Abstract
A vast body of empirical evidence highlights the contribution of maternal sensitivity to multiple features of children's development. Long appreciated, too, is that parenting effects frequently vary across children, often moderated by characteristics of the child such as early temperament. Most such work has been guided by conceptions of vulnerability stemming from negative or difficult temperament that interacts with insensitive, harsh or otherwise unsupportive parenting to undermine child well-being. Belsky's (1997b; 2005) differential-susceptibility framework challenges such diathesis-stress thinking, highlighting the fact that the very individuals who seem most susceptible to environmental adversity--including negatively emotional infants, toddlers, and preschoolers--may also benefit the most from developmentally supportive rearing. In other words, some children may be more affected than others by both highly sensitive and insensitive parenting. Evidence consistent with this view is reviewed, including research on temperament-X-parenting and gene-X-environment interaction. Finally, potential implications of the differential susceptibility perspective regarding the understanding of parenting effects are discussed.