An Evaluation of the Two-Factor Model of Emotion: Clinical Moderators Within a Large,Multi-Ethnic Sample of Youth

The two-factor model of emotion clarifies the complexities of the relationship between anxiety and depression through their varying associations with positive and negative affect. Although this model’s structure has been validated in community samples of children, little research has evaluated the model among clinically referred youth. The present investigation aimed to confirm the two-factor model of emotion within a sample of clinically-referred children (N?=?879) and to investigate potential moderators of the model’s relationships within that group. Structural equation modeling demonstrated excellent fit for the two-factor model, and moderating effects for the model structure were found related to age and diagnostic category. These results support the model’s usefulness in describing patterns of psychopathology and temperament for clinically referred children and suggest the potential for a unified treatment approach to internalizing psychopathology.     

Exploration of the Factor Structure of ADHD in Adolescence through Self,Parent, and Teacher Reports of Symptomatology

Factor analytic studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults have shown that second-order and bifactor models better represent ADHD symptoms than two- or three-factor models, yet there is far less evidence for a bestfitting model of ADHD in adolescence. Thus, the current study examined the factor structure of ADHD in adolescence and further evaluated the external validity of the best fitting model. Participants were 588 adolescents (22 % female; 366 with a childhood ADHD diagnosis; mean age 15.9 years) from the 8-year assessment of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). ADHD symptoms were assessed via adolescent self-report, parent report, and teacher report on the SNAP-IV scale. Potential factor structures for the 18 symptoms of ADHD were tested for each informant, which included traditional one-factor, two-factor, and three-factor models of ADHD, as well as second-order factor (specific factors loading onto general factor) and bifactor (items loading onto both specific and general factors) models. Unique associations between external criteria and the identified factors of each informant’s best fitting model were examined. Although several of the proposed models exhibited good fit, the second-order two-factor model best accounted for ADHD in adolescence according to self-report and parent report, and the second-order three-factor model was optimal according to teacher report. Several key measurement issues emerged for the hierarchical bifactor models, such as numerous Heywood cases and out-of-bound parameter estimates, which rendered them unfit as optimal representations of ADHD in adolescence. These findings and the implications of the best fitting model of ADHD in adolescence suggest that a possible reorganization of this disorder may eventually aid clinicians in the accurate diagnosis of ADHD in adolescents.     

Emotional Bonds with Parents, Emotion Regulation, and School-Related Behavior Problems Among Elementary School Truants

Among juvenile status offenses, truancy represents the largest share of juvenile court caseloads. As a marker of risk, truancy is important because of its associations with school disengagement, drop-out, and developmental trajectories that include various forms of delinquency and anti-social behavior. Better understanding of the developmental circumstances and needs of truant children may point the way to more effective intervention strategies. Much accumulated research has shown strong associations between the emergence of juvenile delinquency and qualities of caregiving in parent–child relationships. Child-parent attachment in particular has been identified as an important developmental foundation of the child-parent relationship. We used a multi-informant approach to examine associations between children’s self-reported perceptions of attachment security (using the Security Scales), their emotion regulation (reported by parents on the Emotion Regulation Checklist), and school-related behavior problems (as reported by teachers with the Child Behavior Checklist), among 74 elementary school-aged truant children (mean age 9 years). Children and families were recruited through a truancy intervention program in a state in the deep South in the U.S. Data were analyzed via hierarchical multiple regression. Parents’ reports of their children’s emotion regulation predicted behavior problems as reported by teachers. Children’s own reports of their emotional bonds with parents were somewhat less predictive of emotion regulation and behavior problems. Implications for truancy intervention programs for high-risk elementary school children include more focused attention to the importance of children’s developing capacities for emotion regulation and the child-parent bond.     

Do Parent and Teacher Report of ADHD Symptoms in Children Differ by SES and Racial Status?

Parent and teacher reports of symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children often differ from each other. These informant report differences may occur in systematic ways that vary by child socioeconomic status (SES) and race, but little is known about how SES and race together relate to parent and teacher report of ADHD symptoms in school-aged children. We examined the relationship between child SES, child race and parent and teacher reports of ADHD symptoms in two samples of school-aged Caucasian and African American children being evaluated for ADHD (N = 1056; N = 317). Multivariate regression was used to predict parent and teacher reports of ADHD symptoms from child SES, race, age, gender and interaction terms. The Wald test of parameter constraints was used to test the contrast between the predictors of interest and parent and teacher report of symptoms. In the second sample, we also examined observer report measures of ADHD symptoms during one-to-one testing and in the classroom. In both samples, lower SES was associated with higher levels of inattention symptoms, as reported by teachers, but not by parents. Lower SES was also associated with higher levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms, as reported by both teachers and parents. African American race was associated with higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms reported by teachers than reported by parents. Observer report measures showed a different pattern of associations with SES and race. Investigating how children’s SES and race influence cross-informant agreement on ratings of children’s behavior might lead to the development of better assessment practices and more accurate diagnoses for diverse child populations.     

Discrepancies Between Parent and Adolescent Beliefs About Daily Life Topics and Performance on an Emotion Recognition Task

Parents and children and adolescents commonly disagree in their perceptions of a variety of behaviors, including the family relationship and environment, and child and adolescent psychopathology. To this end, numerous studies have examined to what extent increased discrepant perceptions—particularly with regard to perceptions of the family relationship and environment—predict increased child and adolescent psychopathology. Parents’ and children and adolescents’ abilities to decode and identify others’ emotions (i.e., emotion recognition) may play a role in the link between discrepant perceptions and child and adolescent psychopathology. We examined parents’ and adolescents’ emotion recognition abilities in relation to discrepancies between parent and adolescent perceptions of daily life topics. In a sample of 50 parents and adolescents ages 14-to-17 years (M?=?15.4 years, 20 males, 54 % African-American), parents and adolescents were each administered a widely used performance-based measure of emotion recognition. Parents and adolescents were also administered a structured interview designed to directly assess each of their perceptions of the extent to which discrepancies existed in their beliefs about daily life topics (e.g., whether adolescents should complete their homework and carry out household chores). Interestingly, lower parent and adolescent emotion recognition performance significantly related to greater parent and adolescent perceived discrepant beliefs about daily life topics. We observed this relation whilst accounting for adolescent age and gender and levels of parent-adolescent conflict. These findings have important implications for understanding and using informant discrepancies in both basic developmental psychopathology research and applied research in clinic settings (e.g., discrepant views on therapeutic goals).     

Psychometric Properties of the Parent Cognition Scale in a Clinical Sample of Parents of Children With Disruptive Behavior

The Parent Cognition Scale (PCS; Snarr, Slep, & Grande, 2009) is a self-report measure of parental attributions of child behavior that has demonstrated validity in community samples. However, its psychometric properties have not been examined in a clinical sample of parents of children with disruptive behavior. Examining the psychometric properties of the PCS in this population is important given research linking parent attribution with childhood disruptive behavior. The present study aimed to: (a) examine the psychometric properties of the PCS in a sample of parents whose children were clinic-referred for disruptive behavior problems; and (b) investigate the concurrent validity of the PCS and its factors using correlations with parent reports of children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties, and parenting skills (i.e., discipline, supervision). A confirmatory factor analysis was run on 225 parents’ responses on the PCS, and revealed that a two-factor structure of the PCS fit the data well. Significant correlations were found between Parent Causal Attributions (Factor 1) and parent-reported parenting difficulties. Child Responsible Attributions (Factor 2) were correlated with elevations in children’s emotion, attention, and conduct difficulties. The results provide information on the utility of the PCS for parents of children with disruptive behavior and its potential clinical relevance.     

Depressive Symptoms among Children with ODD: Contributions of Parent and Child Risk Factors in a Chinese Sample

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a developmental disorder characterized by serious and persistent social impairment, especially stressful interactions with parents. Although previous studies demonstrated associations between parent mental health and children’s ODD symptoms, less attention has been paid to integrating both parent and child risk factors. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the associations among parent emotion regulation, child emotion regulation, parental depression, and child depression in Chinese children with ODD. A total of 234 children with ODD ranging in age from 6 to 13 years, along with their fathers or mothers, completed questionnaires. Results indicated that: (1) Parent emotion regulation, parental depression and child emotion regulation were significantly correlated with children’s depressive symptoms. (2) Parent emotion regulation was related to children’s depression indirectly through parental depression and child emotion regulation. (3) Child emotion regulation fully mediated the relationship between parent emotion regulation and child depression, and also fully mediated the relationship between parental and child depression. These findings highlight the need to improve parent emotion regulation and pay attention to parental mental health, because both risk factors may exacerbate their children’s emotion regulation difficulties and further associate the high level of depressive symptoms among children with ODD.     

Exploring Child and Parent Factors in the Diagnostic Agreement on the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule

Worryingly low levels of parent–child agreement on child psychiatric diagnosis are reported. This study examined parent–child agreement on diagnostic categories and severity ratings with the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule, Child and Parents versions (ADIS-C/P). Children’s age, gender, motivation and self-concept and parent’s general psychopathology and diagnoses were examined. Participants were 110 children (aged 8–14 years) with a principal specific phobia diagnosis, and their parents. Findings revealed excellent parent–child agreement on principal specific phobia diagnosis (97.3%), and fair levels of concordance on most co-occurring secondary diagnoses. As expected, children with high motivation had generally stronger parent–child agreement on diagnoses and severity ratings (for ADHD p?p?p?相似文献   

Measuring Parenting in Community and Public Health Research Using Brief Child and Parent Reports

The use of multi-method, multi-informant assessment is a hallmark of research in child development and mental health; however, many research strategies such as population surveys require brief assessment tools. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) is a popular measure of empirically identified aspects of positive and negative parenting styles important to conduct problems in children. A brief version exists, however it does not measure all relevant parenting domains, and it has not been validated for child reports. We evaluated validity of the brief parent and child report version of the complete five subscale version of the APQ in a sample of 208 children aged between 9 and 17, at risk for conduct problems and antisocial behaviour. The results showed that all five dimensions of parenting can be measured using a brief 15 item version; specifically child and parent reports converged as expected and discriminated high from low conduct problem children using parent and teacher reports. Only child reports converged with independent observations of parenting behaviour, supporting previous research showing that child reports of parenting are particularly important. Finally, results did not support the typical methods used for combining child and parent reports into one index.     

Asian Indian Immigrant and White American Maternal Emotion Socialization and Child Socio-Emotional Functioning

Previous research provides an inadequate account of parental emotion socialization and its relation to child functioning among ethnic minority groups in the United States. This study compared reports of Asian Indian immigrant and White American mothers’ emotion socialization and examined relations between mothers’ emotion socialization and child outcomes in these two groups. Indian immigrant (n = 34) and White American (n = 38) mothers completed measures of child behavior problems and social competence, as well as self-report measures of two types of emotion socialization, responses to children’s negative emotions and emotion expressivity. Children completed a self-report measure of social competence. Results revealed that Indian immigrant mothers were more likely than White American mothers to report responding nonsupportively to their children’s negative emotions. However, reports of mothers’ nonsupportive responses were not related to child outcomes in the Indian immigrant group. In the White American group, reports of mothers’ nonsupportive responses were positively related to child behavior problems. Mothers’ self-reported negative emotion expressivity was positively related to child behavior problems and negatively related to mother-rated child social competence for Indian immigrants, while no significant relation was found between mothers’ negative emotion expressivity and child outcomes for White Americans. Moderation analyses were performed with these variables but were nonsignificant. Results are discussed in the context of cultural influences on emotion socialization and subsequent impact on child functioning.     

Parent and child agreement on anxiety disorder symptoms using the DISC predictive scales

Growing recognition of the negative impact of anxiety disorders in the lives of youth has made their identification an important clinical task. Multiple perspective assessment (e.g., parents, children) is generally considered a preferred method in the assessment of anxiety disorder symptoms, although it has been generally thought that disagreement between parent and youth ratings of the child's emotions is common. This study examined parent and child reports of the child's anxiety disorder symptoms using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Predictive Scales (DISC-PS) in a clinic-referred sample of substance using adolescents. Parents and adolescents (N = 480) who were referred for substance abuse treatment were screened for anxiety disorder symptoms using the DISC-PS at pretreatment. Results suggest similar (low) levels of agreement between the parent report and child report versions as found with other anxiety symptom and anxiety disorder measures. Findings provide data on multi-informant agreement and highlight issues in the use of the DISC-PS to identify anxiety problems in youth.     

Testing Informant Discrepancies as Predictors of Early Adolescent Psychopathology: Why Difference Scores Cannot Tell You What You Want to Know and How Polynomial Regression May

Multiple informants commonly disagree when reporting child and family behavior. In many studies of informant discrepancies, researchers take the difference between two informants’ reports and seek to examine the link between this difference score and external constructs (e.g., child maladjustment). In this paper, we review two reasons why difference scores cannot serve as unambiguous predictors of outcomes. Further, we use polynomial regression analyses to both test the validity of difference scores and provide a more direct test of the hypothesis that discrepancies in parent and child reports predict child psychopathology. Data from 218 parent-adolescent dyads (M adolescent age?=?11.5 years, 51 % female; 49 % European American, 47 % African American) were used to predict adolescent-reported antisocial behavior and depression from parent and adolescent reports of parent-adolescent conflict, parental knowledge, parental acceptance, adolescent rule-breaking behavior, and adolescent pubertal development. Results demonstrate that analyses using difference scores do not provide valid tests of the utility of informant discrepancies in predicting adolescent psychosocial maladjustment. However, interaction terms in polynomial regression analyses provide evidence that informant discrepancies predict child psychopathology. Parent-adolescent informant discrepancies predict adolescent psychopathology but researchers should avoid using difference scores to measure informant discrepancies. Polynomial regression analyses provide more comprehensive and accurate tests of whether informant discrepancies predict child and adolescent psychopathology.     

Longitudinal Associations of Parental Emotion Socialization and Children’s Emotion Regulation: The Moderating Role of ADHD Symptomatology

Theory and research suggest that parents’ reactions to children’s emotions play a critical role in teaching children effective emotion regulation (ER) skills, but no studies have directly examined the role that parent emotion socialization plays in the development of ER in children with ADHD. Gaining insight into the causes of impaired ER, particularly in youth with ADHD who are known to have poor ER, has important theoretical and translational significance. The present study is the first to longitudinally examine whether emotion socialization predicts later physiological and adult-reported measures of ER in children with and without ADHD. It also sought to determine if these relations are moderated by ADHD symptoms. Participants were 61 children (31 girls, 30 boys; M = 10.67 years, SD = 1.28) with and without clinically significant ADHD symptoms. At Time 1, parent reports of emotion socialization and parent- and teacher-report of child ADHD symptoms were collected. At Time 2, child ER measures were collected based on parent- and teacher-report and physiological reactivity during an impossible puzzle and a social rejection task. Physiological measures included respiratory sinus arrhythmia and skin conductance level (SCL). Supportive parenting practices were associated with better parent-rated emotion regulation skills for all children and greater SCL reactivity for children with high ADHD symptoms. Non-supportive parenting reactions were associated with greater adult-rated emotional lability for children with high ADHD symptoms. Results highlight the importance of considering multiple aspects of ER, including physiological manifestations. Findings suggest that parents’ use of adaptive emotion socialization practices may serve as a protective factor for children’s ER development and may be particularly critical for youth with ADHD. Our findings support the use of interventions addressing parent emotion socialization to help foster better ER in children.     

Latent mean comparisons on the BRIEF in preterm children: Parent and teacher differences

Executive function is a heterogeneous construct applied to cognitive capacities that together enable individuals to effectively engage in activities toward a purposive goal. Children born at extremely low birth weight (ELBW) are at risk of executive dysfunction on performance-based measures. In natural contexts, executive function may be described using such parental and teacher questionnaires as the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). This study examined the factor structure of the BRIEF-parent form in 124 ELBW children and of the BRIEF-teacher form in 90 ELBW children. Although our data showed that the fit of a two-factor structure was adequate for the parent report, a three-factor model provided advantages over the two-factor model across all fit indices and best characterized the data. For teacher report, these data supported a three-factor but not a two-factor model. Using the three-factor model for both groups of informants, we compared parent and teacher reports (n = 90 pairs) between the three identified latent variables. Parents reported significantly more difficulty with Emotional Regulation (p < .05), and teachers reported significantly more difficulty with Behavioral Regulation (p < .05). No significant differences were found between parent and teacher reports for Metacognition.     

The Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI): Factor structure,measurement invariance,and correlates in US preschoolers

This study tests the factor structure, measurement invariance, and correlates of the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI) with a large and diverse sample of 3- to 5-year-olds (n = 844). Consistent with previous studies, a two-factor model that distinguishes working memory from inhibition provides the best fit to the observed data. This two-factor model has been shown to demonstrate strong measurement invariance for different subgroups of children (boys vs. girls, high vs. low income). Whereas boys tend to have greater working memory and inhibition difficulties (Cohen’s d = 0.15 and 0.20, respectively), children from low-income households tend to have more working memory problems than their peers from high-income households (Cohen’s d = 0.25). Finally, correlations between CHEXI scores, examiner reports of child behavior, and child performance on a battery of executive function (EF) tasks were investigated. CHEXI scores were found to be more consistently related to examiner reports of child behavior than child performance on EF tasks. Tthe strengths and weaknesses of the CHEXI as a questionnaire measure of EF are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

Emotion Regulation in Families of Children with Behavior Problems and Nonclinical Comparisons

The current study compared parents’ emotion regulation (ER) in clinical (those with a child with externalizing behavioral problems) and low-risk comparison families. Additionally, mediation models were explored with parent ER predicting child behavior problems through child ER. Participants were 60 families with children (71.7% boys; 73% Caucasian) ages 2 through 8 years (M?=?4.62; SD?=?1.69) from a rural population in the United States: 34 clinical families referred for parent training and 26 nonclinical families. A blocking design was used to balance the two groups on key demographic characteristics. Parents’ and children’s ER was assessed using parent-report surveys and structured behavioral observations. Analyses indicated higher rates of parental emotion dysregulation (specifically, more difficulty when upset with achieving goal-directed behaviors, p?=?.01, d?=?0.67; controlling impulses, p?=?.01, d?=?0.64; limited use of ER strategies, p?=?.02, d?=?0.62; and more negative verbalizations to their child during the observed task, p?<?.01, d?=?0.73) and child emotion dysregulation (specifically, more difficulty as reported by parents, p?<?.01, d?=??2.42) in the clinical group. Mediational analyses indicated there were indirect paths from parental ER to children’s behavioral problems through child ER. Findings from this research suggest a need to measure and target ER in both parents and their children when working with families who are referred for treatment of child behavior problems.     

Emotion Regulation Among Preschoolers on a Continuum of Risk: The Role of Maternal Emotion Coaching

Parental emotion coaching involves acknowledging and validating children’s feelings, as well as guiding them on how to manage intense or negative feelings. Although parental emotion coaching has been identified as a potentially important factor for children’s emotional development, research into this topic is scant. The present study examined whether maternal emotion coaching can play a mediational role between family risk (i.e. economic disadvantage, family stress, and maltreatment) and emotion regulation in preschoolers. Seventy-four preschoolers, aged 46–58 months, and their maternal caregivers participated in an observational laboratory study, including a narrative task in which mothers and children reminisced about a mildly upsetting event. We coded these conversations for maternal emotion coaching behaviors with the Family Emotional Communication Scoring System. A family risk score was obtained via the Family Events Checklist and demographic data. We measured children’s emotion regulation with the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Increased family risk was associated with both reduced child emotion regulation and reduced maternal emotion coaching. Maternal emotion coaching partially mediated the relation between family risk and child emotion regulation, in particular child emotional lability. The findings support further research into the possibilities of training mothers in high risk families in emotion coaching skills in order to foster their children’s emotional development.     

Parent–Child Informant Discrepancy is Associated with Poorer Treatment Outcome

In child clinical psychology, parent and child reports are typically used to make treatment decisions and determine the effectiveness of treatment. However, there are often moderate to large discrepancies between parent and child reports, and these discrepancies may reflect meaningful information about the parent, the child, and the parent–child relationship. Additionally, parent–child discrepancy may predict treatment outcome. This study examined parent–child discrepancy in a sample of 62 children (10.15±1.26 years old) with prominent social competence deficits and mixed diagnoses who were treated with a resilience-based, cognitive–behavioral group therapy program (the Resilience Builder Program) in a private clinical setting. Further analyses were conducted to investigate whether parent–child discrepancy related to treatment outcome. Consistent with the literature, prominent parent–child discrepancy was found across domains, with parents generally reporting more severe symptomatology. Treatment with the Resilience Builder Program resulted in significant improvement in parent report of multiple domains of functioning, including resilience, social skills, and emotion and behavior regulation. Importantly, larger parent–child discrepancy at the start of therapy was predictive of poorer overall treatment response. Given its impact on therapeutic effectiveness, these results suggest that parent–child disagreement regarding the child’s impairment at the onset of therapy is worthy of assessment prior to treatment, and may itself be a topic worthy of targeting in treatment.     

Development of the Parent Emotion Regulation Scale (PERS): Factor Structure and Psychometric Qualities

This study aims to develop a self-report measure based on a multidimensional conceptualization of the regulation of negative emotions in the context of parenting. We examined the factor structure, factorial invariance, internal consistency and construct validity of the newly developed measure, the Parent Emotion Regulation Scale (PERS). The sample was composed of 254 mothers of children aged 3 to 15 years old (M?=?8.54, SD?=?3.53) who participated in an online study. Exploratory factor analysis of the PERS yielded a four-factor structure with the following factors: parents’ orientation to the child’s emotions, parents’ avoidance of the child’s emotions, parents’ lack of emotional control and parents’ acceptance of the child’s and their own emotions. Confirmatory factorial analysis supported the four-factor model, showing an adequate fit for this structure. Additionally, the model displayed configural, metric, scalar and residual invariance across the children’s sex groups. Cronbach’s alpha values and mean inter-item correlations indicated an adequate internal consistency. Correlations between the PERS scale and the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) indicated that the different dimensions of parents’ emotion regulation were significantly associated with both positive and negative reactions to the children’s negative emotions. Furthermore, the emotion regulation dimensions showed incremental validity in the prediction of the child’s adjustment. This study provides preliminary support for the adequacy of this newly developed measure, although further studies are needed to establish its psychometric qualities in more diverse populations.     

Does Child Temperament Play a Role in the Association Between Parenting Practices and Child Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?

Ineffective parenting practices may maintain or exacerbate attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and shape subsequent development of disruptive behavior disorders (DBD’s) in youth with ADHD. Recent theoretical models have suggested that parenting may exert effects on ADHD via its role in child temperament. The current study aimed to evaluate the indirect effects of parenting dimensions on child ADHD symptoms via child temperament. Youth ages 6–17 years (N?=?498; 50.4 % ADHD, 55 % male) completed a multi-stage, multi-informant assessment that included parent, child, and teacher report measures of parenting practices, child temperament, and ADHD symptoms. Statistical models examined the direct and indirect effects of maternal and paternal involvement, poor supervision, and inconsistent discipline on inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity via child temperament and personality traits. Results indicated differential patterns of effect for negative and positive parenting dimensions. First, inconsistent discipline exerted indirect effects on both ADHD symptom dimensions via child conscientiousness, such that higher levels of inconsistency predicted lower levels of conscientiousness, which in turn, predicted greater ADHD symptomatology. Similarly, poor supervision also exerted indirect effects on inattention via child conscientiousness as well as significant indirect effects on hyperactivity-impulsivity via its impact on both child reactive control and conscientiousness. In contrast, primarily direct effects of positive parenting (i.e., involvement) on ADHD emerged. Secondary checks revealed that similar pathways may also emerge for comorbid disruptive behavior disorders. Current findings extend upon past work by examining how parenting practices influence child ADHD via with-in child mechanisms and provide support for multi-pathway models accounting for heterogeneity in the disorder.