An ever expanding body of research has shown that children of divorce are at increased risk for a range of maladaptive outcomes including academic failure, behavior problems, poor psychological adjustment, reduced self-concept, and reduced social competence (Amato, 2001). Furthermore, the widespread prevalence of divorce makes preventing these poor outcomes a pressing public health concern. The Children of Divorce-Coping with Divorce (CoD-CoD) program is an internet-based selective prevention that was derived from recent research identifying modifiable protective factors in children of divorce including active and avoidant coping, divorce appraisals, and coping efficacy. CoD-CoD addresses these putative mediators through careful adaptation of intervention components previously demonstrated to be effective for children from disrupted families (Pedro-Carroll & Alpert-Gillis, 1997; Stolberg & Mahler, 1994; Sandler, et al., 2003). In the CoD-CoD efficacy trial, 147 children ages 11-16 whose family had received a divorce decree within 48 months of the intervention start date served as participants. Participants were assessed in two waves in order to test the small theory of the intervention as well as the interventions effects on internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Analyses indicated that the program effectively reduced the participants total mental health problems and emotional problems as reported on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (d = .37) and for total mental health problems this effect was stronger for children with greater baseline mental health problems (d = .46). The program also had mediated effects on both child and parent-reported total mental health problems whereby the program improved coping efficacy for children with low baseline coping efficacy which led to reduced parent-reported mental health problems. To the author's knowledge this is the first randomized controlled trail of internet-based mental health program for children or adolescents which utilizes an active control condition.

Parenting approaches that are firm yet warm (i.e., authoritative parenting) have been found to be robustly beneficial for mainstream White Americans youths, but do not demonstrate similarly consistent effects among Chinese Americans (CA) adolescents. Evidence suggests that CA adolescents interpret and experience parenting differently than their mainstream counterparts given differences in parenting values and child-rearing norms between traditional Chinese and mainstream American cultures. The current study tests the theory that prospective effects of parenting on psychological and academic functioning depends on adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting and understanding parenting. CA adolescents with values and expectations of parenting that are more consistent with mainstream American parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting similar to their White American counterparts (i.e., benefiting from a combination of parental strictness and warmth). In contrast, CA adolescents with parenting values and expectations more consistent with traditional Chinese parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting and its effects on academic and psychological outcomes differently than patterns documented in the mainstream literature. This study was conducted with a sample of Chinese American 9th graders (N = 500) from the Multicultural Family Adolescent Study. Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a person-centered approach to modeling CA adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting parenting, was employed using a combination of demographic variables (e.g., nativity, language use at home, mother's length of stay in the U.S.) and measures of parenting values and expectations (e.g., parental respect, ideal strictness & laxness). The study then examined whether prospective effects of parenting behaviors (strict control, warmth, and their interaction effect) on adolescent adjustment (internalizing and externalizing symptoms, substance use, and GPA) were moderated by latent class membership. The optimal LCA solution identified five distinct cultural frameworks for understanding parenting. Findings generally supported the idea that effects of parenting on CA adolescent adjustment depend on adolescents' cultural framework for parenting. The classic authoritative parenting effect (high strictness and warmth leads to positive outcomes) was found for the two most acculturated groups of adolescents. However, only one of these groups overtly endorsed mainstream American parenting values.

Dysregulated cortisol has been linked to a variety of adverse physical and psychological consequences. Stressors in the childhood family environment can influence cortisol activity throughout development. For example, research has shown that both infants and children of depressed mothers exhibit altered levels of cortisol compared to infants and children of non-depressed mothers. It is unclear, however, whether exposure to maternal depression in childhood and adolescence is related to cortisol activity at later stages of development. The current study examined the longitudinal relation between maternal depressive symptoms during late childhood (9-12 years old) and adolescence (15-19 years old) and cortisol activity in offspring in young adulthood (24- 28 years old) in a sample of 40 young adults and their mothers. Maternal depressive symptoms were prospectively assessed at four time points across the 15 year study. Cortisol samples were collected from young adult offspring at the final time point. Findings revealed that higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms during late childhood were associated with lower total cortisol output in young adulthood. Results suggest that attenuated cortisol levels, which put these young adults at risk for a variety of stress-related physical and psychological illnesses, may be a long-term consequence of exposure to maternal depression,. Depressive symptoms in mothers during their child's adolescence, however, did not relate to cortisol output. These findings suggest a sensitive period in late childhood during which the development of HPA activity may be susceptible to the environmental stressor of maternal depression.