The contribution of parental discipline, parental monitoring, and school risk to early-onset conduct problems in African American boys and girls

The association of parental discipline and monitoring with the early conduct problems of 123 boys and girls was assessed in a highly disadvantaged, African American sample. Prospective analyses indicated that, after earlier conduct problems were controlled for, coercive parent discipline and poor parental monitoring at age 4 1/2 were independent, reliable predictors of age 6 conduct problems for both boys and girls. The association of parental monitoring with later child conduct problems was mediated, in part, by parents' choice of higher risk schools for their children's kindergarten education. The association of family income with child conduct problems was mediated by parental discipline and monitoring. These models are consistent with previous research on older, European American, more advantaged, male samples, which supports the generality of the association of family processes with child conduct problems across child gender, age, and ethnicity.     

Child-related attributions of hostile intent and harsh discipline: Moderating effects of anger

Two studies tested whether attributions of hostile intent (AHI) and anger for ambiguous child behaviors uniquely predict parents’ harsh verbal discipline (HVD) and harsh physical discipline (HPD) or whether AHI only predicts harsh discipline when AHI occurs in conjunction with anger, as suggested by the Integrated Cognitive Model of general aggression (Wilkowski & Robinson, 2010, J. Pers., 78, 9–38). Replicating previous studies, the expected positive bivariate relationships between AHI, anger, HVD, and HPD were found in Study 1 (N = 493). However, when AHI, anger, and the AHI by anger interaction were considered simultaneously, patterns of prediction varied by discipline type. For HVD, high levels of AHI, high levels of anger, and the AHI by anger interaction (at high levels of AHI and anger) each were significant predictors. For HPD, low levels of AHI, high levels of anger, and the AHI by anger interaction (at high levels of AHI and anger) were significant predictors, suggesting a possible suppressor effect for AHI. These results were replicated in Study 2 ( N = 503). Thus, there was support for the contention that AHI only predicts harsh discipline when AHI occurs in conjunction with anger with respect to HPD but this was not the case for HVD. Since AHI suppressor effects were observed for HPD in two large sample studies, variables that may account for the AHI suppressor effects and the need for testing more complex interactive predictive models of harsh parenting behaviors are discussed.     

Reinstatement as a method to increase the effectiveness of discipline in the school or home

Ninety first-grade boys who left their seats and played with toys in a tempting situation were assigned randomly to one of three conditions of reinstatement: minimal reinstatement, verbal reinstatement, or verbal and behavioral reinstatement. Half of each group received mild discipline, the other half, no discipline. Discipline was defined as the withdrawal of a physical resource (a marble) and a verbal rebuke. Reinstatement was defined as the detailed rehearsal (either behavioral or verbal) of the undesirable behavior sequence. After an intervening task, the boys were placed in the tempting situation again, and time before playing with some toys was recorded. Results confirmed two hypotheses and did not confirm two other hypotheses: discipline was significantly more effective than no discipline; reinstatement significantly increased the effectiveness of discipline; discipline with verbal and behavioral reinstatement was no more effective than discipline with verbal reinstatement alone. Verbal reinstatement and verbal plus behavioral reinstatement were no more inhibiting than minimal reinstatement when followed by no discipline.     

The influence of parenting stress and child behavior problems on parental estimates of expressive and receptive language development

This study examined the relative contributions of parental reports of child-related and parent-related stress to their estimates of expressive and receptive language skills on the Minnesota Child Development Inventory in 152 children referred to a communicative disorders clinic. Correlational analysis showed moderately high agreement between parental estimates and objective measures of expressive and receptive language ability. Multiple-regression analyses revealed that independent measures of language acquisition accounted for the greatest amount of variance in parental estimates of expressive and receptive language skills. Stressful child behavior accounted for a small but statistically significant proportion of the variance in estimates of expressive and receptive language skills. Parental stress, in contrast, did not contribute significantly to language estimates. These findings suggest that parents are able to formulate estimates of language development which are relatively independent of personal or child-related stressors.     

Maternal depression and its relationship to life stress,perceptions of child behavior problems,parenting behaviors,and child conduct problems

This study examined the relationship of reported maternal depression to prior and current life stressors, and to mother perceptions of child adjustment, parenting behaviors, and child conduct problems. Forty-six depressed mothers and 49 nondepressed mothers and their clinic-referred children (aged 3-8 years) participated. Depressed mothers were more critical than nondepressed mothers, but the behavior of children of depressed and nondepressed mothers showed no significant differences. Depressed mothers were more likely to have experience child abuse, spouse abuse, or more negative life events than nondepressed mothers. Maternal reports of stress related to mother characteristics and to negative life events were the most potent variables discriminating depressed from nondepressed mother families.     

The contributions of parental attachment bonds to college student development and adjustment: a meta-analytic review

We report findings from a meta-analysis of 156 studies conducted between 1987 and 2009 (N = 32,969) that examined the relationship between self-reported parental attachment and multiple adjustment outcomes and developmental advances during the college years. Overall, a small-to-medium relationship was found between indicators of parental attachment quality and favorable adjustment outcomes (r = .23). Effect sizes were of similar magnitude for mother and father attachment relationships, for male and female students, and across ethnicity and nationality of the sample. The attachment-adjustment relationship varied somewhat according to the developmental task being investigated in the study, showing the strongest association for the task of separation-individuation. Additionally, we found stronger attachment-adjustment links for students residing away from their parents when compared with students living at home during college.     

Applying behavior analysis to school violence and discipline problems: Schoolwide positive behavior support

School discipline is a growing concern in the United States. Educators frequently are faced with discipline problems ranging from infrequent but extreme problems (e.g., shootings) to less severe problems that occur at high frequency (e.g., bullying, insubordination, tardiness, and fighting). Unfortunately, teachers report feeling ill prepared to deal effectively with discipline problems in schools. Further, research suggests that many commonly used strategies, such as suspension, expulsion, and other reactive strategies, are not effective for ameliorating discipline problems and may, in fact, make the situation worse. The principles and technology of behavior analysis have been demonstrated to be extremely effective for decreasing problem behavior and increasing social skills exhibited by school children. Recently, these principles and techniques have been applied at the level of the entire school, in a movement termed schoolwide positive behavior support. In this paper we review the tenets of schoolwide positive behavior support, demonstrating the relation between this technology and applied behavior analysis.     

Differential susceptibility to discipline: the moderating effect of child temperament on the association between maternal discipline and early childhood externalizing problems.

This study investigated the interaction of child temperament and maternal discipline in the prediction of externalizing problems in early childhood. Interaction effects were evaluated in a sample of 227 one- to three-year-old children with relatively high externalizing problems scores on the Child Behavior Checklist/1 1/2-5. Child temperament was reported by the mothers, maternal discipline was observed in a laboratory session, and child outcome measures included both mother-reported externalizing problems and observed physical aggression. Results indicate that children with difficult temperaments are more susceptible to negative discipline (i.e., they showed more externalizing problems) as well as more susceptible to positive discipline (i.e., they showed fewer externalizing problems and less physical aggression), as compared with children with relatively easy temperaments. These findings provide empirical evidence for the differential susceptibility hypothesis and suggest directions for enhancing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing early childhood externalizing problems.     

The impact of parental discipline on the image of God

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parental discipline on men's and women's image of God – specially the degree to which they report perceiving God as loving, forgiving, trustworthy, and available. It compares the four major different parenting styles – authoritative, authoritarian, permissive/indulgent, and neglectful/rejecting – that people received during childhood on their perceptions of God when they are in college. Based on questionnaires completed by undergraduate students at a state university in Utah, this study found that parental discipline styles are related to individuals’ images of God to some extent. The results of a logistic regression show that parental discipline styles have differential impacts on the image of God between male and female respondents. For men, the image of God is significantly related to the parenting styles they received during their childhood, whereas for women, the relationship is not significant. Implications are discussed.     

Dyadic parent-child interaction during early childhood: contributions of parental and child personality traits

Individual differences in personality play a major role for functioning in a multitude of important life domains, including one's interpersonal relationships. The present study examined the effects of parental personality and child temperament traits on dyadic parent-child interaction during early childhood. Participants were a community sample of 145 mothers, 145 fathers, and their 3- to 6-year-old children. Child traits were assessed using standardized laboratory paradigms, parents reported on their own traits, and parent-child interaction was assessed observationally. Parental positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and constraint subtraits were related to parental responsiveness; the number and type of parental bids and the quality of parental responsiveness were also a function of child positive emotionality and effortful control subtraits and, for mothers, child negative emotionality subtraits. Child traits were related to their own interaction behaviors; children higher on positive emotionality subtraits made more social bids, and children higher on effortful control subtraits made more influence attempts and fewer negative bids; child positive emotionality and effortful control subtraits were associated with higher quality child responsiveness. Findings speak to coherence in personality constructs across the life span, with comparable traits measured in adults and early childhood-aged children demonstrating remarkably consistent effects on dyadic interaction behavior.     

Destructive sibling conflict and the development of conduct problems in young boys

Little empirical work has explored the relation between destructive sibling conflict and conduct problems in children. This study used a measure of observed sibling conflict to examine its relations with maternal and teacher report of conduct problems in a low-income sample of 180 five-year-old boys and their close-age siblings. Early report of behavior problems and rejecting parenting were added to the analyses to control for these predictors and to examine interactive effects. The interaction between destructive sibling conflict and rejecting parenting predicted aggressive behavior problems across time and informants such that a rise in aggression scores was evident for children who had high levels of both sibling conflict and rejecting parenting. Sibling conflict was also directly related longitudinally to the Child Behavior Checklist Delinquency factor. Results are discussed in terms of additive risk models and G. R. Patterson's (1984, 1986) theory of coercion.     

A quasi-experimental analysis of the influence of neighborhood disadvantage on child and adolescent conduct problems

A quasi-experimental comparison of cousins differentially exposed to levels of neighborhood disadvantage (ND) was used with extensive measured covariates to test the hypothesis that neighborhood risk has independent effects on youth conduct problems (CPs). Multilevel analyses were based on mother-rated ND and both mother-reported CPs across 4-13 years (n = 7,077) and youth-reported CPs across 10-13 years (n = 4,524) from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. ND was robustly related to CPs reported by both informants when controlling for both measured risk factors that are correlated with ND and unmeasured confounds. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that ND has influence on conduct problems.     

The contributions of goal characteristics and causal attributions to emotional experience in youth sport participants

Objectives. To examine the role of causal attributions, goal importance, and goal discrepancy as predictors of discrete emotions in youth sport settings. More specifically, causal attributions and goal characteristics were examined in an actual performance test and a natural competitive setting. Both direct effects and moderator models were tested.Method. Two studies were conducted. In the first study, 130 adolescent soccer players completed the Leger fitness test, as well as measures of goal importance and objective goal discrepancy, and the CDSII to assess causal dimensions PANAS-X to assess emotions. In the second study, 174 adolescent swimmers and track and field athletes participated in sport-specific competitions. Participants completed the same battery of questionnaires as in the first study with the exception that a measure of subjective goal discrepancy replaced objective goal discrepancy.Results. Results showed general consistency across studies. Both causal dimensions and goal characteristics (importance and discrepancy) showed direct effects in the prediction of emotion. However, there was no support for theoretical links between causal dimensions and specific emotions. Little support was found for a moderator model examining the interactions among and between goal characteristics and causal dimensions. In addition, subjective performance discrepancy was a much stronger predictor of emotion in the second study compared with objective performance discrepancy in the first study.Conclusions. Although causal attributions and goal characteristics are important predictors of emotion, there was little support for the theoretical model proposing an interaction among these variables in the experience of emotion for youth sport participants.     

Parent and child causal attributions related to the child's clinical problem

Parents and children were asked to give causal attributions related to the child's learning or behavior problems and an area of success. Actor-observer differences and tendencies of actors to make differential attributions for their positive and negative outcomes were examined. A significant number of parents and childen were in disagreement regarding the cause of the child's problem. Parents made significantly more internal than external attributions for children's presenting problems. In contrast, children were evenly distributed in problem attributions. Both parents and children made significantly more internal success attributions. Research with clinical child populations is highlighted as a valuable way to validate, expand, and refine attribution theory while clarifying its practical applications.Portions of the data included here served as the basis for a presentation by the first author at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, 1979. The authors wish to thank the Fernald research group for their comments, and the staff of the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic, the Fernald office staff, and Perry Nelson for assistance.     

The relative influence of conduct problems and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in the development of adolescent psychopathy

An in depth literature review was conducted into the relative influence of conduct problems and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in the development of child/adolescent psychopathy. Lynam (1996) wrote that children/adolescents exhibiting behaviors of both were ‘fledgling psychopaths;’ however, recent evidence suggests that if youth with comorbid conduct problems and ADHD exhibit a persistent form of antisocial and/or psychopathic behavior, the cause is primarily due to the levels of conduct problems, not the influence of ADHD. This article looks at the three perspectives regarding the development of psychopathy: (1) Conduct Problem Mediation, (2) the Independent Position, and (3) the Comorbid Subtype. The studies examining the three perspectives found that the Conduct Problem Mediation, not the Comorbid Subtype, was the most important in the development of psychopathy.