OBJECTIVE: The study's main purpose was to assess the extent to which retrospective parent reports of the child's achievement of early developmental milestones predicted later (fourth to sixth grade) adaptation to stress, and school adjustment and achievement, in a highly stressed urban sample. METHOD: Information about when children achieved key developmental milestones was obtained in individual parent interviews. Information about the child's current school adjustment and achievement was obtained from classroom teachers and school records. RESULTS: Factor analysis of a 12-item developmental milestone measure yielded an interpretable two-factor solution, i.e., motor and verbal milestones. Parents of stress-resilient, compared with stress-affected, children reported significantly earlier developmental milestone mastery by their offspring on both factor and total scores. Developmental factor milestone and total scores also related modestly to indicators of good school adjustment and academic achievement at ages 10 to 12 years. CONCLUSION: Delayed mastery of early developmental milestones may be a risk factor toward which preventive interventions can be gainfully targeted.

Achievement↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Caregiving and developmental factors differentiating young at-risk urban children showing resilient versus stress-affected outcomes: a replication and extension.

This study tested hypotheses from an organizational-developmental model for childhood resilience. In this model resilience reflects a child's mastery of age-salient objectives, in the face of substantial adversity, by drawing on internal and external resources that enhance processes of adaptation specific to each developmental stage. Interviews were conducted with parents of 122 7- to 9-year-old urban children exposed to multiple risk factors, 69 classified as resilient and 53 as maladjusted. Consistent with predictions generated by the model: (1) characteristics of a child's caregiving system and early development differentiated children with resilient and stress-affected adaptations; and (2) variables reflecting emotionally responsive, competent parenting were direct, proximal predictors of resilient status and mediators of other caregiver resources such as education, mental health, and relational history. Identified predictors of resilient status, including competent parenting and caregiver psychosocial resources, largely replicated findings from a prior study with sociodemographically comparable 9- to 12-year-old children.

Adaptation, Psychological↗