A conceptual model for the development of externalizing behavior problems among kindergarten children of alcoholic families: role of parenting and children's self-regulation

The purpose of this study was to test a conceptual model predicting children's externalizing behavior problems in kindergarten in a sample of children with alcoholic (n = 130) and nonalcoholic (n = 97) parents. The model examined the role of parents' alcohol diagnoses, depression, and antisocial behavior at 12-18 months of child age in predicting parental warmth/sensitivity at 2 years of child age. Parental warmth/sensitivity at 2 years was hypothesized to predict children's self-regulation at 3 years (effortful control and internalization of rules), which in turn was expected to predict externalizing behavior problems in kindergarten. Structural equation modeling was largely supportive of this conceptual model. Fathers' alcohol diagnosis at 12-18 months was associated with lower maternal and paternal warmth/sensitivity at 2 years. Lower maternal warmth/sensitivity was longitudinally predictive of lower child self-regulation at 3 years, which in turn was longitudinally predictive of higher externalizing behavior problems in kindergarten, after controlling for prior behavior problems. There was a direct association between parents' depression and children's externalizing behavior problems. Results indicate that one pathway to higher externalizing behavior problems among children of alcoholics may be via parenting and self-regulation in the toddler to preschool years.     

Predicting Change in Parenting Stress Across Early Childhood: Child and Maternal Factors

This study examined maternal parenting stress in a sample of 430 boys and girls including those at risk for externalizing behavior problems. Children and their mothers were assessed when the children were ages 2, 4, and 5. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine stability of parenting stress across early childhood and to examine child and maternal factors predicting parenting stress at age 2 and changes in parenting stress across time. Results indicated that single parenthood, maternal psychopathology, child anger proneness, and child emotion dysregulation predicted 2-year parenting stress. Child externalizing behaviors predicted initial status and changes across time in parenting stress. Stability of parenting stress was dependent upon child externalizing problems, as well as interactions between child externalizing problems and gender, and child externalizing problems and emotion regulation. Results are discussed in the context of mechanisms by which parenting stress may influence the development of child externalizing behaviors.     

Impact of Behavioral Inhibition and Parenting Style on Internalizing and Externalizing Problems from Early Childhood through Adolescence

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is characterized by a pattern of extreme social reticence, risk for internalizing behavior problems, and possible protection against externalizing behavior problems. Parenting style may also contribute to these associations between BI and behavior problems (BP). A sample of 113 children was assessed for BI in the laboratory at 14 and 24 months of age, self-report of maternal parenting style at 7 years of age, and maternal report of child internalizing and externalizing BP at 4, 7, and 15 years. Internalizing problems at age 4 were greatest among behaviorally inhibited children who also were exposed to permissive parenting. Furthermore, greater authoritative parenting was associated with less of an increase in internalizing behavior problems over time and greater authoritarian parenting was associated with a steeper decline in externalizing problems. Results highlight the importance of considering child and environmental factors in longitudinal patterns of BP across childhood and adolescence.     

Reciprocal models of child behavior and depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers in a sample of children at risk for early conduct problems

Although much has been written about transactional models in the study of parenting practices, relatively few researchers have used this approach to examine how child behavior might be related to parental well-being. This study used latent growth curve modeling to test transactional models of age 2 child noncompliance, parental depressive symptoms, and age 4 internalizing and externalizing behaviors using a subsample of families in the Early Steps Multisite Study. In unconditional models, maternal depressive symptoms showed a linear decrease from child ages 2 to 4, whereas paternal depression did not show significant change. Observed child noncompliance at age 2 showed significant associations with concurrent reports of maternal depressive symptoms and trend-level associations with paternal depressive symptoms. For both parents, higher levels of initial depressive symptoms were related to increased age 4 child internalizing behaviors. The findings provide support for reciprocal process models of parental depression and child behavior, and this study is one of the first to present empirical evidence that fathers' depressive symptoms have bidirectional associations with their children's behavior in early childhood.     

Behavior Problems in Middle Childhood: The Predictive Role of Maternal Distress, Child Attachment, and Mother-Child Interactions

The objective of the study was to examine the longitudinal relation between early school-age measures of maternal psychosocial distress, quality of mother-child interactions, and child attachment behavior, and behavior problem profiles in middle childhood using a multi-informant design. Participants were 243 French-speaking mother-child dyads (122 girls) who were part of an ongoing longitudinal project. Maternal psychosocial distress was assessed when children were between 4 and 6 years of age. Mother-child interactive quality and attachment patterns were observed at age 6 during a laboratory visit. At age 8.5, externalizing and internalizing problems were assessed using mother and child reports. Results show that maternal psychosocial distress predicted later social adaptation reported by the child through the mediation of mother-child interactions. Analyses also revealed that higher maternal psychosocial distress and controlling attachment patterns, either of the punitive or caregiving type, significantly predicted membership in both child internalizing and externalizing clinical problem groups. Lower mother-child interactive quality, male gender, and child ambivalent attachment were also predictors of externalizing clinical problems.     

Mother-child interactions in ADHD and comparison boys: Relationships with overt and covert externalizing behavior

Reciprocal relationships between child characteristics and such familial factors as parental psychopathology and interaction style with the child characterize the development and maintenance of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as its comorbidity with antisocial behavior. Our goal was to ascertain the ability of negative maternal behavior exhibited during mothers-on interactions to predict independently observed overt and covert externalizing behavior in the child, controlling for current maternal symptomatology and the boy's acting out behavior during the interaction. Participants were 49 boys with ADHD and 37 comparison boys, aged 6 to 12 years. Hierarchical multiple-regression analyses revealed that, even with maternal psychopathology and child negativity with the mother partialed, maternal negative behaviors predicted both observed noncompliance exhibited in class and play settings and laboratory stealing. Stealing was predicted from maternal negativity even with child interactional compliance controlled. Differential predictions of noncompliance were revealed in ADHD versus comparison families, yet similar patterns emerged for stealing within each group. Results are discussed in light of the high risk for antisocial behavior in ADHD children.This article is based, in part, on a doctoral dissertation written by Carolyn A. Anderson at the University of California, Los Angeles. The research received primary support from National Institute of Mental Health Grant 45064, awarded to Stephen P. Hinshaw. Partial support was received from the Fernald Child Study Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, where the 1990 summer research program was housed, and from a Faculty Research Grant to Stephen P. Hinshaw from the University of California, Berkeley. We express our deep appreciation to the many behavior observers and research staff, too numerous to mention individually, who were essential in collecting and coding the primary data for the study, and to the children and families who participated in the family assessments and summer research programs.     

The Development of Early Externalizing Problems Among Children from Low-Income Families: A Transformational Perspective

The present study examined pathways leading to early externalizing problems from age 1 to 31/2 in a design that took advantage of our knowledge of normative progression and normative socialization as well as findings from research on risk. A sample of 130 low-income participants was followed longitudinally from 12 to 42 months using observational measures of developmentally salient parenting and child disruptive behavior to predict early externalizing problems. Results are best accommodated by concepts such as transformation and transaction from developmental psychology. For boys, both child and parent variables predicted later externalizing. For girls and boys, the interaction between child noncompliance and maternal rejection was significant.     

Trajectories of externalizing behavior from age 2 to age 9: relations with gender, temperament, ethnicity, parenting, and rater

Trajectories of children's externalizing behavior were examined using multilevel growth curve modeling of data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. According to ratings by both mothers and caregivers/teachers when children were 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 years old, externalizing behavior declined with age. However, mothers rated children as higher in externalizing behavior than did caregivers and teachers. Higher levels of age 9 externalizing behavior were predicted by the following factors: child male gender (for caregiver/teacher reports only), infant difficult temperament (for children with harsh mothers only), harsher maternal attitude toward discipline, higher level of maternal depression (for maternal reports only), and lower level of maternal sensitivity (especially for boys). Caregivers and teachers reported higher levels of externalizing behavior in African American children than in European American children, increasingly so over time; mothers' ratings revealed the reverse. The declining slope of externalizing behavior was predicted by infant difficult temperament for mother reports only. Additional analyses suggested that the association between parenting and externalizing behavior was bidirectional.     

Consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage across three generations: parenting behavior and child externalizing problems

This study considers the intergenerational consequences of experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage within the family of origin. Specifically, the influence of socioeconomic disadvantage experienced during adolescence on the timing of parenthood and the association between early parenthood and risk for harsh parenting and emerging child problem behavior was evaluated. Participants included 154 3-generation families, followed prospectively over a 12-year period. Results indicated that exposure to poverty during adolescence, not parents' (first generation, or G1) education, predicted an earlier age of parenthood in G2. Younger G2 parents were observed to be harsher during interactions with their own 2-year-old child (G3), and harsh parenting predicted increases in G3 children's externalizing problems from age 2 to age 3. Finally, G3 children's externalizing behavior measured at age 3 predicted increases in harsh parenting from ages 3 to 4, suggesting that G3 children's behavior may exacerbate the longitudinal effects of socioeconomic disadvantage.     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Child Externalizing Problems: Moderating Effects of Emotionally Maltreating Parenting Behaviors

While prior research has examined the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and child externalizing behaviors, little research has focused specifically on the moderating effects of observed parenting behaviors on this relationship. This study was conducted to investigate the role of emotionally maltreating parenting behaviors, which were hypothesized to exacerbate the strength of the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems. Maternal depressive symptoms, child externalizing problems, and emotionally maltreating parenting behaviors were assessed in a community sample of 62 mother–child dyads (with children age 8–11 years). Results indicated the overall model was significant, after controlling for maternal race, as was the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms and emotionally maltreating parenting behaviors. Based on these findings, future research is needed to identify potential protective factors that may prevent depressive symptoms from negatively affecting parenting behaviors, with the attendant goal of decreasing risk for emotional maltreatment.     

Infant temperament and noncompliant behavior at four years: a longitudinal study

Noncompliant behavior in early childhood (i.e., exaggerated, but age-appropriate negativism) has been inadequately studied. This longitudinal study explores preschool temperament and maternal behavior as current correlates of negativistic behavior at age 4, and early maternal characteristics and infant temperament as etiological variables in the production of negativism. Longitudinal evidence was collected from 62 mother-child dyads, representative of all social classes. This evidence included home observations of maternal and child behavior at 4 years, a temperament questionnaire at 4 years, a questionnaire about infant temperament, and observational and interview measures at various stages from birth to 3 years, of infant behavior and maternal characteristics. The findings suggest that infant and childhood temperament (especially the degree of infant fussiness) are highly predictive of physical noncompliance, and that physical noncompliance is unrelated to maternal or demographic variables. A combination of maternal variables including warmth, closeness, and verbal directiveness, both positive and negative, as well as child variables, predict verbal noncompliance. Demographic variables, temperament, and maternal attitudes predict passive noncompliance. Noncompliance is viewed as a complex phenomenon in which constitutional and environmental variables interact.     

Moderators of the Relationship Between Maternal Substance Abuse Symptoms and Preschool Children’s Behavioral Outcomes

While maternal substance use problems increase the likelihood of behavior problems in children, child outcomes are varied, leading to interest in understanding additional family factors that contribute to the development of behavior problems in children impacted by maternal substance abuse. The purpose of this study is to examine harsh parenting and family conflict as potential moderators of the relationship between symptoms of maternal substance use problems and child externalizing behavior problems. The non-clinical sample for this study included 250 low-income parents whose preschool age children were enrolled in Head Start programs in a Southern state. This study utilized data collected during two home visits, an average of 10 months apart, with data on family functioning and maternal symptoms of substance use problems collected at the first time point and child externalizing behavior collected at the second time point. Over one-third of the children (38.1 %) had clinically elevated externalizing behavior scores. We used regression analysis to examine whether harsh parenting or family conflict moderated the relationship between maternal substance use symptoms and child externalizing behavior. In this community sample, we found that in the absence of family risks related to harsh parenting and family conflict, maternal symptoms of substance use problems did not have a significant impact on child externalizing behavior in preschool children. However, when high levels of family conflict or harsh parenting were present, symptoms of maternal substance use problems increased the risk of externalizing behavior problems in children.     

Predicting preschoolers' externalizing behaviors from toddler temperament,conflict, and maternal negativity

Rarely have researchers elucidated early childhood precursors of externalizing behaviors for boys and girls from a normative sample. Toddlers (N = 104; 52 girls) were observed interacting with a same-sex peer and their mothers, and indices of conflict-aggression, emotion and behavior dysregulation, parenting, and child externalizing problems were obtained. Results indicated that boys initiated more conflictual-aggressive interactions as toddlers and had more externalizing difficulties 2 years later, yet girls' (not boys') conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 were related to subsequent externalizing problems. When such initiations were controlled for, emotional-behavioral undercontrol at age 2 also independently predicted externalizing problems at age 4. Moreover, the relation between conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 and externalizing problems at age 4 was strongest for dysregulated toddlers. Finally, the relation between age 2 conflict-aggressive initiations and age 4 externalizing problems was strongest for those toddlers who incurred high levels of maternal negativity. These findings illustrate temperament by parenting connections in the development of externalizing problems.     

Association between maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence

Using data from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1364), this study examined the association between mothers' sensitivity and children's externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence. Externalizing behavior declined on average across this period with a slowing of this decline around middle childhood. Maternal sensitivity remained relatively stable on average, and there was significant variation across mothers. A decrease in maternal sensitivity from ages 3 to 11 was related to an increase in externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 12. A model-based test of the direction of the effect suggested that the association between changes in maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 11 was driven by child effects on mothers and not vice-versa. Between late preschool age and preadolescence, the behavior problems of children appear to strongly influence the sensitive support of mothers. Practical implications were discussed in light of these findings.     

Parenting self-efficacy and problem behavior in children at high risk for early conduct problems: the mediating role of maternal depression

Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) has been positively linked to children's adjustment and negatively associated with maternal depression. However, most PSE research has been cross-sectional, limited to predominantly white, middle-class samples, and has not examined potential mechanisms underlying associations of PSE with children's behavior. The present study investigates: (1) how PSE changes over time, (2) the relationship between age 2 PSE and children's behavior problems 2 years later, and (3) the potential mediating role of maternal depression in relation to the association between PSE and child problem behavior. Participants are 652 ethnically and geographically diverse mothers and their children, at high risk for conduct problems. PSE increased between ages 2 and 4 and higher initial levels predicted lower caregiver-reported age 4 conduct problems after controlling for problem behavior at age 2. The relationship between PSE and later conduct problems was mediated, however, by maternal depression. These findings suggest maternal depression as a potential disruptor of caregiver confidence in early childhood, which has implications for the design and focus of parenting interventions.     

The development of concern for others in children with behavior problems

The development of concern for others and externalizing problems were examined in young children with normative, subclinical, or clinical levels of behavior problems. There were no group differences in observable concern for others at 4-5 years of age. Children with clinical behavior problems decreased significantly in their concern by 6-7 years of age and were reported to have less concern at 6-7 years by mothers, teachers, and the children themselves, relative to other groups. Boys with clinical problems were more callous to others' distress at both time points. Girls showed more concern than boys across risk, time, and measures. Greater concern at 4-5 years predicted decreases in the stability and severity of externalizing problems by 6-7 years, and greater concern at 6-7 years predicted decreases in the stability of problems by 9-10 years. Finally, maternal socialization approaches predicted later concerned responding.     

Predicting Growth Curves of Early Childhood Externalizing Problems: Differential Susceptibility of Children with Difficult Temperament

Using an accelerated longitudinal design, the development of externalizing problems from age 2 to 5 years was investigated in relation to maternal psychopathology, maternal parenting, gender, child temperament, and the presence of siblings. The sample consisted of 150 children selected at age 2–3 years for having high levels of externalizing problems. Parenting was measured using observational methods, and maternal reports were used for the other variables. Overall, mean levels of externalizing problems decreased over time, and higher initial levels (intercept) were related to a stronger decrease (negative slope) in externalizing problems. Results showed that higher levels of maternal psychopathology were related to less decrease in early childhood externalizing problems. Parental sensitive behavior predicted a stronger decrease in externalizing problems, but only for children with difficult temperaments. A stronger decrease of externalizing problems in children with older siblings also pertained only to children with difficult temperaments. Thus, temperamentally difficult children appear to be more susceptible to environmental influences on the development of externalizing behaviors. Our results indicate that the role of siblings in early childhood externalizing problems deserves more research attention, and that intervention efforts need to take into account temperamental differences in children’s susceptibility to environmental influences.     

Tightly linked systems: reciprocal relations between maternal depressive symptoms and maternal reports of adolescent externalizing behavior

The frequently observed link between maternal depressive symptoms and heightened maternal reporting of adolescent externalizing behavior was examined from an integrative, systems perspective using a community sample of 180 adolescents, their mothers, fathers, and close peers, assessed twice over a 3-year period. Consistent with this perspective, the maternal depression-adolescent externalizing link was found to reflect not simply maternal reporting biases, but heightened maternal sensitivity to independently observable teen misbehavior as well as long-term, predictive links between maternal symptoms and teen behavior. Maternal depressive symptoms predicted relative increases over time in teen externalizing behavior. Child effects were also found, however, in which teen externalizing behavior predicted future relative increases in maternal depressive symptoms. Findings are interpreted as revealing a tightly linked behavioral-affective system in families with mothers experiencing depressive symptoms and teens engaged in externalizing behavior and further suggest that research on depressive symptoms in women with adolescent offspring should now consider offspring externalizing behaviors as a significant risk factor.     

Effects of Maternal Depression Symptoms and Alcohol Use Problems on Child Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Problems

Empirical evidence suggests maternal behavioral health problems are significant predictors of child behavioral health difficulties, but it is unclear of the specific relation of maternal alcohol use problems and depression symptoms with child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of maternal depression symptoms and alcohol use problems on children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems over a period of 5 years. Implications for intervention may differ depending on which type of maternal behavioral health concerns predicts which child behavior problem. A total of 1874 families eligible for Early Head Start participated. Maternal depression symptoms and alcohol use problems were assessed when children were in preschool, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were assessed when children were in fifth grade. Clinical internalizing behavior problems was best predicted by maternal depression symptoms, whereas clinical externalizing behavior problems was best predicted by maternal alcohol use problems. Children were almost twice as likely to have clinical internalizing behavior problems when mothers exhibited very elevated depression symptoms compared to when mothers displayed minimal symptoms. A similar relation was found with maternal alcohol use problems and clinical externalizing behavior problems. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding and treating various kinds of behavioral health concerns in mothers of young children.     

童年中期受欺负与问题行为之关系: 一项两年纵向研究

摘要：采用同伴评价和教师评价对733名小学3年级儿童进行为期两年的追踪研究,通过结构方程模型,考察受欺负与两类问题行为的相互预测关系。结果发现：（1）受欺负与外化问题行为和内化问题行为呈显著正相关。（2）受欺负在两年之间呈现较高的稳定性;而外化问题行为和内化问题行为则表现出较低程度的稳定性。 （3）结构方程模型结果表明,三年级时的受欺负可以显著预测五年级时的外化问题行为,而三年级时的外化问题行为不能显著预测五年级时的受欺负;三年级时的内化问题行为可以显著预测五年级时的受欺负,而三年级时的受欺负不能显著预测五年级时的内化问题行为。在受欺负与问题行为的相互预测关系中,内化问题行为更有可能成为受欺负的触发因素,而外化问题行为则更有可能是对受欺负的回应。