Parenting can protect against the development of, or increase risk for, child psychopathology; however, it is unclear if parenting is related to psychopathology symptoms in a specific domain, or to broad liability for psychopathology. Parenting differs between and within families, and both overall family-level parenting and the child-specific parenting a child receives may be important in estimating transdiagnostic associations with psychopathology. Data come from a cross-sectional epidemiological sample (N = 10,605 children ages 4–17, 6434 households). Parents rated child internalizing and externalizing symptoms and their parenting toward each child. General and specific (internalizing, externalizing) psychopathology factors, derived with bifactor modeling, were regressed on parenting using multilevel modeling. Less warmth and more aversive/inconsistent parenting in the family, and toward an individual child relative to family average, were associated with higher general psychopathology and specific externalizing problems. Unexpectedly, more warmth in the family, and toward an individual child relative to family average, was associated with higher specific internalizing problems in 4–11 (not 12–17) year-olds. Less warmth and more aversive/inconsistent parenting are broad correlates of child psychopathology. Aversive/inconsistent parenting, is also related to specific externalizing problems. Parents may behave more warmly when their younger children have specific internalizing problems, net of overall psychopathology.

In the general population, irritability is associated with later depression. Despite irritability being more prevalent in autistic children, the long-term sequelae are not well explored. We tested whether irritability in early childhood predicted depression symptoms in autistic adolescents, and whether associations could be explained by difficulties in peer relationships and lower educational engagement. Analyses tested the longitudinal associations between early childhood irritability (ages 3–5) and adolescent depression symptoms (age 14) in a prospective inception cohort of autistic children (N = 390), followed from early in development shortly after they received a clinical diagnosis. Mediators were measured in mid-childhood (age 10) by a combination of measures, from which latent factors for peer relationships and educational engagement were estimated. Results showed early childhood irritability was positively associated with adolescent depression symptoms, and this association remained when adjusting for baseline depression. A significant indirect pathway through peer relationships was found, which accounted for around 13% of the association between early childhood irritability and adolescent depression, suggesting peer problems may partially mediate the association between irritability and later depression. No mediation effects were found for education engagement. Results highlight the importance of early screening and intervention for co-occurring irritability and peer problems in young autistic children.

Understanding differences in social-emotional behavior can help identify atypical development. This study examined the differences in social-emotional development in children at increased risk of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis (infant siblings of children diagnosed with the disorder). Parents completed the Brief Infant-Toddler Social-Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) to determine its ability to flag children with later-diagnosed ASD in a high-risk (HR) sibling population. Parents of HR (n = 311) and low-risk (LR; no family history of ASD; n = 127) children completed the BITSEA when their children were 18 months old and all children underwent a diagnostic assessment for ASD at age 3 years. All six subscales of the BITSEA (Problems, Competence, ASD Problems, ASD Competence, Total ASD Score, and Red Flags) distinguished between those in the HR group who were diagnosed with ASD (n = 84) compared to non-ASD-diagnosed children (both HR-N and LR). One subscale (BITSEA Competence) differentiated between the HR children not diagnosed with ASD and the LR group. The results suggest that tracking early social-emotional development may have implications for all HR children, as they are at increased risk of ASD but also other developmental or mental health conditions.

The co-occurring development of internalizing and externalizing problems were examined in an inception cohort of 392 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 3 who were assessed on four occasions. Results indicated that internalizing and externalizing problems were stable over time and highly comorbid. Joint trajectory analysis suggested that 13% of the sample followed a dual high-risk trajectory. High risk was not found to be associated with intellectual ability or autism spectrum disorder symptom severity but was linked to lower income and gender: more girls than boys were found in the high/stable internalizing problems trajectory. The results suggest that 1 in 4 preschoolers followed a trajectory of internalizing or externalizing problems (or a combination of the two) that could be characterized as clinically elevated.

The objective of this study was to explore the relationship among extremely low birthweight (ELBW), psychopathology, and impairments in adaptive functioning in a regional cohort of 7–8-year-old children with a birthweight of 501–1,000 g compared to a sample of full-term controls. One-hundred twenty-nine of 143 (90%) ELBW survivors and 145 controls, born between 1977 and 1981, agreed to participate in the study. The children were assessed at a mean, unadjusted age of 7.8 years. Results showed that parents of ELBW children were more likely than parents of controls to report specifically problems of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). There were few differences between the groups in terms of impairments in adaptive functioning. Further analyses showed that the relationship between ELBW and ADHD could not be explained by confounding psychosocial risk factors, nor were ELBW children from disadvantaged environments more likely to have ADHD problems than ELBW children from nondisadvantaged environments. The relationships between ELBW and ADHD problems appeared to be associated with the lower IQ of the ELBW subjects.

Objective: To determine the risk of the lesser variant (or PDD-like traits) in the biological and nonbiological second- and third-degree relatives of PDD probands using a screening questionnaire and to investigate the extent to which the risk of the lesser variant differs according to various characteristics of the proband. Method: The sample consists of a series of 34 nuclear families with 2 affected PDD children (multiplex, MPX), 44 families with a single PDD child (simplex, SPX), and 14 families who adopted a PDD child. Data on characteristics of the lesser variant in 1362 biological and 337 nonbiological second- and third-degree relatives were collected from parents by telephone interview and from several maternal and paternal relatives by questionnaire. Results: All components of the lesser variant were more common in biological relatives (BR) than nonbiological relatives (NBR), confirming the familial aggregation of the traits. Proband characteristics associated with an increased risk of the lesser variant in relatives were a higher level of functioning and coming from a MPX family. Conclusions: These findings on the familial aggregation of the lesser variant suggest that the genes for PDD also confer susceptibility to the lesser variant and that PDD may be a genetically heterogeneous disorder.

This paper reports the results of a high-risk study of children under age 18 of parents who served as probands in a family study of comorbidity of substance abuse and anxiety disorders. There was a strong degree of specificity of familial aggregation of both the anxiety disorders and substance disorders. Rates of conduct disorder and depression were elevated among offspring of all affected parents. Inclusion of co-parent disorders in the evaluation of familial transmission in the present study strengthened the findings regarding the specificity of transmission of the anxiety disorders and the links between both parental substance abuse and antisocial personality with child conduct disorder.