Linking prenatal and perinatal adversities with child development

Summary Several professional groups share an interest in the effects of prenatal and perinatal adversities on children's development. The aim is to present a conceptual and methodological framework which will foster multidisciplinary study in this area. Recent evidence and principles about early life adversities, and developmental processes, are reviewed. The limitations of studies which address discrete variables at single points in time are highlighted. The proposal is that reproductive adversities are most effectively conceptualized as perturbations of infants' endogenous and social regulatory systems, which lead to adaptive developmental processes. The origins of maladaptations are to be found not simply in fixed, within-the-child, characteristics but in an understanding of regulatory processes; particularly the regulatory exchange between child and caregivers. A study is used to illustrate the translation of the model into research design.