Approach.

One long-standing analytic approach in adoption studies is to examine correlations between features of adoptive homes and outcomes of adopted children (hereafter termed 'measured environment correlations') to illuminate environmental influences on those associations. Although results from such studies have almost uniformly suggested modest environmental influences on adopted children's academic achievement, other work has indicated that adopted children's achievement is routinely higher than that of their reared-apart family members, often substantially so. We sought to understand this discrepancy.

Study Preregistration: Understanding the Etiology of Externalizing Problems in Young Children: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Irritability.

Externalizing behavioral problems in young children are associated with later delinquency and crime, which can cause burdens at both personal and socialeconomic levels. The heterogeneity of externalizing problems emphasizes the importance of examining the etiological mechanisms that underlie externalizing problems and related behaviors. The present study focuses on 2 risk factors for externalizing behavioral problems in early childhood: callous-unemotional traits (CU), characterized as a lack of guilt and empathy, and irritability, a tendency to show anger and frustration.

The pernicious role of stress on intergenerational continuity of psychopathology.

has been a premier resource for understanding stressful childhood experiences and the intergenerational continuity of psychopathology. Building on that tradition, we examined the unique and joint influences of maternal stress on children's effortful control (age 7) and externalizing behavior (age 11) as transmitted via genetics, the prenatal environment, and the postnatal environment. The sample included = 561 adopted children and their biological and adoptive parents.

Examining timing effects in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depressive symptoms: A genetically informed study.

The present study examined genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental pathways in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depressive symptoms from parents to early adolescents (when these symptoms start to increase), while considering timing effects of exposure to parent anxiety and depressive symptoms postnatally. The sample was from the Early Growth and Development Study, including 561 adopted children (57% male, 55% White, 13% Black/African American, 11% Hispanic/Latine, 20% multiracial, 1% other; 407 provided data in early adolescence) and their birth (BP) and adoptive parents (AP). Using a trait-state-occasion model with eight assessments from child ages 9 months to 11 years, we partitioned trait-like AP anxiety and depressive symptoms from time-specific fluctuations of AP anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Association of maternal education, neighborhood deprivation, and racial segregation with gestational age at birth by maternal race/ethnicity and United States Census region in the ECHO cohorts.

Background: In the United States, disparities in gestational age at birth by maternal race, ethnicity, and geography are theorized to be related, in part, to differences in individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (SES). Yet, few studies have examined their combined effects or whether associations vary by maternal race and ethnicity and United States Census region.

Methods: We assembled data from 34 cohorts in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program representing 10,304 participants who delivered a liveborn, singleton infant from 2000 through 2019.

Examination of promotive and protective effects on early adolescent prosocial behavior through a bioecological lens.

Introduction: Prosocial behavior during childhood has been associated with numerous positive developmental and behavioral outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. Prosocial behavior, which includes cooperation and helping others, develops within a bioecological context. Considering it through such a lens enhances the understanding of the roles of different bioecological factors in its development.

Disentangling genetic and environmental influences on early language development: The interplay of genetic propensity for negative emotionality and surgency, and parenting behavior effects on early language skills in an adoption study.

Parenting and children's temperament are important influences on language development. However, temperament may reflect prior parenting, and parenting effects may reflect genes common to parents and children. In 561 U.

Modeling BMI z score lability during childhood as a function of child temperament and genetic risk for obesity.

Objective: This study aimed to examine whether child genetic risk for obesity and temperament (i.e., negative affectivity, effortful control) accounted for stability versus lability in children's weight status (BMI z score) over time.

Neighborhood Opportunity and Vulnerability and Incident Asthma Among Children.

Background: The extent to which physical and social attributes of neighborhoods play a role in childhood asthma remains understudied.

Objective: To examine associations of neighborhood-level opportunity and social vulnerability measures with childhood asthma incidence.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study used data from children in 46 cohorts participating in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program between January 1, 1995, and August 31, 2022.