Experience in the midst of variation: new horizons for development and psychopathology.

This essay explores implications of current trends in developmental science for understanding psychopathology at the dawn of the new millennium. Over the past half century, it has become clear that uniform and general principles of development (i.e., those that are applicable at all times, to all people, and in all places) will be of limited utility in understanding the processes of greatest interest in development and psychopathology. Instead, such processes are characterized by complexly organized individuals engaged in developmental transactions within multiple contexts (ranging from the biological environment of neurons to the cultural systems of meaning that shape people's lives). These transactions in turn often yield variable outcomes. In order to portray how we have come to this conclusion, we first provide a view of contemporary research in three areas of early development: the biology of the developing brain, the complexities of early emotional development, and the cultural contexts of child development. We then trace how an increasing appreciation of organized complexity, developmental transactions, and the meaning of context have played out in the emerging field of infant mental health before closing with our vision of new opportunities for the study of experience in the midst of variation.

Gender-specific characteristics of 5-year-olds' play narratives and associations with behavior ratings.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the content and structure of children's play narratives in a large sample of 5-year-olds in order to replicate previous findings, explore the role of gender differences, and identify a pattern that can provide useful information about children's behavior. METHOD: The MacArthur Story Stem Battery and coding system was used to code content themes and coherence from play narratives of 652 twins in a nonclinical sample. To measure behavior problems, parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist when their children were aged 5 and 7 years; teachers completed the Teacher's Report Form when the children were aged 7 years. RESULTS: Girls told more coherent narratives with less aggression than boys. Aggressive themes were found to correlate with behavior problems as in previous studies. Upon further examination, this correlation held for girls but not boys. Children who told repeated aggressive/incoherent narratives had more behavior problems than those who did not show this narrative pattern. CONCLUSIONS: The Story Stem methodology is useful for gaining access into the young child's inner world. The gender of the child, content of the story, and coherence of the story all provide useful information in identifying narratives that may indicate more risk for behavior problems.

Internal representations: predicting anxiety from children's play narratives.

OBJECTIVE: This research uses children's story-stem play narratives to examine whether certain specified internal representations of self and experiences will predict later childhood anxiety. METHOD: Thirty-five nonclinical children were studied from 5 to 6 years of age. Narratives of the 5-year-old children were coded for negative expectations of self, others, and experiences. Parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher's Report Form when the children were 5 and 6 years of age. Mothers completed the anxiety section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children when the children were 6 years of age. Parental anxiety and child temperament were also measured. RESULTS: Five-year-old child negative expectations significantly predicted mother/father/teacher reports of internalizing and anxiety symptoms and mother reports of separation anxiety, overanxious, and social phobia/avoidant disorder symptoms in the children at 6 years of age, even when anxiety and internalizing symptoms at 5 years of age were entered first in the regression equations. Child negative expectations predicted later anxiety in these analyses better than parental anxiety and child temperament. CONCLUSIONS: Child negative expectations may be a risk factor or a mechanism for the development of later anxiety. Children's narratives may be useful for examining such representations and identifying children at risk.

Behavioral genetic analyses of self-reported anxiety at 7 years of age.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct behavioral genetic analyses of self-reported childhood anxiety at 7 years of age. METHOD: Three hundred twenty-six same-sex twin pairs (174 monozygotic, 152 dizygotic) completed the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale at 7 years of age. Behavioral genetic analyses were conducted on the total and subscale scores. RESULTS: Monozygotic within-pair correlations were higher than dizygotic correlations for physiological and social anxiety symptoms, suggesting heritable influences on these aspects. These results were found to be statistically significant with structural equation modeling. CONCLUSION: Certain symptoms of self-reported anxiety in children 7 years of age seem to result, at least in part, from genetic factors. Physiological and social anxiety symptoms, which may be related to behavioral inhibition, appear to be genetically influenced. These results are linked to previous findings in older children and adults.

Moving ahead: integrating influences of affective processes for development and for psychoanalysis.

The author argues that psychoanalytic clinical thinking has evolved towards an organisational model of affect and that multidisciplinary research broadens this thinking. Integrative influences of affective processes have been given little attention in psychoanalytic theory. Such influences are reviewed using examples from research in early development. Affective processes are shown to provide integrative influences across systems in an individual's development, facilitating developmental change, as well as developmental continuity. In a related vein, affective processes provide incentives for the development of both individuality and connectedness with others. The notion of an 'affective core of self' is updated and the important psychoanalytic idea of emotion schemas of self in relation to others is reviewed. Integrating influences of affective processes in psychoanalysis operate mainly non-consciously and are in need of further study.

Effect of maltreatment on preschoolers' narrative representations of responses to relieve distress and of role reversal.

A total of 80 low-socioeconomic status maltreated preschoolers were contrasted with 27 nonmaltreated preschoolers on their narrative representations. The children completed story stems, taken from the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (MSSB; I. Bretherton, D. Oppenheim, H. Buchsbaum, R. N. Emde, & the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990), that introduced stressful family situations. Using the MacArthur narrative coding manual (J. Robinson, L. Mantz-Simmons, J. Macfie, & the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1992), coders rated portrayals of parental and child character responses, as well as participant responses, to relieve children's distress. They also rated role reversal (children caretaking their parents) from the narrative emotion coding manual (S. L. Warren, L. Mantz-Simmons, & R. N. Emde, 1993). Maltreated preschoolers portrayed parents and children as responding less often--yet themselves as stepping into the story more often to relieve children's distress--than did nonmaltreated preschoolers. Abused children (sexually, physically, or both) portrayed the most participant responses, and neglected children (with no abuse) portrayed the fewest child responses. Role reversal was associated with physical abuse.

Early emotional development: new modes of thinking for research and intervention.

Recent thinking about early emotional development in a context useful for pediatricians and other clinicians is reviewed in this chapter. Important functions of emotions are that they help define individuality, motivate approach or withdrawal from a situation, and communicate with caregivers. Emotional development in the first years of life may be seen as a series of predictable stepwise transitions when changes are pervasive and involve major reorientation for children and families.

[Individual significance and growing complexity: contributions of Sigmund Freud and René Spitz to developmental psychology]. / Individuelle Bedeutung und wachsende Komplexität: Die Beiträge Sigmund Freuds und René Spitz' zur Entwicklungspsychologie.

Contributions of Sigmund Freud and René Spitz to developmental psychology are presented in terms of today's research. The work of each of these pioneers draws our attention to the need for increasing our knowledge about the meaning of individual experience and increasing complexity in the course of development. Freud's contribution to today's developmental thinking is reviewed in terms of his observations of play, his schematic perspectives on developmental processes, and his innovative theoretical approaches involving nonconscious mental activity in the context of constructivism. Spitz's contribution to today's thinking is reviewed according to a similar array of topics. These include his observational assessments of infants, his schematic perspectives on developmental processes, and his innovative theoretical approaches involving affective communications in the context of caregiving.

Exploring the genetic and environmental etiology of high general cognitive ability in fourteen- to thirty-six-month-old twins.

Although numerous theories have attempted to explain the origins of high general cognitive ability (g), the genetic and environmental etiology of high g during infancy and early childhood has not previously been investigated. We report results of a twin study of high cognitive ability at 14, 20, 24, and 36 months using twins from the more than 600 children participating in the MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study. High g groups were formed from the ninetieth percentile and above at each age, with IQ equivalent means at or above 126 across the ages. Results suggest increasing genetic influence and increasing genetic stability from 14 to 36 months using DeFries-Fulker multiple regression analyses. However, genetic influences are substantial when examining individuals who possess high g scores averaged across all 4 ages. These results suggest that, although high cognitive ability may be genetically influenced in early childhood, these influences differ in magnitude from 14 to 36 months.

Symptomatology and adaptive functioning for children exposed to normative stressors, dog attack, and parental violence.

OBJECTIVE: To examine and identify predictors of posttraumatic symptomatology and adaptive functioning of children exposed to single and repetitive adverse events that varied in severity. METHOD: A sample of 86 patients and their children, aged 4 to 9 years, were interviewed after three types of adverse experiences; repetitive exposure to parental violence, a dog attack, or a milder stressor. The PTSD Reaction Index, Child Dissociative Checklist, and Child Behavior Checklist were used. RESULTS: Trauma symptoms were greater for the first two groups, younger children, and girls. Gender effects were most evident in the dog attack group and depended on type of symptoms and informant. Supportiveness in the parenting relationship aided prediction of both trauma symptoms and adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Children appear to experience elevated posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology after both single and repetitive adverse events that are potentially life-threatening. A positive parental relationship is associated with fewer symptoms and better adaptive functioning. The mechanisms through which this support interacts with behavioral and physiological systems to facilitate better regulation await further research.

Exploring the genetic etiology of low general cognitive ability from 14 to 36 months.

The genetic and environmental etiology of low general cognitive ability (g) during infancy and early childhood has not previously been investigated. The current study examined the genetic etiology of low cognitive ability at 14, 20, 24, and 36 months with twins from the MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study. Low g groups were formed from the lowest 10th percentile at each age. Univariate probandwise concordance rates and DeFries-Fulker (J. C. DeFries & D. W. Fulker, 1985, 1988) multiple regression techniques suggest genetic etiology in low general cognitive ability groups. The stability of low general cognitive ability over time also appears to be primarily due to genetic factors. Although replication is necessary, these results suggest that the genetic etiology of low g during infancy and early childhood is at least as great as the heritability of g in the unselected population.

Emotion regulation in mother-child narrative co-construction: associations with children's narratives and adaptation.

The associations were studied between early mother-child co-construction of a separation-reunion narrative and children's concurrent and later (a) emotion narratives and (b) behavior problems. Fifty-one children and their mothers were observed during a co-construction task when the children were age 4 1/2. At ages 4 1/2 and 5 1/2, children's narratives were elicited using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (MSSB), and mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Results showed that children who were more emotionally coherent during the co-constructions had MSSB narratives that were more coherent, had more prosocial themes, and had fewer aggressive themes at ages 4 1/2 and 5 1/2. Moreover, such children had fewer behavior problems at both ages. The relations between narrative processes and emotion regulation are discussed.

Children's narrative representations of mothers: their development and associations with child and mother adaptation.

We investigated associations between children's representations of mothers in their play narrative and measures of children's and mothers' socioemotional adaptation, and explored the development of these representations between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Fifty-one children were interviewed using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery to obtain their narrative representations of mothers. Positive, Negative, and Disciplinary representation composites were generated. Children who had more Positive and Disciplinary representations and fewer Negative representations had fewer behavior problems and their mothers reported less psychological distress. In addition, 5-year-olds had more Positive and Disciplinary representations and fewer Negative representations than did 4-year-olds, and there was moderate stability in individual differences in children's representations of mothers across the 2 ages. The results add an important dimension to research on parent-child relationships--that of children's perspectives on these relationships.

Dyssynchrony, conflict, and resolution: positive contributions to infant development.

While most psychological research has emphasized the importance of conflict-free mother-infant interactions, a review of recent research suggests that dyssynchrony, conflict, and their successful resolution are also integral to normative mother-infant interactions and optimal infant outcomes. Theory and research incorporating these concepts are described, areas for research suggested, and clinical applications noted.

Preschoolers face moral dilemmas: a longitudinal study of acknowledging and resolving internal conflict.

Following on from research that indicated significant moral internalisations by age 3, using a play narrative approach in which children were asked to complete story stems describing a range of moral dilemmas, the purpose of this study was to replicate the results, extend them with longitudinal information and assess the child's developing capacities to acknowledge both sides of moral dilemmas and resolve them in a prosocial way. Fifty-one children were presented with three enacted story stems describing moral dilemmas as they might occur in everyday life. Story completions were obtained from children at ages 3, 4, and 5 and were coded for the level of acknowledgement of the dilemmas and the degree of prosocialness involved in story resolution. Results included the following: firstly, some children acknowledged the dilemmas and resolved them prosocially as early as age 3; secondly, the ability to acknowledge dilemmas and resolve them improved with age; and thirdly, children showed a greater capacity to acknowledge dilemmas with support from an examiner. The implications of these findings for our understanding early moral development are discussed, along with questions pointing to new research.

Representations of self and other in the narratives of neglected, physically abused, and sexually abused preschoolers.

The MacArthur Story Stem Battery was used to examine maternal and self-representations in neglected, physically abused, sexually abused, and nonmaltreated comparison preschool children. The narratives of maltreated children contained more negative maternal representations and more negative self-representations than did the narratives of nonmaltreated children. Maltreated children also were more controlling with and less responsive to the examiner. In examining the differential impact of maltreatment subtype differences on maternal and self-representations, physically abused children evidenced the most negative maternal representations; they also had more negative self-representations than nonmaltreated children. Sexually abused children manifested more positive self-representations than neglected children. Despite these differences in the nature of maternal and self-representations, physically and sexually abused children both were more controlling and less responsive to the examiner. The investigation adds to the corpus of knowledge regarding disturbances in the self-system functioning of maltreated children and provides support for relations between representational models of self and other and the self-organizing function that these models exert on children's lives.