Commentary and challenges to Grusec and Davidov's domain-specific approach.

J. E. Grusec and M.

Within-family differences in internalizing behaviors: the role of children's perspectives of the mother-child relationship.

The goal of this exploratory, within-family, longitudinal study was to examine whether children's perspectives of the mother-child relationship explained within-family differences in children's responses to a shared family stressor (maternal depressive symptoms) over time. Children (ages 8 to 15 years; N = 68) residing in 34 families were drawn from a general population study in the UK. Predictor variables were assessed at Time 1 and change in internalizing behavior from Time 1 to Time 2 (2 years later) was examined.

Siblings within families: levels of analysis and patterns of influence.

The study of siblings has become increasingly central to developmental science. Sibling relationships have unique effects on development, and sibling designs allow researchers to isolate causal mechanisms in development. This volume emphasizes causal mechanisms in the social domain.

Maternal childhood abuse and offspring adjustment over time.

This study addressed the basis for the intergenerational transmission of psychosocial risk associated with maternal childhood abuse in relation to offspring adjustment. The study tested how far group differences in individual change in adjustment over time were explained by differences in exposure to specific environmental risk experiences. Data are drawn from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Are sibling relationships protective? A longitudinal study.

Background: Although the protective effects of familial and parental support have been studied extensively in the child psychopathology literature, few studies have explored the protective quality of positive sibling relationships.

Methods: A two-wave longitudinal design was used to examine the protective effect of positive sibling relationships on child adjustment for children experiencing stressful life events. Mothers reported on stressful life events and child adjustment.

The development of adopted children after institutional care: a follow-up study.

Background: Research suggests that institutional care has long-lasting effects on children. However, no study has longitudinally studied infants in an institution and their subsequent development at age four.

Methods: Sixty-one adopted children aged four years who had spent their first two years of life in an institution were compared to 39 children reared in their own two-parent families.

Household chaos--links with parenting and child behaviour.

Background: The study aimed to confirm previous findings showing links between household chaos and parenting in addition to examining whether household chaos was predictive of children's behaviour over and above parenting. In addition, we investigated whether household chaos acts as a moderator between parenting and children's behaviour.

Method: The sample consisted of 118 working- and middle-class two-parent English families with two children aged 4-8.

Children in foster care: mental health, service use and costs.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of mental health problems in children in foster care, their families' use of services and the associated costs.

Methods: Information on mental health problems, service use and costs was collected, by postal questionnaires and home interviews, on 182 children, their foster carers and teachers from 17 local authorities in Central Scotland.

Results: Over 90% of the children had previously been abused or neglected and 60 % had evidence of mental health problems including conduct problems, emotional problems, hyperactivity and problems with peer relations.

Factors moderating children's adjustment to parental separation: findings from a community study in England.

Research findings show that there is marked variability in children's response to parental separation, but few studies identify the sources of this variation. This prospective longitudinal study examines the factors modifying children's adjustment to parental separation in a community sample of 5,635 families in England. Children's behavioral/emotional problems were assessed when children were aged 47 and 81 months; marital quality, maternal depression, socioeconomic circumstances, and demographic variables were assessed prior to the separation from maternal report.

Commentary: siblings in their families.

Three themes in the contributions to the Special Issue are discussed. The first is new evidence for associations between the quality of sibling relationships and children's adjustment problems and positive development, from research which also takes account of parent-child relationships, and genetic associations. The second is the new methodological approaches to studying the complexity of family patterns in which siblings play a central role (for instance with multilevel modelling) and the study of changes over time.

Change in maternal perception of sibling negativity: within- and between-family influences.

Change in maternal report of sibling negativity was investigated in 313 sibling dyads from 171 families taking part in a longitudinal, general population survey in the United Kingdom. The inclusion of multiple dyads per family allowed for the emergence of 3 novel elements for sibling research: an examination of within-family similarity on sibling relationship quality, modeling within-family similarity as a function of the shared environment and the differentiation of family-wide and dyad-specific predictors. Moderate similarity on sibling negativity was found across different sibling dyads and similarity was higher in 2 versus lone-parent families.

Factors moderating change in depressive symptoms in women following separation: findings from a community study in England.

Background: Previous studies suggest that separation is a major stressful life event that is linked with marked increases in depressive symptoms. Little is known, however, about the sources of variation in depressive symptoms following separation.

Method: This study examines factors moderating the effect of separation on depressive symptoms in women participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a prospective, longitudinal study of a large community sample in the west of England.

Children's responses to conflict between their different parents: mothers, stepfathers, nonresident fathers, and nonresident stepmothers.

Children who have experienced parental separation have potentially 3 sets of parents whose relationships may impact on them: mother and former partner, mother and stepfather, and father and new partner. Children's accounts of their response to conflict between these different parental dyads were studied, in relation to the quality of their relationships with these parents assessed with child interviews and questionnaires, and to maternal reports of the children's adjustment, in a sample of 159 children growing up in different family settings. Involvement in conflict within 1 parental dyad was chiefly unrelated to such involvement in conflict between the other parental dyads.

The relationship between vocabulary, grammar, and false belief task performance in children with autistic spectrum disorders and children with moderate learning difficulties.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between language and theory of mind in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD). Previous studies have found a strong association between language and theory of mind in a range of groups, but mostly have not included measures of both grammar and vocabulary; including these enables us to speculate about the causal direction of the relationship.

Methods: Fifty-eight children with ASD and 118 children with MLD were given standardised assessments of vocabulary and grammar, along with standard theory of mind tasks.

The effects of child sexual abuse in later family life; mental health, parenting and adjustment of offspring.

Objective: To investigate links between child sexual abuse (occurring before 13 years), later mental health, family organization, parenting behaviors, and adjustment in offspring.

Method: The present study investigates a subsample of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children an ongoing study of women and their families in the area of Avon, England. A sample of 8292 families met inclusion criteria for identifiable family type and completed self-report data on prior sexual assault.

Annotation: children's relationships with their non-resident fathers.

Background: The frequency of parental separation means that increasing numbers of children have fathers who live in different households from mother-and-child; the significance of contact and relationships between children and their non-resident fathers for children's adjustment is receiving growing attention. Lessons from this research are considered.

Methods: Recent meta-analyses and overviews of research, and key research projects, are discussed.

Children's perspectives on their relationships with their nonresident fathers: influences, outcomes and implications.

Background: Children's relationships with their nonresident fathers, and associations between these relationships, children's relationships with mothers and stepfathers, and the children's adjustment were studied in 162 children from single-parent and stepfamilies, selected from a representative community sample in the UK, studied at 2 time points two years apart.

Method: Children were interviewed about their relationships with their nonresident fathers, mothers and stepfathers; mothers reported on children's adjustment, and other family variables.

Results: Positive child-nonresident father relationships were correlated with (a) contact between child and father, (b) the quality of the mother-child relationship, and (c) the frequency of contact between the mother and her former partner.

Early experiences and attachment relationships of Greek infants raised in residential group care.

Background: The attachment relationships of infants reared in residential group care from birth, and links between attachment quality and psychosocial development and caregiver sensitivity were studied, with 86 infants reared in group care and 41 infants reared in their own two-parent families who attended day-care centres.

Methods: Attachment, cognitive development, temperament, and observed social behaviour of the two groups were studied, as was the quality of care by caregivers and mothers.

Results: Sixty-six per cent of infants reared in residential group care showed disorganised attachment to their caregivers, compared with 25% of control infants; 24% of group care infants were securely attached, compared with 41% of control infants.

The Adjustment of Children in Stepfamilies: Lessons from Community Studies.

Evidence from community studies on the adjustment of children in stepfamilies is described. The diversity of stepfamilies, and the importance of taking account of this diversity are stressed. Children in stepfamilies are on average more likely to have adjustment problems, but average differences are small and individual differences are great.

The cost of understanding other people: social cognition predicts young children's sensitivity to criticism.

Background: Individual differences in sensitivity to teacher criticism, and their links with individual differences in social cognition, were examined in 141 young children from diverse family backgrounds.

Methods: Children's sensitivity to teacher criticism was assessed in their first year of school (mean age 5.13 years), using a puppet scenario in which a teacher criticises the child for making an error in school work.

Out of the picture: a study of family drawings by children from step-, single-parent, and non-step families.

Investigated the family drawings of 180 children ages 5 to 7 years in various family settings, including stepfather, single-parent, complex stepfamilies, and 2-parent control families. The relations of family type and biological relatedness to omission of family members and grouping of parents were examined. Children from step- and single-parent families were more likely to exclude family members than children from "control" non-step families, and exclusion was predicted from biological relatedness.

Support across two generations: children's closeness to grandparents following parental divorce and remarriage.

There has been relatively little research on the role of grandparents as a source of support for children during and following their parents' marital transitions. In this study, we examined children's contact with and closeness to grandparents in different family types (i.e.