Externalizing symptoms, effortful control, and intrusive parenting: A test of bidirectional longitudinal relations during early childhood

Inhibitory Control Across the Preschool Years: Developmental Changes and Associations with Parenting

The normative developmental course of inhibitory control between 2.5 and 6.5 years, and associations with maternal and paternal sensitivity and intrusiveness were tested. The sample consisted of 383 children (52.5% boys). During four annual waves, mothers and fathers reported on their children’s inhibitory control using the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. During the first wave, mothers’ and fathers’ sensitivity and intrusiveness were observed and coded with the Emotional Availability Scales. Inhibitory control exhibited partial scalar invariance over time, and increased in a decelerating rate. For both mothers and fathers, higher levels of sensitivity were associated with a higher initial level of children's inhibitory control, whereas higher levels of intrusiveness predicted a slower increase in children's inhibitory control.

Firm parenting and youth adjustment: Stress reactivity and dyadic synchrony of respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Parental behaviors are potent risk and protective factors for youth development of externalizing problems. Firm control is a parenting strategy that is inconsistently linked to youth adjustment, possibly due to variations in individual biological contexts. Growing research shows that dyadic coregulation of the autonomic nervous system (e.g., parent-child physiological synchrony) is a neurobiological mechanism that links parenting to youth adjustment. However, physiological synchrony may be context-dependent (e.g., adaptive in positive interactions, maladaptive in negative interactions). We aimed to test the role of dyadic synchrony in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during parent-child conflict as a mediator between parent firm control and youth's externalizing problems. To capture youth's stress reactivity, we also tested how galvanic skin response reactivity (GSR-R) moderated this indirect path. The sample included 101 dyads of low socioeconomic-status at-risk preadolescents and parents. Results indicated that youth higher levels of GSR-R significantly intensified the link between parent firm control and dyadic RSA synchrony during conflict. Dyadic RSA synchrony further predicted youth increased in externalizing problems. Overall, results suggest that when parents employ firm control parenting with highly reactive teens, dyadic RSA synchrony elevates, potentially modeling less optimal coping with conflict for the youth, which is associated with increased externalizing problems.

Bidirectional associations between self-regulation and deviance from adolescence to adulthood

Self-regulation is considered a major predictor of crime and deviant behavior. However, longitudinal research investigating these associations, frequently looked only at the effect of self-regulation on deviant behavior, but not the other way around. The current study argued that deviance may contribute to later problems in self-regulation, and examined bidirectional associations, comparing a unidirectional and bidirectional model of associations between these variables. A Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model and eight data waves from 772 participants, aged 10-12 years to 30 years were used. Results showed that a bidirectional model fit the data better than a unidirectional model. The final model revealed an influence of deviance on self-regulation mainly in adolescence, whereas self-regulation influenced deviance only over two time points in adulthood. The results suggest that, in adolescence, problems in self-regulation may follow, rather than precede deviant behavior. Thus, decreasing deviant behavior or intervening in the aftermaths of deviant behavior in adolescence might have a positive effect on self-regulation in young adulthood, lowering the chance of adult deviant behavior. The current study shows that the long-presumed directionality of self-regulation to deviance can lead to bias, and more rigorous longitudinal research is needed in order to further inform theory and practice.

Relationship between parenting measures and parents and child psychopathological symptoms: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Increasing evidence suggests a complex role of family influences, such as the exposure to parent psychopathology through parenting behavior, in parent-to-child psychopathology transmission. Parenting behaviour could represent a relevant target of psychoeducative intervention. Given these premises, we aimed to evaluate homotypic and heterotypic relationships between parent and child psychopathology, mediated by parenting behaviours, taking into account the constructs of parent and offspring internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

METHODS

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms in 272 clinically-referred subjects (mean age = 14.5 ± 2.3; F = 23.5%) and their parents (mothers n = 272, fathers n = 242) were assessed through the Child Behavior Checklist and the Adult Self Report; four areas of parenting behaviours were investigated through the Family Life Questionnaire. Multiple mediation models were built, considering mother and father psychopathology scales as independent variables, parenting measures and family functioning as mediators (Affirmation, Rules, Discipline and Special Allowances), child psychopathology scales as dependent variables and demographic variables as covariates.

RESULTS

Regression models showed a significant effect of maternal internalizing symptomatology on child externalizing behavioral problems; high levels of maternal pathology predicted high levels of children's psychopathology. A total mediating effect of parenting measures was found: high levels of internalizing symptoms in mothers predicted low levels of affirmation, which in turn predicted high levels of externalizing psychopathology in children.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study results confirmed the existence of interdependent links between mothers' psychiatric symptomatology, parenting behaviour and offspring outcomes, specifically in an Italian context. On a clinical and rehabilitation basis, this work offers suggestions about parenting practices, specifically maternal, involved in the maintenance of child psychopathology.

An examination of reciprocal associations between substance use and effortful control across adolescence using a bifactor model of externalizing symptoms

Early adolescence is thought to represent a window of vulnerability when exposure to substances is particularly harmful, partly because the neurotoxic effects of adolescent substance use may derail self-regulation development. However, previous studies fail to account for externalizing symptoms, such as aggression and delinquency, that accompany adolescent substance use and may also derail the development of self-regulation. The current study aims to clarify whether the neurotoxic effects of adolescent substance use are associated with deficits in effortful control (EC) after accounting for externalizing symptoms and to examine reciprocal relationships between EC, externalizing symptoms, and substance use. A longitudinal sample of adolescents (N = 387) was used to estimate bifactor models of externalizing symptoms across five assessments (Mage = 11.6 to 19.9). The broad general externalizing factors were prospectively associated with declines in EC across adolescence and emerging adulthood. However, the narrow substance use specific factors were not prospectively associated with EC. Findings suggest that the broader externalizing context, but not the specific neurotoxic effects of substance use, may hamper self-regulation development. It is critical to account for the hierarchical structure of psychopathology, namely externalizing symptoms, when considering development of EC.

Understanding how and why effortful control moderates children's vulnerability to interparental conflict

This study examined the moderating role of effortful control in the association between interparental conflict and externalizing problems in a diverse sample of preschool children (N = 243; M age = 4.60 years). Using a multimethod, multi-informant, prospective design, findings indicated that the relation between interparental conflict and externalizing problems was only significant among children with poor effortful control. Children with high effortful control appeared to be protected against the negative effects of interparental conflict exhibiting low levels of externalizing problems despite increasing levels of interparental conflict. Toward identifying the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of effortful control, mediated moderation analyses indicated that children's effortful control protects children against interparental conflict by reducing their angry reactivity to interparental conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Advancing Research and Measurement on Fathering and Child Development

Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children's development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father-child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD-sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discuss these challenges and make recommendations for best practices for incorporating fathers in studies on parenting and children's development. The first aim of this monograph was to provide a brief update on the current state of research on fathering and to lay out a developmental ecological systems perspective as a conceptual framework for understanding the different spaces fathers inhabit in their children's lives. Because there is wide variability in fathers' roles, the ecological systems perspective situates fathers, mothers, children, and other caregivers within an evolving network of interrelated social relationships in which children and their parents change over time and space (e.g., residence). The second aim was to present examples of empirical studies conducted by members of the international working group that highlighted different methods, data collection, and statistical analyses used to capture the variability in father-child relationships. The monograph ends with a commentary that elaborates on the ecological systems framework with a discussion of the broader macrosystem and social-contextual influences that impinge on fathers and their children. The collection of articles contributes to research on father-child relationships by advancing theory and presenting varied methods and analysis strategies that assist in understanding the father-child relationship and its impact on child development.

Fearful Inhibition, Inhibitory Control, and Maternal Negative Behaviors During Toddlerhood Predict Internalizing Problems at Age 6

Many, but not all, young children with high levels of fearful inhibition will develop internalizing problems. Individual studies have examined either child regulatory or environmental factors that might influence the level of risk. We focused on the interaction of regulation and environment by assessing how early fearful inhibition at age 2, along with inhibitory control and maternal negative behaviors at age 3, interactively predicted internalizing problems at age 6. A total of 218 children (105 boys, 113 girls) and their mothers participated in the study. Results indicated a three-way interaction among fearful inhibition, inhibitory control, and maternal negative behaviors. The correlation between fearful inhibition and internalizing was significant only when children had low inhibitory control and experienced high levels of maternal negative behaviors. Either having high inhibitory control or experiencing low maternal negative behaviors buffered against the adverse effect caused by the absence of the other. These findings highlight the importance of considering associations among both within-child factors and environmental factors in studying children's socioemotional outcomes.

Parenting and toddler self-regulation in low-income families: What does sleep have to do with it?

Toddlerhood is a sensitive period in the development of self-regulation, a set of adaptive skills that are fundamental to mental health and partly shaped by parenting. Healthy sleep is known to be critical for self-regulation; yet, the degree to which child sleep alters interactive child-parent processes remains understudied. This study examines associations between observed parenting and toddler self-regulation, with toddler sleep as a moderator of this association. Toddlers in low-income families (N = 171) and their mothers were videotaped during free play and a self-regulation challenge task; videos were coded for mothers' behavior and affect (free play) and toddlers' self-regulation (challenge task). Mothers reported their child's nighttime sleep duration via questionnaire. Results revealed significant Sleep × Maternal Negative Affect and Sleep × Maternal Negative Control interactions. Children who did not experience negative parenting had good self-regulation regardless of their nighttime sleep duration. For children who did experience negative parenting, self-regulation was intact among those who obtained more nighttime sleep, but significantly poorer among children who were getting less nighttime sleep. Thus, among children who were reported to obtain less nighttime sleep, there were more robust associations between negative parenting and poorer self-regulation than among toddlers who were reported to obtain more sleep.

A biopsychosocial approach to processes and pathways in the development of overweight and obesity in childhood: Insights from developmental theory and research

Childhood obesity has reached alarming proportions in many countries. There is consensus that both biological (especially genetic) and environmental (including psychosocial) factors contribute to weight gain and obesity in childhood. Research has identified extensive risk or predictive factors for childhood obesity from both of these domains. There is less consensus about the developmental processes or pathways showing how these risk factors lead to overweigh/obesity (OW/OB) in childhood. We outline a biopsychosocial process model of the development of OW/OB in childhood. The model and associated scholarship from developmental theory and research guide an analysis of research on OW/OB in childhood. The model incorporates biological factors such as genetic predispositions or susceptibility genes, temperament, and homeostatic and allostatic processes with the psychosocial and behavioral factors of parenting, parental feeding practices, child appetitive traits, food liking, food intakes, and energy expenditure. There is an emphasis on bidirectional and transactional processes linking child biology and behavior with psychosocial processes and environment. Insights from developmental theory and research include implications for conceptualization, measurement, research design, and possible multiple pathways to OW/OB. Understanding the developmental processes and pathways involved in childhood OW/OB should contribute to more targeted prevention and intervention strategies in childhood.

Family Rituals in Low-Income African American Families at Risk for Trauma Exposure and Associations with Toddlers' Regulation of Distress

This study included 75 mother-father-toddler triadic low-income families. Mothers and fathers reported separately on their own posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and family rituals while children were rated by an independent observer during an emotionally eliciting task on key indicators of regulation of distress. Regression analyses supported a significant association between key dimensions of family rituals and Toddlers' regulation of distress: occurrence, continuation, and spirituality. Effect sizes of tested relationships were strong, ranging from 25% to 36% of variance in children's distress explained. Family rituals are a salient intervention target in families and specifically help support children's developing emotion regulation competencies. Certain dimensions of family rituals may be particularly relevant to African American families, considering cultural resiliency factors. Clinical implications are discussed.

Relations Among Maternal Life Satisfaction, Shared Activities, and Child Well-Being

Maternal well-being is assumed to be associated with well-being of individual family members, optimal parenting practices, and positive developmental outcomes for children. The objective of this study was to examine the interplay between maternal well-being, parent-child activities, and the well-being of 5- to 7-year-old children. In a sample of N = 291 mother-child dyads, maternal life satisfaction, the frequency of shared parent-child activities, as well as children's self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary were assessed using several methods. Data were collected in a special study of the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), a representative longitudinal survey of private households in Germany. Using structural equation modeling, significant positive direct and indirect relations between maternal life satisfaction, frequency of shared parent-child activities, children's self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary were found. The more satisfied the mother was, the more she shared activities with her child and the more the child acted prosocially. Furthermore, the higher the frequency of shared parent-child activities, the higher the child scored in all three analyzed indicators of children's well-being: self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary. The current study supports the assumption of maternal well-being as the basis of positive parenting practices and child well-being.

Psychological Intrusion - An Overlooked Aspect of Dental Fear

Dental fear/anxiety is a widely recognised problem affecting a large proportion of the population. It can result in avoidance and/or difficulty accepting dental care. We believe that psychological intrusion may play a role in the aetiology and maintenance of dental fear for at least some individuals. In this narrative review we will take a developmental perspective in order to understand its impact across the lifespan. We will consider the nature of 'self,' parenting styles, the details of intrusive parenting or parental psychological control, and briefly touch upon child temperament and parental anxiety. Finally, we draw together the supporting (largely unrecognised) evidence available in the dental literature. We illustrate the paper with clinical examples and discuss possibly effective ways of addressing the problem. We conclude that psychological intrusion appears to play an important role in dental fear, for at least some individuals, and we call for detailed research into the extent and exact nature of the problem. A simple means of identifying individuals who are vulnerable to psychological intrusion would be useful for dentists.

Explaining the relationship between temperament and symptoms of psychiatric disorders from preschool to middle childhood: hybrid fixed and random effects models of Norwegian and Spanish children

BACKGROUND

Four explanations for the concurrent and prospective associations between temperament and psychopathology in children have been suggested: predisposition, complication/scar, common cause/continuity, and pathoplasty/exacerbation. Because the confounding effects of common causes have not been ruled out in prior work, the support for the various explanations is uncertain.

METHODS

Screen-stratified community samples of 4-year olds in Trondheim, Norway (n = 1,042), and 3-year olds in Barcelona, Spain (n = 622), were assessed biennially for symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), oppositional defiant (ODD), conduct (CD), anxiety, and depressive disorders through interviewer-based psychiatric interviews across four waves of data collection. The parents completed child temperament ratings. The data were analyzed with random and fixed effects regression adjusted for all time-invariant unmeasured confounders (e.g., genetics, common methods bias, item overlap).

RESULTS

In both Norway and Spain and across ages, negative affect predisposed children to symptoms of all disorders except CD, low effortful control predisposed children to ADHD and ODD-symptoms, and surgency predisposed children to increased ADHD-symptoms. Complication effects were observed in the Spanish children for ADHD-symptoms, which increased surgency and diminished effortful control, and for ODD-symptoms, which decreased surgency. The common cause and pathoplasty/exacerbation explanations were not supported.

CONCLUSIONS

The present results are consistent with the view that temperament plays a causal role in the development of symptoms of psychiatric disorders in children. Because temperament is malleable, interventions targeting the affective, attentional, and behavioral regulatory components of temperament may reduce psychopathology in children.

Parental Emotion Socialization and Child Psychological Adjustment among Chinese Urban Families: Mediation through Child Emotion Regulation and Moderation through Dyadic Collaboration

The theoretical model of emotion regulation and many empirical findings have suggested that children's emotion regulation may mediate the association between parents' emotion socialization and children's psychological adjustment. However, limited research has been conducted on moderators of these relations, despite the argument that the associations between parenting practices and children's psychological adjustment are probabilistic rather than deterministic. This study examined the mediating role of children's emotion regulation in linking parents' emotion socialization and children's psychological adjustment, and whether dyadic collaboration could moderate the proposed mediation model in a sample of Chinese parents and their children in their middle childhood. Participants were 150 Chinese children (87 boys and 63 girls, Mage = 8.54, SD = 1.67) and their parents (Mage = 39.22, SD = 4.07). Parent-child dyadic collaboration was videotaped and coded from an interaction task. Parents reported on their emotion socialization, children's emotion regulation and psychopathological symptoms. Results indicated that child emotion regulation mediated the links between parental emotion socialization and child's psychopathological symptoms. Evidence of moderated mediation was also found: supportive emotion socialization and child emotion regulation were positively correlated only at high and medium levels of dyadic collaboration, with child's psychopathological symptoms as the dependent variables. Our findings suggested that higher-level parent-child collaboration might further potentiate the protective effect of parental supportive emotion socialization practices against child psychopathological symptoms.

Effortful control, exposure to community violence, and aggressive behavior: Exploring cross-lagged relations in adolescence

Self-regulation processes and violent contexts play an important role in predicting adolescents' aggressive behavior; less clear is how all three constructs are linked to each other over time. The present study examined the longitudinal relations among adolescents' self-reported effortful control (EC), exposure to community violence, both as a witness and as a victim, and aggressive behavior. Participants were 768 Italian adolescents (358 males) living in a high-risk context, with a mean age at T1 of 11 years in the younger cohort and 14 years in the older cohort. In a four-wave cross-lagged panel design, low EC was a strong predictor of aggressive behavior across each time point, whereas aggressive behavior was found to positively predict adolescents' violence exposure both as witnesses and victims. Some evidence of transactional relations was also found between adjustment problems and exposure to community violence and between EC and externalizing problems. Moreover, EC was indirectly related to exposure to violence through externalizing problems, and mediated the relation of witnessing community violence to aggression, thus supporting the view that top-down regulatory processes play a complex role in the development of violence and other externalizing problems. The importance of considering interventions that take in account these complex relations is discussed.

Mother-child interactions in young children with excessive physical aggression and in typically developing young children

BACKGROUND

Among the multiple risk factors, the emergence of conduct problems in young children may be linked to harsh parenting and child's temperamental difficulties, leading to a reciprocal early discordant relationship. Little is known about the characteristics of early parent-child interactions in young children with physical aggression.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the characteristics of mother-child interactions in dyads referred for excessive physical aggression in young children under 5 years of age compared to mother-child interactions in typically developing young children.

METHOD

Mother-child interactions were assessed during a free-play session in both a clinical sample ( N = 70, child mean age  = 3.5 years) and a nonclinical sample ( N = 80, child mean age  = 3.5 years) by using the Rating Scale of Interaction Style (Clark and Seifer, adapted by Molitor and Mayes).

RESULTS

Significant differences were found between several interactive features in clinical and nonclinical dyads. In clinical dyads, mothers' behaviors were often characterized by intrusiveness and criticism toward children, and poor facilitative positioning. Children with excessive aggressive behavior often displayed poor communication, initiation of bids, and poor responsiveness toward the mother. They displayed fewer sustained bouts of play than typically developing children did. In clinical dyads, strong positive correlations were found between child responsiveness and maternal interest in engagement ( r = .41, p < .001), while the child displaying sustained bouts of play was negatively correlated with the mother's attempts to intrude on the child's activity ( r = .64, p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

These data show that children with excessive aggressive behavior develop disrupted mother-infant interactions from a very young age. Several negative interactive features and correlations between child behavior and maternal behavior were found in clinical samples. The effects of these features add up and probably strengthen each other, thus leading to interactive difficulties from a very young age. More attention should be paid to early parent-child interactions in case of child behavioral problems. The recognition of these interactive dysfunctions is discussed in terms of clinical implications for therapeutic interventions.

Resilient Adaptation Among At-Risk Children: Harnessing Science Toward Maximizing Salutary Environments

Compiled in this Special Section are recommendations from multiple experts on how to maximize resilience among children at risk for maladjustment. Contributors delineated processes with relatively strong effects and modifiable by behavioral interventions. Commonly highlighted was fostering the well-being of caregivers via regular support, reduction of maltreatment while promoting positive parenting, and strengthening emotional self-regulation of caregivers and children. In future work, there must be more attention to developing and testing interventions within real-world settings (not just in laboratories) and to ensuring feasibility in procedures, costs, and assessments involved. Such movement will require shifts in funding priorities-currently focused largely on biological processes-toward maximizing the benefits from large-scale, empirically supported intervention programs for today's at-risk youth and families.

Intimate Partner Violence, Maternal Gatekeeping, and Child Conduct Problems

We examined the mediating role of parenting behavior on the relationship between intimate partner violence and child conduct problems, as well as the moderating role of maternal gatekeeping to these associations. The sample (N = 395) is from a longitudinal study of rural poverty in the eastern United States, exploring the ways in which child, family, and contextual factors shape child development over time. Study findings indicate that a father's harsh-intrusive parenting behavior may be a key mediating pathway linking intimate partner violence and child conduct problems. Study findings further provide evidence for problematic outcomes for children when mothers encourage fathers with high levels of harsh-intrusive parenting to interact with their children.

The influential child: How children affect their environment and influence their own risk and resilience

Views regarding children's influence on their environment and their own development have undergone considerable changes over the years. Following Bell's (1968) seminal paper, the notion of children's influence and the view of socialization as a bidirectional process have gradually gained wide acceptance. However, empirical research implementing this theoretical advancement has lagged behind. This Special Section compiles a collection of new empirical works addressing multiple forms of influential child processes, with special attention to their consequences for children's and others' positive functioning, risk and resilience. By addressing a wide variety of child influences, this Special Section seeks to advance integration of influential child processes into myriad future studies on development and psychopathology and to promote the translation of such work into preventive interventions.